In September, we escaped the gray rainy weather for a few days and headed down to sunny, hot Arizona.
My dad and his business partners bought a house there to rent on Airbnb and then each partner and their family can use it a couple weeks a year. About a year ago, when my dad told me they bought the house, the first thing I said was, “our family gets it the weekend the Seahawks play the Cardinals!!” I’m a huge Seahawks fan but can’t get myself to buy the expensive tickets for a game here … plus the thought of sitting in the freezing rain at CenturyLink Field for three hours just about does me in. Burrrr. So why not go to Arizona for a long weekend and go to the game there. Brilliant idea if you ask me and the whole family was in!
While we were there it was in the high 80s and sunny. You know where you could find me … by the pool tanning every day. When it came to showering off the chlorine and sunscreen, I quickly realized it would be easier to shower outside in my bathing suit with the warm hose water than try to maneuver in the little (not so accessible) bathroom and get in the tub. If you know me, you know I roll with the flow.
One day we decided to go to Top Golf. SO much fun! I love a good happening. Unfortunately, as determined as I was to score at least one point, I came in last with a whopping ZERO. But who cares, it was still a blast.
When game day rolled around we woke up early to head to the stadium and get a good parking spot and tailgate. Tailgating for us consisted of Marty wandering off to find a bathroom, my brother’s girlfriend Che sitting in the car studying for nursing school, Dale doing who knows what, and my parents and I simply standing by the trunk drinking beers and white claws. A pretty pathetic attempt at tailgating … but nonetheless a fun time and good people watching.
Now I have a story about getting in the stadium. I’ll start at the beginning. I have a small motorized wheel (a SmartDrive) I attach to the bottom/back of my wheelchair that is then controlled by a watch I wear. The SmartDrive makes it so I don’t have to push my chair it just keeps me rolling. It’s quite handy … until it malfunctions at an NFL game and I nearly take out a crowd of people. As we’re going in I have my SmartDrive turned off because there’s lots of people and we are getting in line to go through the gates. Marty who is behind me, I think has started pushing me when all of a sudden I realize the SmartDrive managed to turn on and I’m now hauling ass. And let me tell you, this SmartDrive can get going really fast. I’m tapping my wrist and my swatch trying to turn it off and it’s just picking up speed. Marty grabs my from behind and my dad turns around right before I take him out and grabs the front of my chair. They’re trying to stop me but the motor is still going. Somehow the SmartDrive ends up spun under my chair in a weird way where my wheelchair wheels are no longer touching the ground. If my dad and Marty didn’t grab me when they did, I would have been thrown out of my chair and probably hit a few Cardinals fans in the process. Anyways, my dad and Marty pick my entire wheelchair off the ground so my brother is able to take the SmartDrive off. Phew!! Nobody got hurt! After that exciting event we make it through the gates and into the stadium. I realize my chair is hard to push and something isn’t quite right. Once we get to our seats and I try to put on my brakes, I realize they can’t reach my wheels. Something is wrong but we can’t figure out what and it’s almost kickoff. We decide to ignore it until later. We spend the next three hours cheering for the Seahawks, drinking beer, and winning the game. Woohoo!! Once we get back to the house, I figure out that the SmartDrive spun the axel on my chair and the whole positioning is off. Luckily my dad found some tools to temporarily fix it.
Needless to say it’s always an adventure with me. We has such a great time in Arizona. I think we’re going to make it a tradition it to go to the Seahawks game there every year.
Arizona, we’ll be back in February for spring training!!
