As mom’s able to move large pieces of furniture around in her house when she’s on a re-decorating binge, she isn’t your typical wheelchair user.  However, as we know some airports require miles of walking, I ordered one to be at the ready from Alaska Airlines for our trip this past week to Palm Springs.

The first leg of our journey was by car, as we drove from Osoyoos to Spokane.  On the way, a nice police officer pulled me over to explain that I was “going a little fast.”  However he must’ve had his quota for the day as he just gave me a warning and let us proceed on our merry way.

We were immediately lost once we’d parked in the handicapped spot at the airport.  Luckily, mom had kept Gerry’s sticker.  After wandering around lost for a while, we managed to find the terminal, and made our way to the boarding gate.

We took one of those teeny tiny airplanes with propellers to Portland, where we waited for a larger plane to Palm Springs.  Mom was met by a wheelchair and a ‘pusher’ so we put all the bags on the chair and off we went to wait.

We had a wheelchair waiting in Palm Springs, so were wheeled right to the exit, where we were met by Brigitte and her husband Bob.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Palm Springs, but it’s awfully cute.  There’d been a huge wind that day and bark from the palm trees was strewn over the roads.

We spent two days eating in restaurants and shopping.  Bob and Brigitte drove us around to see different sights, and we sat our in their beautiful yard.  They have a lemon and an orange tree and the fragrance from the orange blossoms was wonderful.  Hummingbirds came and went all day.

Luckily, Bob and Brigitte were babysitting a friend’s Chihuahua, so we even had a little dog around for a bit of dog love.  This little dog is 12 and was sitting there snapping at the air.  I asked Brigitte what she was doing, and she said the dog must have cataracts or floaters and is snapping at imaginary flies.  So adorable.

Brigitte took us to some stores in a nearby town, called Temecula, and we spent some happy time in Target and Nordstrom Rack.  The next day we shopped in her home town of Hemet, and went to Ross and Marshall’s.  And really, in an area of that kind of wealth, what would a shopping trip be without a stop at the local Salvation Army thrift store?

Then it was time to leave, and not wanting to inconvenience ourselves with an early departure, I said there’d be no problem at arriving at Palm Springs airport at 9:00 AM for a 10:00 AM departure.  It would’ve been a problem, but not in the magical wheelchair.  Mom hopped in, the pusher came, and we went right to the head of the line and through security.

We landed in Seattle at 1:00 and our plane left for Spokane at 1:30, yet we made it.  Yep, we even had time to spare, as we were pushed from the arrivals gate to our new departure gate within minutes.

We then got a wheelchair from the Spokane arrivals gate right to the car!  I’m telling you, I don’t care how you do it, but do not travel minus a wheelchair.