more travel

    We just completed our 3rd trip.  Since we will be going to PA on a regular basis, I am starting to really look at how to make life easier when we travel.  I know that as the kids get older, we want to take them on trips around the states.  So it is important to me to figure out how to travel.  Based on our travels so far and some really sound advice, I have divided "a good trip" into sections:
1.  Packing
2. A place to stay.
3.  Bowel/bladder
4. kids
   Lists - I am going to type up a master list and check it twice.  I would hate to get caught without meds or catheters.  Jarrad always says we will buy it if we need it but somethings you just can't walk into a Wal- Mart and get (maybe some stuff outside . . . ).  
   We stay at the Hampton Inn in PA. Before IT, we would stay at my folks house but that isn't happening now.   My folks offered to let us sleep in their room but there is no way that Jarrad would be able to use their bathroom.  As it is, when he needs to cath, he goes into their room and I empty the urinal.  Not a big deal.  But I know that he would miss not getting a shower.  If, however,  my vibrant family and adorable nieces and nephew wear him out, he crashes on my folks bed and I keep cuddling babies so that part works.  My dad made a ramp which brought me to tears because I don't have to pack the portable one and well, just the gesture was good to my heart.  My mom went and checked out local hotels for us and the Hampton Inn in Ephrata was the nicest that we could afford. We are now members so we should be getting a free night soon.  It is nice.  The staff are polite, rooms are clean and the breakfast is ok. They have a lift for the pool which makes Jarrad happy.  Not too far from a Wal-Mart, Urgent Care and the rest of the family.  
     Since we go up for several days, I bought a mattress topper to go on top of the bed because it is SUPER soft and you can kind of feel the springs - it is a hotel mattress after all - and I don't want Jarrad to get a pressure sore if a spring rubs him for a couple of hours during the night.  We take his pillow and they have enough extra for me to prop him up.  The bed is higher than ours so we make sure we have a sliding board for him to use.  It also doubles as tray if we need it.  If he just wants to stretch out, he uses the chase that is in the room.  Since all of the hotels are alike, I think we will try to find Hampton's for other trips as well.  We stayed at a Wynngate and that showed us that just because it says it is accessible doesn't mean that it will be accessible when you stuff it full of furniture and then refuse to take it out.  Harumph.
    We do take his shower chair.  I take it apart and put it in a duffel bag but I think that we are going to get a smaller one for travel. 

This is similar to what we have

This is similar to what we might get 

     I have talked to others who say that they don't bother with a chair.  Jarrad likes to have a chair - hence the smaller one.  He likes to shower and I don't always like the looks of the shower "benches" that I have seen.  I also haven't heard good things about the placement of benches at a lot of places. You can see that the bench is pretty low compared to the bench that we use.  And I even made our bench lower than his chair.  Also, see where the grab bar is?  I don't like it being so far forward.  Made me nervous.    What you don't see is the yoga mat that I throw in the duffel bag with the chair.  The curtain is a good 6 inches off the floor and with no curb - water goes everywhere.  The yoga mat gives us some traction. 
   This last trip, I did look around more critically at what we could use to make life easier - such as a caddy to keep things that correspond with bowel and bladder.   I am going to keep my eye out for something that can be "squished" and yet still keeps it form and can be washed.  I would want one for bowel and one for bladder.
    Kids.  Haven't figured out that one yet.  The good thing is that they stay at my folks house and I don't have to wrestle them to bed and keep yelling at them to go to sleep.  Not that I do that a lot now because usually they are worn out (and my parents put them to bed - hehe!) I don't know what we are going to do when we travel other places. Fortunately, I know we would ALL go to bed at their bed time but not all of us would go to sleep because it is just TOO much fun to be in a hotel room.  And the giggles and whispers and the "Mommy, he/she . . . " will make for  a long night.  
    Look, my eye is twitching just thinking about it!
    Any suggestions?