Larry Adams has a zest for life and wants to share it.
“What a fun, strange trip it’s been”
Ethan and I met 12 years ago on the ski slopes of Steamboat Springs, Colorado….he, a first-time bi-skier, me an adaptive ski instructor. What started out as a typical day on the slopes has turned into a relationship that, over the past decade, has taken us traveling all over the US and abroad.
Together, we’ve climbed the Eifel tower in Paris, rubbed shoulders with celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival, and visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Some years we delve into nature. The two of us have seen humpback whales off the coast of Washington state, viewed bear and moose across the wings of an air taxi in Alaska, wallowed in the spray of Niagara Falls from the “Maid of the Mist boat”, hiked the Grand Canyon, boated Lake Powell, and the list goes on and on.
Next month, the two of us will be on the road again. Starting in Philly, we will be flying to the west coast with an itinerary that you won’t find in any travel brochure.
As an adaptive ski instructor for 18 years, traveling with my special needs clients was a natural progression. After all, each individual client was unique, with their own set of skills, limitations, needs, and goals. My selection to Colorado’s ski instructor of the year came, in part, to my ability to recognize and respond to these differences and needs. As the relationships with clients developed and grew, the trust and confidence implicit in negotiating around the adaptive world of a ski resort was expanded to include world travel.
Out of these trips has emerged Know No Bounds Travel and Transport, a company that supplies travel companions to all kinds of special needs individuals, from the wheelchair bound to the elderly, sick or injured. The companies long term goal is to become successful enough to donate the bulk of its trips to the Make-a-Wish foundation and the Hole-in-the-Wall-gang Camp.
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