Damn Amanda

How often do you walk or run?

Oh friends. According to some strangers? I’m too pretty to be cripple. According to some of my shoes, you wouldn’t catch me dead walking in my dreams.

Me? Some days I walk, some days I roll. Some days I don’t move off my dang couch. Flexible mobility.

I’ve known what it is to walk, and I don’t miss it. It’s just height. And shin splints. And sore feet. And blisters. Oh heck no. I really don’t miss it.

On my first day in Vienna, I set off to find coffee. Priorities. Almost all the public transit in Vienna was accessible to wheelchairs, people with visual impairments and families with strollers. So bus it I did. I’m a loose planner. I have a list of things I’d like to see, but I refuse to stress on a vacation. The very antithesis of anonymity and wandering for me.

Coffee, check.

Hmm. Where does this street go? Check.

11.2 km later, I wandered back to my hotel under my own arm power. Because, in every whisper in my head. It can’t be that far! I will forever be thankful for the street corner misters and water fountains of Vienna, Austria. Hydration, ladies and gentlemen. Is key.

The older I get though, the less I ask, how far. The more I want to know the stories and the history around the corner. Digging up the short blurbs before I leave, but for darn sure looking for the Encyclopedia Britannica when I land and take that hike. That’s why my massive list of places to see will always be massive. I get wrapped up in the stories. I’m not the only one am I?

I digress. Damn. Amanda. Oh look, a squirrel. A roll or two down memory lane, something about prune whip.

It will never matter to me the vernacular of the how; walk, roll, sashay, stroll, cha-cha, what I always want us. You and me, to remember, is the connection. The story. “That one time…” One of my favorite connections was; “How did you get that huge scratch on your wheelchair?” Best question ever. Which is why I will never have paint guards on my wheelchairs.

Some things to look forward to; Sofia, Bulgaria. What I really brought in “Matilda” the 35L pack I carry. Hint, it isn’t six pairs of shoes despite what I might want to bring. The trials and tribulations of Kevlar tires on a wheelchair. And, a little of life in the real world tossed in for a taste of reality. The Kardashians I am definitely not. TTFN