Southern Outer Banks, North Carolina

These notes aim to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to the southern outer banks, North Carolina. These informal notes are from a trip I took there with my wife.

Outer Banks
The outer banks are a thin strip of islands off the East Coast of North Carolina (Note: it would be kind of difficult to have islands off the West coast - since there isn't a West Coast!). The northern end is fairly developed with hundreds of condos for rent and a few hotels and restaurants. The southern end is primarily a National Seashore Reserve and development and residency is restricted to a handful of villages.

We stayed at the southern tip in Ocracoke, then drove up the banks to Kill Devil Hills.

Getting There
You need to drive. The outer banks are joined to the mainland at the northern end by a causeway. Most of the islands are linked by bridges, the exception being Ocracoke Island on the southern end which is accessible only by ferry.

We took the ferry from Cedar Island, a two hour ride. Timetables and ferry information is available at www.ncferry.org. Tell the ferry staff that you use a wheelchair when you arrive, they will try to load you close to the door to the café area. You drive on-board. It is possible to stay in your vehicle, but the door to the café area is ramped and there is an accessible toilet on-board. There are vending machines, but apart from that facilities are pretty basic. The ferry deposits you in Ocracoke.

Coming from the north, you get a ferry from Hatteras. This is a short (30min) journey and you can stay in your vehicle.

Places to Stay and Eat
Ocracoke is a small community (pop. 750) with a lot of rental property available. Unfortunately, most of this is hopelessly inaccessible since the building technique here is to place all living area at least one floor above ground level (presumably because of flooding during storms).

The Ocracoke Harbor Inn (www.ocracokeharborinn.com ) has two accessible bedrooms. These are up a long ramp and have a very steep short ramp to get over the threshold (4” rise in 6”). The room is compact with a spacious bathroom. The breakfast room is beside the reception area across the road and is accessible via a steep ramp. My research turned up no other accessible accommodation in Ocracoke.

The Flying Melon in Ocracoke serves great food and is accessible, although the path leading to the restaurant is unpaved and very rough. They do not have accessible toilets.

Further north the only real option is one of the chain hotels. We stayed in a Comfort Inn in Kill Devil Hills and it was acceptable in terms of access.

Things to do
The National Seashore Park (www.nps.gov/caha) is the main attraction here. Miles of wonderful beach and plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting. There are several access points to the beach via boardwalks, but the beach itself is not wheelable. A beach chair is available (www.nps.gov/caha/pphtml/accessibility.html for details).

The nature trail on island is not officially accessible but I gave it a shot anyway. I think that it is doable with assistance from a strong walkie. I was on my own (in a street chair ill-suited to off-road travels) and managed to cover over half of it. The early stages are boardwalk which makes traveling easy. After that, I went anti-clockwise around the trail loop for a period before a steep sandy hill defeated me. In the clockwise direction I got further, although areas of the trail were under an inch of water and the mud threatened to bog me down. The effort was worth it for the birds, frogs and snakes that I encountered, but mosquito spray is an absolute must!

Further north is Hatteras Lighthouse. For obvious reasons the look-out post at the top is not accessible! The information centre is.

Further north again, the wildlife trail is partly accessible. It is a loop. The southern end has been paved and provides superb views over the banks and a breathtaking array of birds. There are various viewing platforms and each one has a wheelchair accessible magnifying viewer (Good for kids also!). The information centre is accessible. The Northern end is paved for a shorter stretch and I did not explore it.

Savannah, Georgia

These notes aim to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to Savannah, Georgia. These informal notes are from a trip I took there with my wife.

Savannah
Savannah is a beautiful and gentile town in Northern Georgia. Many of the original colonial homes still exist in the 2 mile square city center, giving Savannah the reputation for the most beautiful town center in the US.

We arrived by car – a short detour off I-95.

The pavements are old, many are cobbled, and there are trees and other barriers frequently blocking the way. Very few junctions have dished curbs. Wheeling around is a challenge and you have to keep a weather eye on the pavement to avoid being pitched out of your chair by an errant stone. Because many of the buildings are old, access is not guaranteed. You need to call ahead for most places to check.

