Our friend Pansy lived in a great apartment in Portland, but it was on the second floor. That was one long staircase to climb with Bug in my arms. I'd get him to our friend's living-room and settle Bug on the couch. Then I'd bring up his chair and unload the car. After the six hour drive, Bug liked to sit on the comfy sofa for a few minutes.
My son lives with his two Moms in a big two story eighties house. There are some rooms on the ground floor, but all the major rooms are upstairs and this is where the family spends most of their time. Getting to this floor is a pretty long climb for Bug and me.
The first trip we took to San Francisco was to go to Gay Pride in '09. Bug hadn't been to San Francisco before and I hadn't been there for Pride. The parade organizers, years ago, decided to block off the parade route with metal fences that lined Market Street on both sides. This was to protect people from crossing in front of floats. When Bug, our friend and myself arrived to the parade it was wall to wall people. We needed to get to the other side which meant crossing under the street where the subway station was. There was an elevator but it was on the other side of the metal fences and people. We got to the top of the stairs to the underground where I lifted Bug from his wheelchair and carried him down the flight of stairs. Our friend brought down the wheelchair. On the other side was an escalator going up, so we wheeled Bug and his chair onto it. Not the best way to get him across, but at the time it was the only way.
In fact that trip to San Francisco was difficult many times we used the subway. There were problems with elevators at several of the stops. Whoever designed these stations didn't have wheelchairs in mind. Each station we went to, the elevator was more and more out of the way. I had to push Bug in his chair the whole length of the station to find an elevator tucked behind some barrels, or discarded whatevers. Then when we got to the level we needed it was back tracking down long abandoned hallways to get to street exits.
At one station we made the trek down the platform to the elevator and it was out of service. I asked an attendant what he suggested we do to get to street level. He suggested we get on the train, go back to the previous stop and use the elevator there. We'd have to then walk about two to three blocks back to where we had gotten off the train. It was crazy and I just put Bug's chair on the up escalator. I was not a happy camper.
I've carried Bug up so many sets of stairs I can't even remember all of them. Some times it's just a few steps, five or so. Other times it a whole flight to a second floor. It's not great and does add stress to my body. Bug worries about me when I have to exert myself so much, but we don't let this stop us from visiting friends who may have steps up to their home.
Ideally we'd both love a totally accessible world, but that hasn't happened yet.
Until the next time...
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