Last week I went to Long Beach, California with Felix for the 2025 PSDP peer convention. This blog entry will be a summary of our adventures, and I’ll include a few pictures I and others took of me and Felix. More pictures that everyone submitted will be posted on the PSDP webpage later on once everyone has gotten their pictures in to me. Sorry I can’t remember who took each picture, so I won’t be able to attribute each picture.
My convention journey got off to an inauspicious start with Felix vomiting on the main vest I was planning to take to the convention. Luckily we were still at home and loading the car, so I was able to select another vest to bring.
I was sad to leave Brad, Tamara, and the girls (Hestia and Alice), but excited to embark on my adventure. Check-in and security at the airport in Charlotte went great. Normally when I fly with Felix, we fly to see my parents in Ohio, which is a 50-minute flight. Felix was nervous the entire flight. I thought for a 5.5-hr flight, he’d calm down eventually. But he did not. Nothing horrible, but I could tell he wasn’t doing well. He was panting a lot, and his back was hunched. He may also have been a bit motion sick or still feeling bad from throwing up earlier in the day.
When we got to LAX, there wasn’t a service animal relief area in our terminal, so I had to use the one outside. By the way, my wheelchair was not damaged, yay! So I went outside and if you don’t know, every terminal in LAX is a different building, and it is a long distance between each building. So I came out at terminal 5 and didn’t know where the relief area was. I started going towards terminal 4, but luckily soon found a map that the relief area was between terminals 7 and 8. So I put my wheelchair on high and zoomed over there. It took like 15 minutes to find it! And the whole time, we’re going over lots of rumble strips and other bumpy areas and curb cuts so my suitcase is falling over and I got a bruise from trying to hold it on my arm.
We did eventually find it, and it was a great relief area with dirt, artificial grass, water, a hydrant, a bench, etc. Here is a video:
From the service animal relief area, it looked like a short walk to LAXit which is where you go to catch a taxi or uber. Along the way to the relief area, I saw very long lines for the busses to LAXit with lots of wheelchairs. There are only two wheelchair spaces on each bus. So I decided to just roll over to LAXit. It only took 5 more minutes, so was not a big deal at all.
I tried for an Uber WAV or Lyft WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle), but none were available so I went to the taxi stand and got one within 5 minutes. It took an hour to drive 17 miles to the hotel!!!!!! And cost me $96 (I luckily had a scholarship to pay for this kind of expense). The driver gave me his contact info and said if I need any other rides, give him 24 hrs advance notice, which was great.
I saw Allison and Deanna as I was getting out of my cab, and we hung out for a short while before I went to my favorite restaurant, Blue Bowl, for dinner, then fell right asleep. I did get a short video of Felix wearing his new wing patch from Allison and Deanna, though, on my way to Blue Bowl!
I woke up with a migraine on Thursday, and even two doses of meds didn’t make it go away. So I hung out a bit with Allison, and Felix tried on one of Piper’s vests LOL! It is huge on him, since Piper is a Bernese Mountain Dog.
I did get to meet up with Linden and go on a walk, then I took a 3-hour nap. I met up with Karin for dinner, and that was that.
Friday was the day most people started arriving. We met up with Linden a bit in the morning I think, then went to lunch with Deanna, Allison, and Deanna’s husband Chris. I got a few pictures of us on the patio with Allison afterwards. Felix was looking grumpy!
When we got back, we hung out on the patio with Karin, Linden, and Dave. Dave got some pictures of me, Karin, and Linden, plus a great one of sleepy Felix!
Everyone else needed a rest, so Karin came up to my room to organize her things she made for goodie bags in my room, and got a great picture of me holding Callie, her Brussels Griffon.
Friday night, several of us went to get dinner at the Hangar (local food court) and bring it back to the hotel to eat. No pictures, but we did have fun eating and chatting with the new people as they arrived.
Unfortunately there were zero pictures with me in them on Saturday, which is a shame because I was wearing sequins LOL. But we had a really good first day to the convention. There were a few times dogs had minor issues with other dogs, but it was always easily handled by creating a little space and doing a little training. It was really a great group of dogs, with very little issues! We had a great time doing circle discussions and talking and hanging out.
There was one big issue, though, which is that they put peanut butter out at breakfast! We have a strict no nuts policy at the convention. And they didn’t have any gluten free or vegan products for dessert with lunch, contrary to our arrangement. I did get a picture of my lunch mates with Felix looking grumpy as usual in my pictures. I ate with Heather and Karin!
Luckily they had a great selection of desserts for the ice cream social. There were some left over, but the hotel fridges didn’t have freezers, so we couldn’t take them.
Sunday we started the day with the public access test or PAT. We had a really fun time giving the PAT. Karin and Heather were my assistants. We had a really nice group of dogs take the PAT. Here are some pictures from it that include me!