A word of warning – the waterfront is down several very steep cobbled streets many with steps. If you want to get there, go to the Hyatt hotel and take the elevator down to the waterfront level. Any other route will put you in hospital.

The chamber of commerce run tourist office in Savannah seems to be dedicated to discouraging tourists rather than the opposite. Access is awkward – you need to enter from the car park and then take an open lift up a series of steps. Don’t bother though, because the staff know absolutely nothing about access in the city and care even less. We inquired about accessible tours and were told to call each operator to find out. Well, yes of course, we could do that but I thought the point of a tourist information centre was to provide a central source of information for tourists. However, the staff was disinterested and discourteous so we gave up.

Things to do
The town center is beautiful, and the best way to see it is be walking (wheeling). You can hire experienced guides to walk with you, but the weather was so hot when we were there that walking was not really a comfortable option.

Trolley Tours
There are a few different companies offering trolley tours. Our experience with these companies was less than ideal.

Old Savannah tours have no accessible trolleys. Forget it.

Grayline Tours claim to have one accessible trolley but, unfortunately, it was out of service for repair on the day we wanted to do the tour. I was somewhat suspicious - I wonder when it was last in service.

Old Town Trolley tours claim to have one accessible trolley, but amazingly it was also out of commission on the day we were there. Excuse me for my cynicism, but that two companies just happen to have their only accessible trolley out of action on the day we wanted it beggars belief.

Oglethorpe Tours (http://www.oglethorpetours.com) are the smallest and most recent company. They have very few trolleys, but one of these is accessible. Unfortunately, on the day we wanted to go (I’m not making this up) that trolley was rented by a private company for the full day. However, Adam (one of the owners) was extremely apologetic and did pull out all the stops and we got our tour at the end of the day when the trolley was returned. The tour was excellent and the company deserves to be successful for their efforts to make this customer happy. Ignore the others, go for the Oglethorpe Tour.

Boat Tours
A couple of companies offer boat trips on the Savannah river. The River Street Riverboat Co. boats (departures from River St. directly behind City Hall – (912) 232-6404) are accessible, although you will be quite restricted on where you can go on board. We took a standard one hour trip and it was a total waste of time and money. Unless you have a particular fascination for looking at modern working docks and ugly cranes give this tour a miss. Dinner time cruises are offered also, and this might be more worthwhile.

Places to Stay
The usual chain hotels are in Savannah, but they cluster near the I-95 and far from the interesting town center. The Hyatt and Marriott are near the waterfront and offer accessible rooms. However, the real heart of Savannah is the old town, and this is peppered with expensive but plush B&Bs. None are accessible by design (due to the age of the buildings) but some have just one step and may be manageable for some.

Joan’s On Jones
17 West Jone’s Street
Savannah
Georgia, 31401
Tel: (912) 234-3863
http://joansonjones.home.comcast.net/

This beautiful building has their “Jones Street suite” which is wheelchair accessible by accident rather than design, and the owners do not claim to be ADA compliant. Nevertheless, we found it perfectly usable and a comfortable and pleasant place to stay. If you want a feel for the old town Savannah you could not do better. It has it’s own separate entrance with a low (2”) threshold. The living room is spacious and leads through double doors into an equally spacious bedroom. The old fashioned four poster bed is very comfortable, but very high. The mattress is about four feet off the ground. I am a T4 paraplegic with good upper body strength but it still took all my ingenuity and strength to get myself into the bed unassisted. If the bed defeats you, there is a sofa bed in the living room that might work. From the living room there is a small kitchenette (1” step) with a fridge and microwave and so on. This leads to a generously proportioned bathroom with an inward opening 28” door. There is a bath with a fixed shower head. The toilet bowl is a little lower than even a standard toilet. There are no grab rails.

The B&B is located a little bit away from the main shopping and restaurant areas, in quiet and beautifully tree lined Jones St. Note that they do not accept credit cards – check or cash only please.

Places to Eat
Alligator Soul
114 Bernard St.
Savannah, GA, 31401
http://www.alligatorsoul.com/

Access to this experimental southern style restaurant looks unpromising at first since it is set in a basement. However, if you call them from the street (or have a walkie you can send down the steps) they will come up and let you into the office building in whose basement they live, and let you down via an elevator. It’s definitely worth the effort! The food is a mix of traditional and modern Southern dishes with unusual twists, and a superb wine list. We had possibly the best meal we’ve had in the USA – an epic culinary experience. Not cheap but worth it.

