Austin City Limits 07 Accessibility Review
It's that time of the year for another great music festival and damn, Austin City Limits is a good one. It's big enough but not Bonnaroo big. The festival is hosted by Zilker Park and the two "main" stages are on opposite ends. The park grounds are much more wheelchair friendly compared to the farmland at Bonnaroo. At Bonnaroo, I ran into a lot of tire tracks and other uneven ground from the weeks of setup. For the most part, Zilker Park was pretty grassy and easy to roll over. I wasn't rocking out the big Kenda treads I was at Bonnaroo which I think definitely helped me out. My every day treads were good enough. I imagine they made it a lot easier to go uphill when switching between the two main stages throughout the day. At Bonnaroo, traveling between the two stages was a good workout. For us gimps at ACL, that damn hill is really the only pain in the ass. It's just steep enough that you don't want to tackle it head on. I found it best to go as far right as possible when heading towards the AMD stage. The hill felt smaller over there.
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the ROHO group
Recently I had to send my custom High Profile Single Compartment cushion in for repair. This would be the second time I've had to do this for a leak or a tear but this time was a little different. The compartment had come away from the bottom layer somewhere in the front so some of the cells would receive more air then others. Big problem and of course it looked weird because the cells would pop out the front cover and hang out between my legs. (I'll leave the joke for you.) So I sent it and called for a loaner but they only have the standard sizes available and the smallest size is just a little too big for my chair. So I've been rolling around on this horrible cushion I received years ago. Later in the week ROHO calls me back and let's me know the cushion is beyond repair for the original repair fee of $50 they will send me an entirely NEW cushion! The cushion retails for $405 I think so this was an absolutely amazing gift. Thank you ROHO!
the ROHO group mikeagimp rating: 5 out 5
Smirnoff Music Centre
I've never been to Smirnoff Music Centre and always thought it would be out in Frisco or somewhere around there opposed to just outside downtown Dallas. None-the-less, it was an alright venue. I usually don't dig outdoor venues simply because of the effects of weather and a few other different variables. Paul and I decided to do some serious pre-gaming before the Incubus show and so we arrived feeling quite good. Their was a ton of blue parking and most of it was pretty empty so we were feet away from the initial security gate.
When we first got to the security line this lady directed us to the left so I was thinking to myself, here we go, special treatment time but actually she was just showing us a less busier line. Immediately one of the security guy says he needs to check my bag (under my seat) and quickly kneels to do so. He says "Can't take the Coke in." Greaaat, we had a good bottle of Jim Beam mixed in there! Oh well, here's to paying $10 for two beers! This was a surprise because my under the seat bag has never been checked before at a venue like this. Hell, I've gone through airport security without removing it or having it searched a few times. No real loss though. I'm glad they checked it because Paul and I did not need any more liquor.
We made it to the ticket check safe-n-sound and the girl scanned our tickets. She didn't mention where we needed to go, where our "special" seating was, no map, signs, nothing. So we just rolled on in to figure it out ourselves. I had to take a leak so we veered left and found the restrooms. Their was one accessible stall. It was pretty damn clean because the venue had just opened up. The door opened outward and there was no trashcan. Well no trashcan anywhere in the restroom that I could find. Towards the end of the night I just started leaving my catheter stuff on the floor. I didn't want to put it back in my bag because who wants piss getting all over everything else. Well ... sometimes I'll do that but not here.
We then set out to find our seats. We headed for the first entrance we saw and quickly realized we were one section behind where we needed to go but surrounded by stairs. So we walked the entire length of the venue before popping out on the other side. I saw down in the middle of the venue what appeared to be another entrance and it was. Our seats were really nice, off to the right (center was for VIP) and pretty close to the stage. No complaints really. Even the companion seats were nicer then the usual metal/plastic ones.
Smirnoff Music Centre mikeagimp rating: 3 out of 5