Hawaii, Day 1

I am very fortunate to have friends that live in amazing places that let me come visit them! My latest trip was to Oahu to stay with my friend F and visit a handful of other friends on island. This was my 10th(?!) trip, so I am very comfortable searching for flight routes with lie flat seats (a necessity for my hEDS body) and also navigating once I'm there.

(Description of picture: a screenshot of a weather app showing multiple locations on Oahu, all in the 70° range, comparing to Baltimore at 30°)

In order for my domestic East Coast -> West Coast flight to have lie flat seats, I had to travel up to EWR, Newark Airport. The easiest way to do this from my home in Baltimore is to take Amtrak- this trip I took on the Acela, but I also like booking business class on the Northeast Regional train, because you can pre-book your seat and there is a little bit more space on the NER trains (though I do find it harder to navigate my power chair through the doors in NER trains).

(Description of picture: in an Acela Amtrak train, looking across the table to a blue power wheelchair with black cushions, and a blue cane strapped on the back) 

Only a select number of the Northeast regional trains stop at the EWR stop, otherwise you have to go up to Newark Penn station and then take NJ Transit back down to EWR. The latter is the way that I proceeded! Had a little bit of an adventure in the Newark Penn station stop because the elevator was a little bit possessed and wasn't stopping on the floor that I needed it to to get up to the track. Thankfully that is a manned station and they were going to take me up the freight elevator if the passenger elevator didn't get it together. It did end up stopping on my floor and I did end up getting to the platform without being spirited away by poltergeists.

(Description of photo: a silver doored freight elevator with an attendant holding a black rolling suitcase with a soft-sided black bag on top) 

Once I was at the EWR stop, I could catch the Air Train to the actual terminal. The station staff was really helpful here as well, pointing me towards the front car of the Air Train that is the accessible car- it has level boarding (🙌🙌🙌, I need every other public transit to figure this out!!) and enough space to navigate a wheelchair and luggage in.

(Description of photo: a picture inside the accessible unit of the Newark Airport AirTrain, you can see a United plane outside the window and the light streaming in to hit the red and gray leather Air Train seats) 

Once I was inside Newark Airport, however, the helpfulness of staff ran down to zero instantaneously. How the United counter is set up at EWR is absolute nonsense- there is no full service counter, even if you are flying first/business or if you need assistance. You have to check in and check your bags at poorly designed, mostly non-functioning, kiosks, then you can drop your bag with a surly unhelpful grumpy counter agent. I would like to challenge all airport designers to actually navigate their spaces and procedures with a wheelchair and luggage!!

Then I got to the TSA pre-check line. TSA agents now have these cameras that they have to line up to your face to take a picture and compare it to your ID. These cameras are on tables that lift and lower, I have seen them at a million airports. Newark had their set up in a way that they couldn't lower it or move it around at all, so they required me to move and reposition my wheelchair like five times before they got a picture they were happy with. This is the low-level annoying bullshit that is really frustrating when you are traveling in a wheelchair, especially solo. And I experience wide array of TSA agents, but the ones at Newark were particularly unhelpful and dickish, just a forewarning.

Once I was through all of that, I went to the United lounge, that I had access to because I was flying business class from EWR to LAX. It was nice to have a calm place to de-stress from the morning's travels and get a snack before getting on my cross-country plane.

(description of photo: a white plate with a bagel with cream cheese and cucumber, two sausage links, a sausage patty, and some scrambled eggs) 

Boarding is always a little stressful, depending on the gate agents and the flight attendants for the particular flight. My general protocol is to try to talk the gate agents into letting me have actual preboarding, like give me 3 to 5 minutes before you send the cavalry behind me, but that doesn't always happen. United was actually really helpful on all of my flight legs and I did get enough time to get down to the jet bridge and break down my wheelchair and get all my stuff into my seat before everyone came crashing behind me. 🙌

(Description of photo: a view out of seat 8A on my United flight from EWR to LAX- you can see blue sky all the way to the horizon and fluffy white clouds)

I arrived in LAX and had an uneventful return of my wheelchair, which is never a given when you are flying with a mobility device!! And then I thankfully had access again to the United lounge because of my flight from Newark, so I went there to have another snack and to take a mask break on their patio! It was nice to see a little bit of California sun.

(Description of photo: a view from the United lounge in LAX, looking out onto the jet bridge of United flight)

Boarding my fight for HNL was similarly smooth and uneventful to that in EWR, thankfully! And my flight was uncomplicated and my wheelchair returned to me no worse for the wear. 

When I landed in Honolulu I went directly to my rental car- using the loyalty programs for rental car companies can allow you to skip the line with an agent and that is always worth it, IMO. I booked a minivan, which is always the easiest way for me to get my wheelchair in and out of a car on my own. I stow the stow&go seats and pop my front front wheels up so that I can slide my powerchair in. My chair weighs about 55 lb and I am on lifting restriction because of my CSF leak history, but I can do it this way without actually lifting much weight at all.

Then I just had to drive the 20 minutes from the airport to my friend's house in Hawaii Kai! Overall not too painful of a trip and my luggage and my chair and myself arrived in mostly the same condition as we left the East Coast. 🥰