Charleston - South Carolina

This brief note aims to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to Charleston.

Charleston
We stopped for a few hours in Charleston after leaving Savannah. The tourist information center is modern, accessible and staffed by friendly and informative staff. I was extremely disappointed to learn that none of the Southern Mansion tours were accessible. So, no lounging in a fine garden sipping Mint Julips for me then...

There are no (count them – exactly zero!) accessible trolley tours in Charlston. None, zip, nada. Our feeling that southern cities do not welcome wheelies was getting stronger until we discovered that Palmetto Carriage Tours (1-843-723-8145) offer accessible horse drawn carriage tours. The “loading deck” is ramped, and two assistant will lift you from your wheelchair onto the carriage. Since I had never taken a carriage tour, I leapt at this opportunity and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience with a very entertaining and professional guide. Highly recommended.

Be aware that there is very limited handicapped parking in Charleston. We noticed only one space down by the public market where the tours depart from – and this was of course taken. Parking in city car parks is free to handicapped – but that does not make it any easier to find a space!

The Everglades National Park

These notes aim to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to the Everglades National Park, Florida. These informal notes are from a trip I took there with my wife.

Getting There
The Everglades National Park is located in southern Florida. There are two entrances – east and west. The East entrance is about an hour’s drive from Miami (at Homestead/Florida City), the West entrance is accessible from Tampa (via Everglades City). Note that there are no roads through the park from one gate to the other. You choose whichever one you want.

Getting Around
The Everglades is a very big park, and only a small fraction is accessible to humans – and an even smaller fraction to wheeling humans. Nevertheless, we found it an immensely satisfying experience and a great place to get away from it all.

The National Park Service provide good information on all aspects of the park, including accessibility, try www.nps.gov/ever.

We stayed on the east side of the park. There is one good paved road and few roads that might be okay for 4WD. The best way to get around is by car – drive to one of the accessible walks and get out and experience the park.

Things to do
By far the most satisfying trail is the Anhinga trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Centre. This is just a mile or two from the East gate entrance, so you can make it a day trip from Miami if you want.

The trail itself is a combination of boardwalk and pavement with no significant slopes. Although you could wheel it in 30 minutes, there is so much wildlife to see that I took several hours to complete the circuit.

The visitor center has an excellent accessible toilet and a small and pokey shop.

Other accessible trails are listed on the NPS web-site, The ones I tried were less exciting in terms of wildlife but a pleasant way to get into nature. The Gumbo-Limbo trail is rougher than the Anhinga, but gives you the feeling of being deep in the woods – a nice feeling for those of us who are normally confined to pavements and “civilization”. The Payahokee Overlook trail gives views over the sawgrass plains. It is important to enter it from the opening at the end of the car-park (with the big wheelchair sign – so that you go around the trail clockwise) as the viewing platform is not accessible from the other direction.

Heat and mosquitoes prevented me from trying the others. Speaking of which, winter is the best time to visit. We visited in May and the mosquitoes were pretty bad – although the guides told us that they hadn’t really got up for the summer yet!

The boat rides from Flamingo Lodge are accessible and well-worth it. The boats are large flat, barge-like designs. Wheeling on was no problem with just a step of an inch or so between the dock and the boat. Once on board you don’t have to move – just enjoy the wildlife! The toilets (or heads) are not accessible.

The shop and toilets at Flamingo visitor centre are accessible.

Places to Stay
Some campsites are accessible, details are provided on the National Park Services website. However, we stayed in a cottage at Flamingo. The cottages and lodge are managed by Xanterra (www.beautiful-places-on-earth.com). They have two accessible cottages and advance reservation is strongly recommended.

