Given the difficulty of travelling farther (finding accessible hotel rooms that can accommodate the hoyer, the chair, and have a roll-in shower), we’ve taken to a series of local trips while building funds for a trip abroad.
As Dubuque is a short 90 min trip from Madison, my wife and I have gotten a ride to Dubuque to tour the town. We had a fun time and saw some great sites.
Downtown Dubuque
The downtown was quaint and has some fun businesses: a great library (my wife is working on her Masters in Library Science and loves touring libraries).
River Museum & Aquarium
The River Museum and Aquarium is great with fun activities for all (including a sting-ray petting tank, working model boats that can be operated, and many other attractions). Phenomenal accessibility throughout the museum.
Boat Cruise
A different day I went back and tried a river cruise. The cruise itself was great (a $25 happy-hour cruise), and had fun sights. However the metal ramp they used to board the boat was super steep (not remotely ADA compliant and my power chair had to be pushed by the crew, who were extremely nice and helpful), and the cabin had a 3 inch block to get over (leaving me out on the front bow). It’s unfortunate, that for so many ships a few minor tweaks could have made this a super-accessible cruise. For example, incremental ramps with wooden platforms would have made a configurable and scalable ramp, that could easily be configured, moved and/or stored away, on the extremely large dock space. Also, the bump (which was just part of the metal of door frame), could be cut away and put on a hinge and latch.
Mines of Spain park/natural area
The Mines of Spain natural area had a phenomenal accessible trail (paved and wide, ending with a large sundial looking out over the prairie).
The nature center was harder to get to in my wheelchair (steep driveway).
Eagle Heights park
A breathtakingly scenic park, overlooking the Mississippi. Great accessibility, if you drive to the top, but it was difficult to find the path to the restrooms (the mini recreation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture had multiple levels than ended in random steps and stairs).
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