Having been using an electric wheelchair since 6th grade, I sometimes forget about the fatigue factor of walking places. One such incident occurred while perusing the Mall of America with some friends. I would zip around, store to store, non-stop for all 4 floors of the mall. After about an hour of walking my , with my friends constantly reminding me to slow down so they could keep up, they finally had to take a breather.
However, the most memorable incident of this came when I tried to convince my friend Lisa, who is now my girlfriend, to come check out Olbrich Gardens with me. Lisa was new to Madison, and the gardens are quite scenic, and conveniently free. However, they are approximately a 3 mile walk from downtown Madison. And while the 40 minute ride at 8.5 MPH seemed quite leisurely to me, it slipped my mind that walking there might be quite tiring for someone else.
Things started off well enough on the trek. The first 6 blocks went by with relatively little problem. Lisa and I walked down the bike path just having a friendly chat. However, Lisa began to wonder how much further it was to the gardens. I assured her it wasn’t too far now.
We pressed on. The buildings and scenery rolled on past. It was a nice day and a pleasant walk, or so it seemed to me, but poor Lisa was dragging at this point, She was tired, thirsty, hungry, and a bit irritated at my misinformation.
We soldiered on. The last mile went slowly. We stopped several times. Lisa’s feet were sore, she could barely walk any further. I tried to reassure her that we were almost there (though I could tell that she was thinking “That’s what you said a mile ago”).
Finally we made it to the gardens. We had a nice time, enjoyed the scenery. And then … it came time to walk home…
This past weekend, we went to a wedding at the gardens. We took a taxi.
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