Our cottage had a large living room (with a sofa-bed) and a bedroom with a queen sized bed. There was a small step (1” – 25mm) into the living room from outside. Everywhere else had level access. The bathroom was roomy, but it had a very strange shower with a molded plastic seat in one corner and a 4” lip that was difficult to get a wheelchair over. Due to the awkward positioning of the grab rails, it is not possible to sit on the seat comfortably if you have balance problems. Nor is it possible to reach the controls for the shower from the seat once you are there. The shower head is fixed. Between grabbing onto the handrails that are trying to push you out of the seat, and trying to balance, only a dexterous octopus could succeed in showering himself without aid. Luckily my wife stepped in to ensure that I smelled presentable for the duration of our stay.

It should be noted that this is the Everglades, and there is a profusion of wildlife attempting to occupy the same place as the cottages. Our cottage had an infestation of carpenter ants when we arrived. These were dealt with quickly by the staff once we mentioned it to them. However, you should be prepared to share your living space with various creatures. Apart from the carpenter ants, we had a lizard that lived under the bed, and an enormous spider that lived over the bed. (I chose not to point out the latter to my wife – she had enough to deal with between the ants and the lizard!). On the plus side you get the same profusion of wildlife outside, and rabbits, egrets and ospreys were common sights through the window over breakfast.

Places to eat
There is a restaurant at the Flamingo centre. Although I believe it is accessible, we did not eat there, preferring to cook our own food in the cottage.

Daytona Beach, Florida

These notes aim to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to Daytona Beach, Florida. These informal notes are from a trip I took there with my wife.We stopped overnight en-route from the Everglades National Park to Savannah, Georgia.

Daytona Beach
Daytona beach is a long and beautiful beach, famous for car racing amongst other things. It is of great interest to a wheelchair user since it is the only beach, in my experience, that is hard enough to support an ordinary street wheelchair with only a moderate pushing effort. My chair is has narrow high pressure wheels (20mm) with a 3˚ camber and I was able to navigate the sand easily enough. I did need help from time to time. Especially beware of the occasional stream of water that flows down the beach into the sea – if you stop for even a second the sand will be swept from beneath your wheels and you will be embedded. However, this just adds to the fun of a day by the sea if you’ve got someone to haul you out!

Access to the beach is easy, with several streets leading straight onto the sand. These are well signposted as many people like to take their cars onto the sand for a drive.

There are beach wheelchairs available from the life guards. You will have to go to one of the lifeguard centers to get one. They are free, but I think they take a deposit when you take one out. We did not try them, since it was too far to go to the life guard centre and we are lazy!

Places to stay and eat
This is a popular holiday resort and the usual selection of chain hotels are here. We stayed in a Holiday Inn which, although old and in need of refurbishment, was perfectly fine in terms of accessibility.

There are several million food places along the strip by the ocean and although you might be disappointed if you are looking for gourmet food, you won’t starve.

Near the Holiday Inn is a drive-in worship centre where you can partake of Sunday service without leaving your car – the first time I have ever seen such a place!

Miami - Restaurant (Ocean's Ten)

This brief note aims to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to Miami Art Deco district.

Miami – Art Deco Historic District
We did not stay in Miami, instead we just briefly visited the art deco historic district while on our way from Key West to the Everglades National Park. The information centre and museum (1001 Ocean Drive) is accessible via a steep ramp. The district itself stretches over several miles of road so a car tour is probably more feasible than walking. Walking tours are offered, leaving at 10:30am wed-sun and are accessible.

We had lunch in Oceans Ten (960 Ocean Drive). Non-descript food, appallingly slow and grumpy service and outrageous prices with a fixed service charge left a bad taste in our mouths. The toilets are accessible, not only to wheelchairs but also to passers by in the street. I had a very unpleasant experience there and felt generally unsafe. Avoid.

Key West - Information, Accomodation and Bars

These notes aim to provide guidance for handicapped, disabled or wheelchair users who travel to Key West. These informal notes are from a trip I took there with my wife.

Getting There
Key West is situated at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. We drove there from Sanford – an easy enough drive that took us 8 hours including several stops to look at the beauty of the keys. There is also a small international airport on the island.

Getting Around
The island itself is small, just a few miles square. You don’t really need a car once you are there, and indeed, because parking is difficult a car can be a distinct dis-advantage.

