An Office Depot Adventure

Today Rhonda, Melissa and I got together at Target to test out mine and Rhonda's newly reupholstered seats.  (We'll get to that topic soon.)  While we were there Rhonda showed us the new shopping cart she'd gotten.  Melissa took it for a test spin and gave it good reviews.  Rhonda also told us there was an even larger size available, and of course we had to leave Target and scoot to Office Depot (three parking lots away!) to check it out.  I'm so glad we did because that gave us a chance to meet Michael, who not only showed us where the larger cart was located, but put one together for us so we could try it out.

This is Michael, an employee of the Office Depot on Millerville in Baton Rouge, 

posing for us.  He was thrilled to hear he was going to be featured in our blog post.
I love his "Office Depot goes Broadway" pose!

This is Rhonda, posing with both sizes of the cart. We both thought the large

one was too unwieldy, but it might work great for a taller person with longer

arms.  The small cart is about $20 and holds 60 lbs. The large cart is about $40

and holds 80 lbs.  You can see them on the Office Depot site here and here.

 

Welcome to Jugana from Croatia

Jugana is a brand new TravelScoot owner with a question.
 
I found very useful info about CrampBuster on your blog. As I am disabled and have weakness in my hands too it's very hard for me to pull the brake levers. It's not a problem when driving on even grounds as the drive is mostly defensive, but as my hometown is all in hills, it's very hard for me to go downhill as brakes should be applied for a longer time.

Maybe you or some of your friends could have a suggestion what to do. To your knowledge, is there something like CrampBuster for brakes too?

If you have a suggestion for Jugana, post it in the comments or email it to me, elizabeth@ifisher.com. 

If you'd like to see Jugana's blog about travelling with a disability, visit http://handinhappy.blogspot.com/.

Denise's Purple Seat

From Denise:


Hi Elizabeth, here are the pictures I promised.  I chose not to have extra padding installed in mine.  I had it recovered because the stapled banding was coming undone.  The auto upholstery shop did a much better job in this area and it is tightly stitched and secured to the bottom frame.


Thanks for sharing these with us.  I LOVE the color!

A hard case for the TravelScoot

Dona asked if there was a bag for the TravelScoot with wheels attached to it.  She wants to use it so she can check her scoot with her luggage at the airport.  Luckily Glen has already solved this problem for us.  Glen says he uses an SKB-4814W Golf case, which costs about $150.  

I searched Amazon and found the picture above.  To see if for yourself, click here.

Checking Your TravelScoot at the Airport

A question from Dona

I recently traveled with my scooter. I sent it with the luggage in the bag provided when it was delivered. I was wondering if there is a bag for it with wheels attached. It would be so much easier to take it if it had been a wheeled bag. Do you know of one of these?? Otherwise it was great to check it thru to my destination.

I sent Dona an email suggesting a golf bag with wheels. Does anyone have a suggestion or experience with this? If so, you can post it in the comments or email it to me, elizabeth@ifisher.com.

Questions from a New TravelScoot Owner

Hi Elizabeth,

Well, I’ve had my Travelscoot for a couple of weeks…. It hasn’t changed my life yet… but I’m working on it! How long did it take you to get good at folding and unfolding? I’m still struggling but it’s slowly getting better. I haven’t wanted to go out in the heat and humidity but my first trip was an indoor shopping mall that I had not been to before. That was fun! I just zipped up and down the whole thing.

But I wasn’t shopping. I was just checking out the mall. How the heck do you go shopping with it? My next trip was to a crowded store with narrow aisles. Today was my third trip. The store wasn’t crowded but more narrow aisles. Both times I carried one of those small baskets in one hand but that’s tiring and it keeps getting gin the way. Any suggestions? I paged through the blog posts but didn’t see anything like that.

Thanks for any tips you may have. Will you be going to the convention this year? I plan on it. Should be a lot easier with the scooter. Last time I went, I hurt all weekend just from walking the halls.

JeanMarie




Hi JeanMarie,

Congratulations on getting your TravelScoot! I wish we lived in the same city so I could show you how I shop with mine. But first questions first... It took me a few weeks to be really good at folding and unfolding it. I did that with mine for about a year, and then I switched vehicles with my husband and now I just load my fully assembled into the back of our van. Since I use mine every day it makes it a lot easier.

I remember the first time I went to the mall by myself and I enjoyed zipping up and down the whole thing too. If there are people around I do slow down to their speed, but when no one is near I speed it up.

How the heck do I shop with it? It depends on what kind of store I'm in, but most often I use a tote bag that I hang on the handlebars. I highly recommend that you go to http://think-king.com/ and buy the mighty buggy hook and the cup holder. The cup holder works great for carrying a drink around, OR you can put glasses, camera, and anything else you can think of. I put the hook at the very top of the front steering column, right under the handlebars. I hook my car keys on it, or you can hook a shopping bag on it too. They also have a new product called a jumbo swirly hook. I haven't tried that one yet.

You can also put items in the fabric triangle. Sometimes I use a bicycle basket I attach to the front of my scoot, but that keeps me from being able to pull up to things as close as I'd like to.

Anyway, the tote bag I use is the size of the reusable bags you can get at Target or Walmart for around 99 cents. It works really well for me. I also manage to pull a cart around the grocery store if I need to do big grocery shopping. That's not as easy, but I often will leave the cart at the end of the aisle and just zip down the aisle to get what I need. When I get to the checkout I stand up to unload the buggy. This isn't shopping, but I also used to pull my mother around in her wheelchair at her nursing home. I'd get right up beside her and put my left hand on her right arm rest and off we'd go. It was a lot of fun.

To really make the TravelScoot work for me I had to take on a problem-solving attitude. Two years later and I can say that when I'm using my scoot it feels like an extension of my body. I can turn it tight, I can go anywhere with it that my hips fit. We've folded it up and put it under a chair in a bar (to get it out of the way), and I've had three fully assembled ones in the back of my van.

Enjoy your scooting!

Elizabeth

 

Cynthia's Recommendation for a Nice TravelScoot Tool Pouch

From Cynthia (an avid TravelScoot fan who does not work for WheelChairGear OR the company that makes these products):

For those of us who have older TravelScoots and need a place to carry the tools this little Day Cruiser Mini Pack does the job nicely!

You can get them from http://www.wheelchairgear.com/ . The Day Cruiser Mini Pack is $19.95 USD, and the No-Slip Grip-Clip is $9.95 USD.

Here are various pictures of it so you get an idea of how you might use one to carry your TS tools or emergency what not.

I also love the No-Slip Grip-Clips from WheelChairGear too. I am using one of them in all of the photos below to clip the Mini Pack too.

View of No-Slip Grip-Clip and Mini Pack ring

Vertical under seat hanging with No-Slip Grip-Clip

Horizontal under the seat with No-Slip Grip-Clip and the Mini Packs Velcro straps

Back side of the Mini Pack

Under the seat with seat attached

How Peter Added a Flag

From Peter:

Here is a picture of my Scoot. I have fitted a flag as you can see. Also in the picture is a large luggage carrier folded up which I can use if I was to pack the scoot inside it's canvas bag.

With the flag I removed the little cap on the back of the back rest, and then I pushed some heavy foam down the tube, about 6 inches down then I pushed the flag pole down, and it stays there. The large black wheels are a part of a luggage carrier which is handy to have if you want to pack your Scoot in to it's canvas bag, then you can push or pull the Scoot onto trains ,busses, etc.