One time I needed to go about five miles from home so I decided to go in my manual chair. Joan told me I was nuts, but I didn’t have anything to do otherwise and thought I may as well make a day of it. I put a revolution counter on a wheel so I could calculate how far I went, marked the time, and took off. I not only went to the business that I had set out to do, but went through several stores and shops. On the first leg I calculated that I had averaged a little over nine miles per hour. At home I calculated the total mileage I had traveled and the total time out, including the times I was stopped. It calculated four and one-third miles per hour.

I told some friends about it and they did not believe me, so, another race... They carefully measured a section of roadway, started me at the beginning and started the stop watch. I did fourteen and a half miles per hour!. (Of course I did not tell them that I gave it everything I had...)