Traveling with patience

Traveling is an exciting thing to do but requires a lot of patience. Whether traveling by car or plane, there can be delays and travel woes to deal with. Having a lot of patience is helpful.

Traveling with a disability requires a lot of preparation and keeping a calm demeanor, often dealing with airline staff, especially.

There are many things to line up to help ensure that things go smoothly and to minimize damage to equipment that is vital to my wellbeing and independence. The goal is always to get my wheelchair back at the end of a flight, undamaged.

I have seen countless stories of those who arrive at their destination only to get their chair back damaged and useless. It is like taking someone’s legs away. From there begins the long and painful process of filing a claim to fight to get it repaired, often waiting weeks or months to get their customized wheelchair back.

Open communication and educating the staff on my wheelchair is the best strategy, but once it is out of my sight, I cannot control what happens to it. We always remove as many parts as we can and take them on the airplane with us.

When arriving in a new city, when we do not have a rental car, we educate ourselves ahead of time on how to get an accessible uber or cab. Every city is different, and especially when traveling outside of the country.

The best thing to arm ourselves with is knowledge and an understanding of how things work. Also helpful is having a plan B.

We thought we had gotten our duo bike’s journey to Australia all figured out. We made the decision to ship it two weeks before we were set to arrive. For months, my husband had been talking with the company who made our bike, as they have experience shipping the bikes internationally.

They sell a special box to package the duo bike in, and work with a shipping carrier that guarantees shipment arrival on the date we chose.

My husband spent a couple of hours taking the bike apart and packaging it for pick up the next day. Everything was ready to go, except that we did not yet have the shipping label. The 14-hour time difference made communication difficult.

In the end, we decided to forgo the shipping of the duo bike and take it with us on the airplane because we did not get the shipping label in enough time ahead. This option is not ideal, as we are going just the two of us this time. This creates a lot of extra stress and physical exhaustion for my husband. Not helpful before running a marathon.

We pivoted and contacted our hotel who is working with us to get a van to pick us up once we arrive in Australia. A normal cab or Uber cannot fit our large bike, my wheelchair, plus us and our luggage.

Going with the flow is not easy for me. Everything in me wants things nice and neatly planned out. However, that is not reality when traveling, and especially such a long distance from home.

The end goal is for us and our bike to safely make it to Australia, so however that needs to happen is what we will have to do. Focusing on everything that can go right, and looking for the silver linings will be key.

Wish us luck!

Until next time …

Amy Shinneman is a former National Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, disability blogger, freelance writer, wife, and mom of two boys. She is the recipient of The Reporter’s Winter 2025 Ink-Stained Wretch award. You can find her blog at humblycourageous.org and reach her on Instagram @ashinneman.