It’s been awhile since I posted part 1 of my first weekend out, but due to busyness in my life and depression issues, I hadn’t been in a place and mental state to write. Here’s the next installment in my weekend!

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I wheeled into the upper level of the subway station nearest to my house, extremely glad to finally be on nice smooth indoor flooring. I took a few minutes there to rest (there was nobody else around in this part of the station at this time/day of the week so nobody would come up to me and ask if I was okay, as they had been every time I stopped to rest on the way there) and got some cash out of an ATM that was there, to make sure I had some money for the rest of my trip out. Once I felt my arms were up to working again, I headed down through the maze of 4 elevators to get down to the platform itself. This part of the trip, which I had initially expected to be one of the hardest parts, was actually quite easy! I had imagined navigating through elevators, up and down ramps, and through the gate system controlling access to the fare-paid area would be more difficult than it actually was. It was much easier pushing on the nice smooth floors, and having been through the station many times before meant that I knew exactly what route I needed to take to get where I wanted to go.

I got to the gate where you have to pay your fare in order to unlock it, and two construction workers working in the area opened the door using their key and held it open for me. One of them explained that they weren’t the type to make “people like me” worry about a fare, so go through. I think I said “Bu… I…” before deciding it was easier to just go through than argue with them. I had an unlimited transit card in my pocket that I would have used if they hadn’t done that for me, so I felt no guilt in not paying a fare (little did I know this was just the beginning of an entire weekend of having employees wave me through without a fare!). Having decided not to argue with them, I thanked them for the help and wheeled through the open gate, heading across the wide open floor to the elevator that would take me down to more elevators, eventually leading me to the platform.

I waited patiently on the platform until the next train came in and, crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t catch my wheels in the gap or look silly in some other way, lifted my front wheels to clear the gap and wheeled onto the train. No problem! Knowing I only had a minute before the train started moving I considered using the wheelchair lock. Deciding against it as it looked overly complicated, I wasn’t sure it would even fit on my chair, and I’d never seen any other wheelers use it on all my years using our transit system, I wheeled to the doorway opposite the one in use and locked my wheels as the train started moving. I’d done it! I was on the train heading downtown and my trip had been, for the most part, completely uneventful.

The train trip itself continued to be uneventful, I sat and watched things go by for the 45 minute trip downtown. We arrived at the stop I was going to get off at to visit one of my friends and I wheeled off, again carefully making sure not to catch my front wheels in the gap. Making my way up to street level, transferring from elevator to hallway to more elevators, I started getting nervous again. Being on the subway is one thing, I have no trouble pushing, there’s no slopes, no difficult terrain to move over. Being back out on the street, I’d have to deal with all those things again. I wheeled into the last elevator (getting much better at quickly and smoothly lifting my front wheels by this point to clear the gap leading to the elevator car) and pressed the button to head up to street level…