With one bus, a token, and a senior bus pass, the family walked out the door of the Ronald McDonald House.
They walked down to Thirty-ninth and Chestnut Streets to take the SEPTA Bus to downtown Philadelphia.
The long-awaited bus comes to a screeching halt.
The driver immediately spots the little girl in the wheelchair.
The front door remains closed as he walks to the center of the bus to lower the lift.
When the lift is level with the road, the bus driver gets out and wheels the little girl onto the ramp.
He raises the lift back up and rolls the wheelchair into place. He buckles and straps the little girl in.
The bus driver struggles to keep his cap on because the little girl in the wheelchair keeps pulling it off.
The little girl had everyone on the bus in stitches.
When the bus driver completes his task, everyone on the bus claps because of his patience with the little girl.
The bus driver walks back to the front of the bus, opens the front door, and lets the rest of the passengers board.
Passengers are putting tokens or cash fares into the transit system as the bus scurries away, or scanning their bus passes.
The buses rule the narrow roads as they travel downtown.
A conversation between the little girl's grandmother and an older woman began.
The woman said, "I once went to the hospital to hold the babies, but they would not let me because I did not have insurance." They missed a great opportunity."
The bus arrives at Sixteenth Street, and the little girl is wheeled again to the chairlift and onto the sidewalk.
The family thanked the driver, he opened the front door again, the passengers boarded the bus, and he scurried down the street.
At Liberty Square, the family visits the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the grave of Benjamin Franklin.
The family decides to take the seventy-minute amphibious DUCK.
There is no chair lift; the little girl has to be lifted onto the Duck, and her wheelchair is left behind.
The little girl squeals with laughter as the wind hits her face, and when the DUCK hits the water, she squeals even louder.
It was very dark when the DUCK ride ended.
The family pushes the little girl safely back to Sixteenth Street, then rides the bus to Chestnut and Thirty-ninth Street.
The family arrives at their stop, the little girl and her wheelchair are unloaded, and the family walks safely back to the Ronald McDonald House.
There has been a lot of violence going on outside the downtown area of Philadelphia.
Just the day before, there had been a police officer shot in the face during a routine traffic stop.
The next day, the family takes a taxi to the airport.
After the mother pays the taxi driver, she soon realizes that she has been taken to the wrong airport.
The mother takes out her cell phone and calls Angel Flight. Angel Flight, in turn, calls the pilot and tells him what happened.
Angel Flight told the family to stay where they were, and the pilot was on his way.
Angel Flight is a free service (provided by privately owned airplane pilots) that volunteers its services to people with children with special needs.
The little girl had to be loaded and unloaded onto three different airpanes. She didn't mind, for she was going home.
