Best Plan is No Plan

We’ve all been there. Stressed out and ready to pull out our hair while making plans to get away. Packing and loading up for a trip. I feel like that stress can quickly doubles when you have to also worry about medical supplies and physical limitations. Living with a spinal cord injury makes it very difficult to plan impromptu getaways and I often see that reflected in trip planning. 

It was all so simple prior to my injury. I would grab a backpack, fill it up with random Harley T-shirts and a few pairs of jeans and toiletries and I would be on my way. I could easily throw whatever on the back of my motorcycle and ride off. Now, a weekend getaway seems to fill up my entire van. It’s starting to seem like spontaneous little vacations have lost their spark because they now required so much logistics. One suitcase for medical supplies, one for clothes, one for toiletries. Extra seat cushion in case the one on my wheelchair gets a hole. Did we pack the wheelchair charger? How am I transferring - with a slide board or the 100 lb portable lift that Kass has to lug around? And when we get there, will there be room under the bed for me to use the lift? Will there be a threshold that my wheelchair gets stuck on? Will I be able to maneuver my chair around in the room? It’s pretty obvious that my days of being able to live out of a backpack are now behind me. Or are they?

(The packed up van)

It’s a fairly straightforward equation. Exposure + confidence = adventure.

Exposure: How often am I getting out and trying new things? What happens when I push the envelope? “Maybe this time we won’t need to worry about this or bring that”. “Okay, my wheelchair doesn’t make it over this ramp... what do we do now?”. When Kass and I first started getting out we would bring everything. We prepared for every scenario and, all things considered, it is pretty understandable. We were both new to this lifestyle, her as my caretaker and me as the paralyzed dude. It was always better to be over prepared than under prepared, but it did add a lot of unneeded stress. This summer I have set the goal of being more carefree and spontaneous and I have noticed nothing but huge strides with both Kass and I. The more times that we have to troubleshoot a situation, the better we become at it. It’s a lot like anything in life; more repetitions, better results. The better results in this case being confidence. 

Confidence: I don’t just mean rolling around with a “check me out” mentality here. I’ve covered that kind of confidence plenty of times in older blog posts. What I mean here is confidence in my physical abilities. Confidence in my equipment. Confidence in my care. Confidence that my friends and family will be able to troubleshoot me through any impending snafus. I know what cracks in the sidewalks to avoid. I know what hills in the grass are too steep. I usually know what ramps will work and when my EZ lock is going to snag and send my wheelchair into a quick hault. I know when to recline my chair, as not to fall on my face. But I know all of this because I have experienced it. Simply from living life again, I have learned boundaries and limitations and I have always tried to push them. I could take the easy route and sit at home all the time and become sedentary but I refuse to do that. Which leads to adventure.

This has been a great summer for adventuring. Kass and I just got back from a fairly spontaneous trip to Waterville Valley in NH. We went up not knowing what to expect or what accessibility issues may arise, but we were fully prepared to troubleshoot, with help of course 🙂. We’ve learned to prepare for the worst, especially in New England but our experiences were quite the opposite. Packing had its usual stress (eventually it won’t) but once we were there and settled, vacation mode kicked in. Whenever I get back from little outings like this, I always ask myself why I don’t do stuff like this more often. It is almost euphoric to not feel stressed and a change of scenery is always welcomed for me. There’s just something about the mountain air and something equally as calming as running on mountain time. 

My personal vow is to throw my worries into the wind more often. You can’t plan for everything, so why stress about things that are out of your control? It helps to have such a great support system when I do these things, but sometimes you just need to say “screw it”. Once you’re there and living in the moment, you forget why you were so wound up to begin with. Here’s to many more adventures...

God Bless!