Steve Palmer

Steve Palmer, March 20, 2000 - "I took the chair out for some long term testing today and it did great. I took off down the sidewalk and on to a nearby busy road (on the shoulder) and since it was wet. I had to avoid occasional patches of soft mud by turning into grassy areas and climbing up back to the gravel shoulder. I would have taken this route all the way to the office building I was going to but a police car drove up and asked me a bunch of questions and told me I couldn't drive on the road.

After I explained to him that I was driving on the shoulder and where I was from etc. etc. He told me a better (safer) route to take to my destination. I took his advice and found the office. I had lots of fun being outside and this was the closest thing to taking a long walk I've had in years. I saw that my battery indicator wasn't past the second yellow light so I decided to go past home and see how it was to travel to another shopping plaza and make vet arrangements and maybe even grab a bite to eat. As I entered the parking lot I saw the same police officer in his car driving to get a hot dog (I had to wonder what he was thinking). I drove to the vet and got a great sandwich and drove home with charge to spare. Thanks for your individual attention to my case and I will keep in touch."

Steve Palmer, March 22, 2000 - "I got gutsy today on a local bike path. I went for a "walk" on this paved winding trial (built just last year) I couldn't help but wonder if this was like the test trails TEFTEC uses. With great weather lately, this was a very enjoyable ride. Nearing one end of this trail, I could see a very steep incline, as I approached it, I weighed the possibility of climbing it, I couldn't help but get excited as I came up to the base. I'm not the best at eyeballing angles but I do believe that hill was over 45 degrees! As I rolled up the base, I could hear the motor rpms slow considerably and I paid close attention to how the chair felt. To my delight the rpms leveled out at a low level and the chair smoothly continued up the incline as if it shifted into low gear. At the top of the hill, I couldn't help but let out a laugh of surprise and amazement. I tried not to think very long about the steep decline as I wheeled around and quickly descended. Today's outing gave me more confidence about driving outside and appreciation of the low gearing on my bariatric WmegaTrac®. Tom, I wanted to relate some comments my dad had after seeing my chair for the first time. My dad went to Art Center School in Ca. to be a car designer and ended up in product design and finally architectural design. I use dad as a resource for artistic and automotive design questions. He also has a lot of savvy about aircraft design (mostly from the world war years up to the 50s). This was a quote from him, "Your chair is one of the most beautiful pieces of design work I have ever seen, this includes custom autos, aircraft and boats."