Super Team Leslie

wheelchair travel adventures

Ever since my husband’s spinal cord injury 8 years ago, international travel has felt out of the question. An unattainable dream. It was overwhelming enough to travel by plane domestically. So over a year ago, when my husband floated the idea of Europe for our upcoming 20th, I just laughed. It took me a beat to realize that he was being serious. The thought of all the researching and planning for accessible travel was so daunting. Plus, I am the full-time caregiver when we travel. We have tried both with and without a caregiver on previous trips and I have found that I actually much prefer without. It allows us the freedom to do everything on our own timing, but it also means that I need to build in pockets of rest for myself, so that I’m not hitting that caregiver burnout mode.

I will be forever grateful for all the wheelchair users who have already taken the brave leap and traveled overseas. If I did not have their videos and posts to look at over a year ago, I would never have said yes to Europe. But thanks to them, I have learned lots of tips and tricks to not only make a trip like this doable, but also a memorable and fun experience.

So we took the leap and planned the trip. And by plan, I mean hours and hours of research. Hours of not finding an accessible solution and then searching some more. I had several points in the early planning days where I shut my laptop in frustration. This was too much. I would even start planning out in my head how I would tell Ryan that this trip was just not doable. The overwhelm was so overpowering.

But here we are, just about to board our flight to London. It turns out that going through the hard can also lend itself to any life situation. Just like some of our hardest hospital stays, I reminded myself, “what is your next right step?” And that is how I planned our trip, one small step at a time. We tell our boys something similar before the start of every trip, “Get ready for adventures!” They know that we mean, to be open to the unexpected. Be ready to solve problems as they arise and to try their best to only focus on what they can control and radical acceptance for the rest. By no means, do any of us have this mastered, but the awareness and tiny mindset shifts make a huge difference. There is always a much higher chance of wheelchair problems or accessibility challenges when we travel, but we will face them as they come.

When our kids were little, there were plenty of annoying TV shows that we watched, most often with a song that would be stuck in your head for days on end. One show our boys loved was called The Backyardigans. One such song was, “Super Team Awesome is the awesomest team…” Ryan still brings up this song to this day and reminds us all that we are Super Team Leslie. It provides a bit of lightness to an often frustrating and stressful situation, and we figure out the problem at hand. For our teenagers’ sake, we will try our best to not sing that song out loud in the middle of Paris, but it can’t be promised.

Don’t Hesitate

Don’t hesitate. Do the thing. Dream the dream. Follow the spark. Light that flame.

Don’t hesitate. Don’t let the fog overtake you. Don’t let the light dim. Don’t let the mud keep you down.

Don’t hesitate. Push past the comfort zone. Let your inner voice speak, guide, and lead you forward. Take the trip. Take the leap. Sign up for the course, the retreat, the class. Start the business. Write the book.

Don’t hesitate. Don’t make yourself small. Don’t let the anxiety swirl win. Don’t let the voices of others be louder than yours.

Don’t hesitate. Make the memories. Seek out the bliss, the tiny joyful moments. Catch a glimpse of that ray of sunshine bouncing off the petals.

Don’t hesitate.