It’s that time of the week again! Throwback Thursday – when I finally get around to sharing photos from not-terribly-recent trips. This week, it’s Hawaii, which I visited over Christmas and New Year’s in 2016/2017. This was almost two years after I was diagnosed with … Continue reading Hawaii, part one (December 2016)
It’s that time of the week again! Throwback Thursday – when I finally get around to sharing photos from not-terribly-recent trips. This week, it’s my trip to the Cayman Islands, which took place in November of 2015. This was my first trip outside the USA … Continue reading Cayman Islands (November 2015)
So, we have another COVID variant out there. This one seems to be named after a Transformer (I think it’s called Megatron or something). As if I weren’t already reluctant to start planning next year’s travel. Then again, my idea for next year’s travel starts with Flerida, and I seem to recall Flerida being one of the first states to re-open after the initial COVID panic.
When that initial COVID panic hit about a year and a a half ago, I had already booked a trip to Texas for April of that year. I had pre-paid some of the hotels, through Hotwire.com. The way Hotwire worked (at the time, anyway) was that you pre-paid in order to get the lowest prices, and there was no refund if you wanted to cancel. Obviously, when the governments shut down travel, Hotwire had to refund a LOT of pre-paid hotel stays. Combine the sheer volume of people contacting them for refunds with the fact that they weren’t accustomed to giving refunds to begin with, and Hotwire turned into a gigantic rat fuck. To their credit, I got my refunds, but it took several weeks. Since then, I do NOT pre-pay hotels (unless the traditional reservation would be super expensive, or there’s just nothing available). Even once COVID becomes a thing of the past, there’s just too much of a chance that something related to Parkinson’s will pop up and force me to cancel a trip. To me, the small savings is just not worth the gamble.
In June of 2015, I travelled to Clarkston, Washington to take a jetboat tour of Hells Canyon – the deepest canyon in North America. That’s right…deeper than the Grand Canyon (but not nearly as wide). I picked exactly the wrong dates to go, as the … Continue reading Hell’s Canyon (June 2015)
In June of 2015, I embarked on what I dubbed my Roller Coaster Bucket List Tour, which consisted of five amusement parks in five states. My first stop was Silverwood in Athol, Idaho. To get there, I took a flight to the nearby city of … Continue reading Spokane (June 2015)
Today is my roller coaster day! I will be visiting Dollywood, primarily to try out the amazing-looking roller coaster known as Lightning Rod. This will be my third visit to Dollywood, which is a beautiful park with a surprisingly excellent selection of coasters.
Dollywood has also played an important role in my figuring out how to continue enjoying amusement parks as my age and my Parkinson’s continue to advance. I’m not full-on diabetic, but I have occasionally experienced what appeared to be low blood sugar episodes. During my first visit to Dollywood (which was before my Parkinson’s diagnosis), I learned the importance of staying “sugared”. After just a few rides, I found myself feeling quite woozy and sick to my (empty) stomach. But after a quick lunch, I felt great! For a while. Then I started feeling dizzy and weak. But after drinking enough water to fill Dolly’s bra (and she didn’t make it easy), I felt great again! My next visit to Dollywood (maybe 4 years ago?) was the first time I tried taking “extra” Carbidopa-Levodopa pills – three pills with each dose that day, rather than my normal two pills – again with excellent results. (This was OK’d by my Parkinson’s doctor, by the way.) Finally, it was three years ago at Silver Dollar City (Dollywood’s former sister park) when I first recognized my propensity to overheat, and quickly found out how easily it could be remedied. So as long as I stay hydrated, sugared, Levodoped-up, and cool, it should be a good day.
For my first attempt at blogging an actual trip, I left my dog with friends and headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. So, what’s the first thing I did after abandoning my dog, Bear? I went to Ober Gatlinburg to see… More bears! But getting here was … Continue reading Gatlinburg, Day One
Voyages with Parkinson's 