Nov 24 - ready to go .... now

Yes, we have another electric chair for Collette. We picked this up at a local place who stocked similar items to that already owned by Collette. That's the good news. The bad news is that the joystick controller on her chair looks like it's toast and is $1,000 to replace. That seems ridiculous, but that's the way it is. I don't know how much, if any, of this would be covered by health insurance / medicare etc. but they don't have much choice.

The only choice that they do have is in suppliers and since these people could not get the new controller in within 5 days anyway, we'll stick with the rental (@ $40 per day) for five days and they'll take the chair home to their supplier close to Accomac.

The technology on these chairs is pretty simple -- two batteries, joystick controller for the motors on the wheels that rotate independently so that she can turn a circle on the spot. Some chairs (not hers) can rise and tilt to make it easier to get from chair-to-whatever, and that might be in their future. The rental has two large gel-acid batteries, larger than those inside a UPS but not much. Collette's chair has two gel-acid batteries as well, but they're like very large car batteries. Collette's driving wheels are bigger and the entire chair is more heavy-duty. Collette's chair has a separate charging unit while the rental has the charger built-in, with a PC-like cord to plug it into the wall.

At any rate, we'll give the batteries on the rental unit a run for their money today as we tour around Epcot. These gel-acid batteries don't take kindly to running flat the way a proper deep-cycle boat battery does, but then again perhaps these are special batteries. With the on-board charger we could probably find a place to charge during lunch, as long as we can sit near a receptacle, but according to the rental people that should not be an issue. Based on my reading, these things will go 25 miles on a charge ... but that of course depends on the unit and the batteries on the rental do not look that big.

I did some research online to see if there was a cheaper way of replacing the controller but I was running into the same issue -- i.e. price -- and with there being many types of chairs on the market and hers being an older, and discontinued, model, I couldn't find anything.

So ... after getting the chair squared away we decided to go boating. We had a good time on the water and there were a bumper "crop" of dolphins out frolicking, if that's what they do. We stopped several times to watch them all around us. We had lunch at Inlet Harbor again. Although we are tired of that place at this point, it does have a stable dock at the right height to hoist Collette in the wheelchair out of the boat onto the dock. In point of fact, that was the easiest maneuver with the chair -- the dock at the boat launch is a lot lower and very narrow making it dicey at best, but we managed. Abby, as usual, enjoyed herself, getting a chance to run on the sand-bar island. Since Collette couldn't get out of the boat we did not wander far. Abby covered a lot of distance just running in circles though -- and there were minnows aplenty for her to chase.

It's time to get ready ... check in tomorrow for a report on our day at Disney. The weather prediction is good -- mid 70's -- with only a 10% chance of a shower late in the day. We have dinner reservations at the French pavilion for 7pm after which we'll take in Illuminations, the laser show. It will be a long day ...