Philadelphia Flower Show 2017...

Over the weekend, Mom and Amanda decided to go to the Philadelphia Flower Show. Mom was very excited on Sunday morning. Amanda called for a cab around 11:30am and they got into Center City around noon. There were a lot of road closures as the St. Patrick's Day parade was scheduled for this past Sunday. Due to road closures and detours, the cab driver had to let them off a couple blocks from the Convention Center.

Once Mom and Amanda arrived at the Convention Center, they had to turn in their tickets and get their hands stamped. It was a bit more walking than Mom had bargained for, so, Amanda went off in search of a scooter. Apparently, you cannot rent a scooter unless you call ahead and let the Convention Center staff know that you need a scooter. Eventually, Amanda returned with a wheelchair. The flower show exhibits were beautiful, but, the exhibit space was so small and there were so many people packed into the space, that maneuvering a wheelchair through the ignorant masses proved to be quite the challenge. Amanda was polite, but, at some point she had to push some people out of the way.

After a long, hard-fought battle through the flower show, Mom and Amanda got hungry. A food court was placed upstairs, but, getting upstairs in the wheelchair proved surprisingly difficult as there was only one elevator available to the public at the venue. There were other elevators on the premises, but, they were roped off as part of a private area reserved for Bank of America. As one could imagine, with one tiny elevator and so many people, the line to use the elevator was very long.

The food court was well-provisioned and Mom and Amanda had a decent meal. After a couple hours in the trenches, Mom was feeling that she could now scratch the Philadelphia Flower Show off her bucket list. The time came to call a cab to resue them from the flower show, but, Amanda's phone had run out of power and she was unable to complete the Lyft transaction. Mom called for a taxi, but, the dispatcher told her that no one wanted to pick them up. From 12th and Arch, Mom and Amanda walked up to Broad Street to catch the bus, but, when they got there, they found that the bus was detoured. As a last resort, Mom called Tony for rescue. Tony sent Anthony to pick up Mom and Amanda.

Overall, the Philadelphia Flower Show could have been a nice experience, but, Mom and Amanda came away with a negative impressions brought about by an overwhelming sense of disorganization on the part of staff members and organizers and a general lack of consideration for people with disabilities. So, we can scratch this event off our bucket list forever after.

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