A golf cart ride through the local roads in our area is a great way to take a mini vacation and enjoy some sun and the outdoors. One evening just two days ago, Jamie and I enjoyed it immensely! It was a welcome and refreshing break from weeks of my working in the basement office due to the coronavirus quarantine. As I am writing this, I am reminded that we should have been heading out to DISNEYLAND tomorrow. Bummer – guess we need to continue to find our fun close by.
We bought an electric golf cart a few years back to tool around the neighborhood in and add a different activity to do with Jamie. It sported lights, turn signals, and a windshield complete with a wiper and reached a top speed of around 20 MPH. It has been a blast riding with her and she could get in and out reasonably well due to its low height. For her security, we rigged up her 4-point seatbelt harness from her school bus riding days and buckled her in each time we would go out. A golf cart ride is a wonderful way to get those with limited mobility some quality outdoor time.
The New Ride
The employee who delivered it mentioned they set the top speed to 12 MPH, but he also showed me how to modify it to go a little faster. I did so and I think it now goes nearly as fast as the electric one we had. Oh, I’ll add that this thing goes about 200 miles on a tank of gas, so we extended our range to unlimited and opened up the rural area surrounding our neighborhood for low speed exploration.
Buckling Up and Off We Go!
Now, you are probably asking yourself how we rigged it up so that a low-tone person could take a golf cart ride. I am not expert at modifying golf carts for wheelchair riders and I had to get creative to some extent. I connected Jamie’s harness to the bar behind the passenger’s seat, but it was not pretty. It seems quite secure though. Below you can see how it sort of hangs on the seat and what it looks like with Jamie buckled in:
Now, sporting a slight smile and draping her leg over mine, we are ready to be off on a sweet golf cart ride:
Since we have been cooped up in the house from the quarantine, we make it a long one and head out to the farming areas. It is refreshing to see new life in the spring and passing by a young colt adds to the ambience:
Lucky Jamie rode around twice today since her mom took her out only a few hours earlier. Hey, golf cart rides are fun!!