Sunday was the last official day of the convention. We had some great discussions, and especially some role play about how to handle potential tricky situations. I was particularly proud of my response as a potential volunteer trying to get a nonprofit to accept me as a volunteer!
A few people got pictures during the circles, and of me giving Allison her PAT certificate and medal during the last session of the day. I know Deanna got a better picture, but she hasn’t gotten me pictures yet so you’ll have to wait for the PSDP pictures to see that LOL!
I was super tired after the convention was over, so I went straight to bed again.
Monday morning we had a community outing day at Seal Beach! I hung out with Linden and Danny in the morning, and got some more Blue Bowl for breakfast, then went outside to catch my cab. I had reserved the cab more than 24 hrs in advance to take me to Seal Beach, bring me home, and take me to the airport the next day.
As the driver was letting me out of the cab at Seal Beach, he informed me he could not pick me up, and I’d have to call dispatch for a ride. If you’re not aware, getting a wheelchair accessible taxi from dispatch is nearly impossible. So I called and made a reservation, hoping that they’d have someone available. They said they’d pick me up at 2PM.
We had a wonderful but very cold time at Seal Beach! It was probably in the low 60s and Felix was so cold when we were on the windy pier that I had to zip him into my jacket! Here are some pictures of us walking on the pier and around Seal Beach. You can see at one point Felix was even hiding in my jacket he was so chilly!
My small wheelchair was too big to fit into any of the shops—I was afraid I’d break something because of their too-narrow aisles! So I stayed outside and chatted with others while some people went to shop.
At 2PM, everyone but Danny, Myco, and I left. Danny and Myco very nicely said they’d stay around with me until my cab arrived. I waited until 2:10 to give the cab dispatch a call to see what was up. They said they still hadn’t assigned a driver, and that it could be hours before I was picked up!!!!!!
I said no way, José! So since my wheelchair does come apart, I figured I could get an Uber XL and definitely fit it in the trunk. But there were no Uber XLs available. Of course there were no wheelchair Ubers available. Next I tried to get an Uber Assist where they help you with your medical equipment. But none were available. So I crossed my fingers and reserved a regular Uber.
I did message him ahead of time that I was in a wheelchair and it should fit in the back of his car, but his car was kinda compact so I was hoping more than knowing.
He arrived and was the nicest guy! When I was having trouble fitting my wheelchair in the trunk, he said he could put down the back seats of his car to fit it easily, and I could ride up front with him! So we had no trouble at all! We had a great conversation about service dogs, and he said Felix was his first service dog, and that it didn’t even occur to him that a SD would be a problem.
I asked him how much he was getting for the ride, and while Uber charged me $24, he only got $9! So you can bet I tipped him another $9 on top of that to make up for all the hassle!
I told him how my taxi driver from yesterday essentially abandoned me at Seal Beach, and he said if the driver didn’t come tomorrow to give him a ring and he’d be there in 20 minutes. After he left and I talked with Brad on the phone, I asked myself why I would give money to the accessible taxi driver who abandoned me when I had a perfectly nice guy willing to drive me who was fun to talk with and I really enjoyed.
So I texted him and told him I’d rather give him my money than the taxi, and made reservations with him to take me back to the airport the next morning.
I hung out with Karin and Linden that night, got more Blue Bowl LOL, and went to bed early again.
The next morning I did get to hang out with Linden one last time, then I packed up and left.
Since I knew where the relief area was, I had my driver drop me close to there. Felix peed and pooped for a second time (which made me so happy so I knew he wouldn’t be uncomfortable on the plane!), then we started the 10–15 min trek to our terminal. It took me an hour to get checked in and through security…only for me to find out they had switched my flight to another terminal!
I had to go all around on secret elevators and through underground tunnels to get to the right terminal. But I finally got there! And due to my planning for traffic but there being practically none, I was at my gate 2 hours early.
I decided to try to find the service animal relief area. There was a sign, but it just took me in circles. So I asked. Turns out I had to take three elevators and go down another long tunnel and a long hallway to get to the relief area. On the way, I saw that the LAX airport uses Whill wheelchairs (my model of wheelchair) to automatically drive people to their gates instead of having people push them. I saw a wheelchair on its way back to home base and had to get a video. Unfortunately I got in its way!
Eventually we got to the relief area, which was pretty good. Here is a video of that:
Felix was much happier on the way back. I don’t think he slept any, but he was comfortable when we weren’t having turbulence. He was stressed during turbulence, but OK when we were smoothly flying.
It was a long, long flight home, and I was so tired that when I got home I just fed him and fell in bed without even brushing my teeth!
What a trip! And I’m still recovering, a week later! But I’m so happy I got to see old and new friends and help a lot of people have good convention experiences. There’s nothing like it!