A Special Needs Traveler

I didn't know if retirement would bring more or less travel opportunities.  I suspected that the 1 to 2 times a month that I used to fly for work would be more than made up by trips related to our family.  Then when Carolyn retired, we would even travel more as seeing the world is on her bucket list.

Developing a disability that affects your walking is a life changing event.  But that isn't the same as a life ending event.  I really thought that my Parkinsons Disease would permanently prevent my traveling - at least by airplane.  Well, Carolyn has convinced me otherwise.  In fact, I can enjoy traveling more now than ever before.   The secret is time and assistants.

With my disability, it takes longer for me to do things, from dressing to eating to packing.  By planning in this extra time, I find that I'm actually less stressed about getting to the airport on time.  Carolyn has been really good about building in this extra time.

Carolyn is the number 1, best assistant I could ever have while traveling.  It makes more sense for her to handle everything from the tickets to the boarding passes to the tips to the ground transportation.  I am put in a wheelchair as soon as we enter the airport terminal and, except for a short walk through security, stay in the wheelchair until I board the airplane.  When we land I'm put in a wheelchair as soon as I walk off the plane.  I don't have to know where I'm going or how to get there.  Carolyn and the wheelchair attendant take care of all that.  I don't worry about my luggage.  Carolyn and the wheelchair attendant take care of that.  I don't worry about tipping the attendants.  Carolyn takes care of that.  I don't worry about getting an early boarding time.  My disability takes care of that.

I do still have to worry about what's in my pockets.  At the Phoenix airport I was certain that I had emptied all my pockets.  But the walk through machine thought otherwise.  So I was intimately patted down.  The officer asked me to empty a pocket that I thought was already empty.  It contained a pop-up Frisbee I had completely forgotten about.  The world is safer now that I revealed my Frisbee to the inspector.

(12 inch diameter Frisbee unfolded and folded in a little pocket)