The sidewalks in some places are old and rough and you need to be alert to avoid catching your wheels in unexpected holes. Many also have trees growing out of the middle without enough room to get around them on a chair. Not every corner has a curb-cut. On Duval St. (the main strip) most corners do, but once you get off Duval you need to look ahead carefully to plan your route. I found it easier to abandon the sidewalks and go on the road once I was on the side streets.

Things to do
Key West is a noisy, friendly, chaotic party town with plenty to keep you occupied. Out of the myriad of things on offer, we took a train tour ride, a snorkel trip, a glass bottomed boat trip and spent a lot of time eating!

Beware of the hustlers at various stands in the streets. They will try to sell you tickets for boat rides, tours, anything they can. While they are official, and the prices are the same as you would pay at the main ticket office, they do not know their elbow from any other part of their anatomy when it comes to handicapped access. They just want to sell you a ticket so they will tell you whatever it takes to get you to buy. Every single thing we were told by these guys relating to handicapped access was wrong. Go to the main ticket office for each ride or trip you want to go on and get the information there.

Island Tours
There is a tram (or trolley tour) and a train (The “World Famous” Conch Train Tour) which offer narrated tours. Both are accessible, The trolley does the whole island and offers hop-on, hop-off to walkies but not to wheelies. The train does just old-town. On the advice of some friends we took the train. You need to go to the main ticket office at Duval and Front St. and tell them you want to go. Not ever train is accessible, but given an hour or two notice they will put one on for you. The same applies to the trolleys – not all are accessible and they need an hour or two to get one ready.

Boat trips
There are so many boat trips on offer that it gets confusing! A favorite trip is a day trip to the Dry Tortugas – islands off the coast with a fort and a national park. We did not do this in the end, but we did make some inquiries. We were told that the islands were of limited accessibility due to sand. The sea-plane that flies out there is not accessible unless you can walk up steps. Of the boats that go out there, the Yankee Freedom (www.yankeefreedom.com ) was accessible, the Sunny Days catamaran (www.sunnydayskeywest.com) was not.

Many boats offer snorkel trips to the barrier reef. We went with Seabago Catamarans (200 William Street * (305) 294-5687) who run two large catamarans. The larger one is more accessible but as luck would have it, they were running the smaller one the day we went out. Getting on and off required a couple of strong men to lift the chair onto a ramp and wheel me up it. Once on board I could get around the main seating area okay. To actually get into the water meant that I had to get out of the chair and drag myself to the front of the boat. They have steps there that the lower to the water, so it was fairly easy to slip down the steps into the water itself. The staff were friendly and helpful but had no experience with handicapped snorkeling, and since I had never done it before I was happy to just hang onto a few ropes at the back of the boat and peer into the water below. Not as exciting as the reef itself, but I was happy!

On the return journey we watched the sun set and drank complimentary beer, wine and champagne. There is no accessible toilet on board so be careful with those drinks!

There are at least two glass-bottomed boats. We took the Pride of Key West Glass Bottom boat (at 0 Duval St. – just walk down Duval until you can go no more and it’s there in front of you). The dock area was ramped, and again two crew members lifted me onto the ramp to board. Once on-board, there was plenty of space to maneuver in the main cabin. I could position myself to get a good view through the glass bottomed viewing areas. The boat goes out to the barrier reef or other areas near the island where fish are abundant and can be clearly seen through the bottom.

Honda Bahia State Park
Okay – this is not in Key West. It’s about an hours drive east of it on the way back towards Miami. We stopped there for a picnic on our way home. Note that it is a Florida State Park so no alcohol is allowed. There is a $6 charge per car for entrance. The park has a lovely beach (very calm waters, excellent for kids) with easily accessible picnic areas and accessible restrooms. It also offers a beach wheelchair for rent (free – but you need to leave a deposit). Inquire at the concession shop. I could not figure out how I would get onto it, and even if I got onto it I could not figure out how my wife would push me, but it might work for you! At least it’s there.

Places to Stay
There are quite a few chain hotels on the island. These tend to be on the Eastern end and are therefore a little bit away from Old Town. We wanted to stay close to the action and that proved a bit more difficult. The only B&B in old town that we could find that claimed handicapped access was the Angelina (www.angelinaguesthouse.com - on the corner of Angela St. and Thomas St., about two short blocks from Duval).

