My very first outing!

Wowee wow wow! Oh my gosh, it's so great! I'm
really, really happy with the Bot. No buyer's
remorse going on here!

I spent a good 5 hours in it today. About 1:30
I left to pick up my daughter. Her school is
about a 3 minute car drive from my house. Although
I could push myself in my manual chair all the way
there, I've only done that once because it's a killer
on my shoulders. Today I drove the Bot there.
I started out in balance mode, but it was just too
slow. I don't remember what the top speed in
balance mode is, but I think it is about 3mph.
So I went down to standard function. I think
top speed for standard function is 6 or 8 mph.
I didn't go that fast because I didn't want to
run over any small children or anything. I
probably went there at a speed between 4 to 5 mph.
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was so incredibly
nice to not drive in my car to pick her up. I can't
even tell you how fantastic it felt... Okay, so
then I got to the school and I went into Balance
Mode. That's when the crowds gathered. All the
parents and the kids thought it was super cool.
Parent's jaws were hanging open. Kid's eyes were
popping out of their heads. Normally I don't
like attention, but I was really happy to show
it off. A few people had seen it on TV, but
most people had no idea such a thing existed.
People were in awe.

After talking to people about it for quite a
while, I put it into 4 Wheel Drive and I went
through the field. That was great. It was
a bit bumpy, but not too bad.

Then my daughter and her friend and I went
to the Farmer's Market. I was in Balance Mode
and I saw a few people I knew and they were
very excited for me. Most people didn't pay
much attention - to my surprise. I heard
people talking about it and some people said
things like, "That's really cool" to me and
"wow!", but mostly people didn't seem to even
notice. One thing about getting this iBOT that
had me concerned is that I thought I'd be a
freak show everytime I was in Balance Mode,
but I didn't feel weird at all. In fact, I
felt LESS weird than when I'm in my manual
chair because I was as tall as most of the
adults. THAT was major cool. Oh man, I
can't get over how nice it is to not be
at butt level! Another thing that was neat
was being able to see things better. For
example, we stopped and got some goodies
at a bakery booth, and I could easily see
the things displayed on the table. I could
also talk to the vendors without yelling
to them, and that was great. I wish I
could describe better what it was like.
I just don't have the words to explain how
wonderful it was.

Okay... after that we walked my daughter's
friend to her house. At one intersection
there was not a curb cut, so I put it in
4 wheel drive and I went down a curb! That
was neato. I didn't have to go looking
for a driveway or a different corner with
a curb cut.

So then we hung out in the driveway at my
daughter's friends house for a bit and I
went back into balance mode and I rocked
back and forth and I spun in circles. It
spins in a very tight circle when in Balance
Mode and I made myself dizzy. I kind of
felt like a little kid spinning in circles.

We headed for home after that. I showed
it off to some neighbors. One of my
neighbors really wanted to see me go up
and down stairs. I don't have the technique
down quite yet, so it was bumpier than it
should have been, but I did it. Here are a
few photos of me going up the neighbor's
front steps.

Here I am preparing to go up the first
step:


I know video would be nicer here, but I haven't
figured out how to upload a video yet. I will
soon though!

In this photo, you can see the tires in front
going up and over the back tires which then landed
on the first step.


And in this photo you can see the wheels have landed on
the first step.


I'll be going up a flight of stairs this evening and I'll have my
daughter do a video of it so I can post it tomorrow.

The following photos are in Balance Mode.







I do think the Balance Mode is my favorite feature.