TWE: Traveling While Elderly

 TWE: Traveling While Elderly

Nothing reinforces the classification of “elderly” faster than a vacation at 79. According to an AI search, the term “elderly” kicks in around age 65. The fact that this vacation was partially to celebrate my upcoming 80th birthday doesn’t do justice to the mindset that somehow equated the words celebrate and vacation in the same thought process. Before you get the wrong idea, the vacation was wonderful. It’s great to know that you can still test the limits of human endurance and come home in one piece. You see, when you are retired, you don’t need a break from the rigors of your chosen profession. You are already on a permanent vacation from work. Why put yourself through the stresses of getting out of your comfort zone to explore new adventures? Hopefully, you have already done most of that while you were young enough to enjoy traveling. At this stage it is more to prove you are still alive than anything else.

We took a 10-day cruise from Seattle to Alaska. I came back with 5,765 pictures, 293 video clips, 6 extra pounds, and a cold. We got home after an 11 p.m. Uber ride from the airport. We had just flown from Seattle to Minneapolis-St. Paul with what was supposed to be a one-hour layover. With delays due to the busy Labor Day holiday traffic, our flight was delayed out of Seattle and our connection from MSP to MIA was at another gate in another terminal across the airport. OJ Simpson couldn’t have made that run, but of course, he’s dead. We landed late and my knees were not ready for a mad dash with carry-on luggage. MSP had recently removed all moving sidewalks or anything else that would have made that task any easier. The luck of the Irish prevailed however, and as we emerged from the disembarkation tunnel, we saw a man driving a courtesy shuttle cart who stopped and asked if we would like a ride. I would have kissed him but wouldn’t want him to get my recently developed cold.

Throughout our trip we took our time to walk from the ship on gangways that seemed always uphill in either direction. This was often the actual case as tide changes and floating docks can do such things. A few times my cane granted us access to electric courtesy carts that saved the knees that probably should have been replaced years ago.

Our vacation actually started at Miami International Airport where our first leg to Seattle was to take us through Atlanta. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time but saw that our flight was going to be slightly delayed. When it was delayed a second time due to bad weather in Atlanta it was apparent that our connection to Seattle would be taking off when we would be landing from Miami. I called Delta and tried to arrange an alternative. Her first offer was a much later flight out of Atlanta in coach, not first class. Another requirement for the elderly, if affordable, is first class seats. Sitting in cramped seating torture devices designed for skinny midgets and having to make several in-flight trips to the rest room, makes travelling miserable. I then asked the Delta representative if she knew of another airline that could get us to Seattle in first class. She then came back with a Delta flight that was non-stop MIA to SeaTac with two open first class seats that would leave out of MIA at 5 p.m. and get us to Seattle by 11 p.m. their time. All was right with the world again. All except for the fact that this was the flight originally suggested by Sue which I didn’t want. I was reminded of that fact rather quickly. As it turned out, our seats on this full flight were not together but the person who reserved the seat next to Sue was the only no-show. I was able to move from 1A to row 3 to be with Sue. If you are old, you need a little luck in your travels.

The next part of our trip was on an NCL cruise ship from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska. We were several hours into that portion of the trip when the captain announced that we would be turning around due to a medical emergency. Apparently, a passenger was to be air lifted by the Canadian Coast Guard by helicopter and they needed to get to a more sheltered area for the helicopter to land on deck. While the helicopter landing on deck was interesting, it delayed our arrival in Juneau, and we missed our first excursion for whale watching. We would see whales on another excursion so the mandatory Alaska-whale sighting box could be checked. Actually, on that excursion we missed seeing bears, but got close enough to a breaching whale who spouted, and we could smell his “breath.” Imagine large quantities of slowly digesting fish in an aerosol spray. I passed on the salmon that night and had the steak.

We had non-NCL excursions planned for each of our six ports. We tried to select the ones that were the easiest to get to and didn’t involve long walks carrying camera gear. All would involve climbing into and out of various conveyances. Busses, vans, gondolas, boats, trains, and one pedicab all meant some climbing up and down steps with handholds that were always on whichever side you didn’t have a free hand. The description of “moderate physical ability” would mean many different things to different vendors.

All in all, my elderly classification has to be placed in perspective. There were plenty of non-elderly folks riding dozens of electric scooters moving people around the ship and to shuttle busses that stored these scooters underneath. With the exception of a few courtesy carts and my cane, I still managed to survive the rigors of a ten-day cruise within a two-week vacation.

Our last excursion was in Victoria, Canada, in a pedicab supplemented with e-bike propulsion. I misjudged the weather as the temperatures were supposed to be in the upper 60s. I found that my short-sleeved shirt and thin vest did not keep me warm enough when we were in the shade near the water in the wind. While I saw others in t shirts and shorts, this Miami boy got cold. While exposure to cold weather can’t directly cause illness, it does weaken your immune system. Luckily, my cold symptoms held off until we were leaving Seattle on our way home. Two days later and the coughing subsided with the help of some Mucinex.

Well, now it’s time to get to editing those pictures and videos. That should keep me busy for a few weeks. As an aside, when we left the news media was all abuzz with the Epstein case. Two weeks later, after an almost total news blackout, we return home to find out they are still talking about the Epstein case. I guess we didn’t miss much.