You need to have a walkie with you when you arrive (or call them) as the office and key-drop are not accessible. They have one handicapped room which is only accessible through a locked gate off Thomas St. When we arrived the room contained two queen beds which took up so much space that we had to move one to enable me to get to the bathroom. The management say they are swapping those out and replacing with a single King at the end of May 2005. The bathroom had a small lip (about 1” or 25mm). The door is a “pocket” (or sliding) door so it does not reduce maneuver space. The bathroom is spacious with a wash-basin, toilet with grab-bars and a roll-in shower. There is no shower seat so I took a plastic garden seat from outdoors and used that. The showerhead is fixed (they used to have a hand-held one but someone ripped it out! You can see where the fittings were).

The breakfast area is down one large (10” – 250mm) step, although there is a table on the same level as the room so if you have a walkie to get your breakfast for you, you do not need to negotiate the step. That single step leads you to the breakfast “fixin’s” area and two tables by the pool. The pool itself is down another two steps.

Eatin’, Drinkin’ and Makin’ Merry
Key West is a town for doing all three. It is impossible to cover all restaurants and bars and still maintain a liver in a usable condition but here are my observations.

Firstly, much of Old Town is (unsurprisingly) old. So the building are not accessible and have steps and small restrooms. However, many establishments have recently begun to make efforts to accommodate us. If there are steps look for signs pointing you to a ramped entrance at the side or back. Many places have this. Even if it looks inaccessible, ask as there may very well be a way in. The following is a list of the places I visited that are, to some degree or other, accessible:

Pepe's Cafe & Steak House
806 Caroline Street, Key West, Florida
Phone: (305) 294-7192
Café style restaurant/bar. Very popular. Serves Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Straightforward menu. Oysters are the specialty. Ramped entrance from Caroline St. In fact, the ramp is brand new. After I was seated at a garden table the manager came over to inform me that I was the very first wheelchair to use it. Didn’t get a free bottle of champagne to crack open though! The ramp leads into a garden seating area. There is a single step (about 8” – 200mm) into an indoor dining room. There is also a single step to the toilets and the doors are narrow. I did not attempt to use them.

Sunset Pier, Ocean Key Resort
Zero Duval Street, Key West, FL 33040
www.oceankey.com
American style food. Level access from Duval St. Outdoor seating on Pier. No accessible toilets.

Alonzos Oyster Bar (Raw Bar and Seafood)
Old Historic Seaport
700 Front Street, Key West, Florida
Phone: (305) 294-5880
www.alonzosoysterbar.com
Good seafood, large menu. Level access from seafront boardwalk to both outdoor and indoor dining. Accessible restrooms. Recommended.

El Meson de Pepe on Mallory Square,
410 Wall Street, Mallory Square
(305) 295-2620
Website: http://www.elmesondepepe.com/
Interesting menu of Cuban food. Locals consider it over-priced but it seemed okay to me. Great sandwiches and I loved the fried Plaintain. Level access from the Mallory Square end of the restaurant. Accessible toilets.

Blue Heaven Restaurant
729 Thomas Street, Key West , Florida
Phone: (305) 296-8666
www.blueheavenkw.com
A little off the beaten track this is a delightful restaurant. Although there may be an indoor part we ate in the outdoor area. Level access from Petronia St. The surface of the garden is a mixture of pavement, dirt, grass and sand and is a bit rough but I was able to get to my table without assistance. The staff toilet is accessible, but you will need to ask a member of staff to lead you there as it is a bit hidden away (and may be storing bottles of water!). Best meal we had in Key West although my opinion may be slightly colored by the 93 year old Madiera I splashed out on as a post-prandial!

Sloppy Joes
201 DUVAL ST, KEY WEST, FL 33040
www.sloppyjoes.com
Many, many establishments describe themselves as World Famous. In the case if Sloppy Joe’s it might actually be true. And they are accessible. Live music, food, drink, great bar atmosphere. I just had a few drinks and enjoyed the music.

Geckoes…?
Now this is a little embarrassing! This bar is between Sloppy Joes and Irish Kevins, but I can’t make out the name in my notes (in the interests of research I was hitting a lot of bars in a short time!). It looks like “Geckoes” but it could be anything – and I can’t find a Geckoes on the web! In any case, it’s accessible with accessible restrooms, had great music (not live) and a lovely bartender.

Irish Kevin’s
211 Duval St, Key West, Florida
www.irishkevins.com
Another great bar. The night I was there there was just one guy with guitar on stage – a genuine Irishman judging from his accent. To hear someone doing a U2 cover with an acoustic guitar and no backing is very impressive. No doubt my judgement was helped by the (by now Nth) Margarita! Accessible, but I did not try the restroom.

Bear Assets (or Bear Bottoms Beach Club)
281 Duval St., Key West, Florida
It was getting late so this was my last stop. Accessible from the street. I did not try the rest room. Good bar, live music. There is an “exotic dance” club upstairs but there is no elevator. If you are into that kind of thing I’m sure the bouncers will carry you up! (If you really are into that kind of thing, the similarly named “Bare Assets” club on Truman Road is a one story building that looked accessible. I did not try it!).

Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville
424A Fleming St, Key West, FL 33040
Office: 305.296.9089 Fax: 305.296.1084
www.margaritaville.com
Accessible and accessible restroom. A little anti-septic and touristy although the live band was good.

The Auto-Train - Washington D.C. to Orlando with Amtrak

Amtrak (www.amtrak.com) run a train they call the Auto Train from Virginia to Florida. It departs Lorton VA (about 45mins south of Washington D.C.) every day at 16:00 (4pm) and arrives at Sanford FL (about 40 minutes North of Orlando) at 08:30 the next morning. The reverse journey is the same – departs Sanford at 16:00 and arrives Lorton at 08:30. On the face of it it looks like a good way of covering a lot of ground. And that was how it turned out.

They offer seats or sleepers (for an extra charge) and handicapped accessible units are available. However, if you want handicapped accessible they must be booked by telephone (1-800-skip i95) – they cannot be booked on-line.

They request that you turn up about 2 hours before departure, so we did. We showed our tickets to the lady in the booth and she gave us a handicapped sign to hang on the rear-view mirror. We then left the car in the hands of the Amtrak staff and went into the station. In the station you get your boarding pass at the desk. Note that the dining car and lounge car on the train are not wheelchair accessible so you will need to request that you get meal service at your seat or in your cabin. It is also a good idea to request pre-boarding.

There’s not much in the station – a small and very expensive café and accessible toilets. About an hour before departure we were invited to pre-board. Getting on the train was easy, with a smooth and strong ramp provided by the staff.

We had reserved a sleeper. It was a very compact design consisting of a small room (6’9” x 9’5” or 2m x 2.9m) with a WC, a hand-basin and two seats facing each other across a small fold-away table. For sleeping, the two seats converted into a narrow berth (2’4” x 6’6” or 72cm x 2m) while an upper berth (2’0” x 6’2” or 61cm x 1.9m) could be folded down. We made the mistake of bringing four briefcase sized bags on board. There was barely room for them. It is advisable to stick to just one night bag for the journey. With the four bags squashed against one wall I was still unable to turn completely in the room. It is possible to pull a curtain across to separate the toilet from the seating/sleeping area, but nevertheless you need to be good friends with the person you are sharing with – it is a bit intimate!

Each car has an assigned staff member and in our case a very friendly lady called Priscilla looked after our every need. She brought us dinner, turned down the beds, and woke us with breakfast in the morning.

If you want to stay in your chair, there is a simple wheel lock that can lock the chair down. However, I found the rocking motion somewhat nauseating when in my chair and preferred to sit on one of the seats. The bed was comfortable and we slept well. It was pleasant to half-wake up during the night and hear the song of the wheels on the track and know that we were heading South and cutting hours off our driving time!

We reached Sanford about 15 minutes late/ Disembarking was as easy as getting on. The Sanford station has no more to offer than Lorton had, but it has accessible toilets. There is a wait while the Amtrak staff get your car and we did not get on the road until about 10:20.

All in all, the Auto Train was a very satisfactory experience and I would do it again without hesitation. But with just one bag the next time…