Day One of my vacation from Parkinson's Disease

On Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 4:30 am, I decided to take a vacation.  My step-daughter, Lynn, who is nearly my age was coming for a visit and I decided that I would NOT have Parkinson's Disease for the four days she would be here.  

Montelucia Resort

We left the house at 7 am and drove 182 miles to the 4-star Resort in Scottsdale AZ where she had spent the weekend on business (she had flown in on Friday from Orlando FL). The first 165 miles were easy (nothing but desert and cactus), the last 17 miles weren't. She showed us around the resort and treated us to a late breakfast.  The service was excellent as was the food, but they had trouble locating a straw for me (I guess most people don't use straws at breakfast). My shaky hands apparently didn't get the NO PD memo.  We left right after eating and headed back home, the first 20 miles were terrifying and stopping for gas was just your average nightmare.  

An hour or so later, we stopped in Gila Bend, AZ, and had an ice cream cone, took a bathroom break and snapped a picture of the town's humorous Welcome sign.  Lynn was beginning to realize that she was in the middle of nowhere and Yuma was only 100 miles farther into nowhere.

Freida's yummy cake

We arrived at our house at 3:30 pm and I wanted a nap, but instead, I washed some clothes for Lynn and showed her around our home. At 5:30 pm, we went over to our neighbors for dinner.  Sharon made Cornish Hens, broccoli and rice pilaf and Freida made Caesar salad and Lemon creme cake. I don't know what their Husbands did, probably set the table and dug up the extra chairs.  Lynn was seated next to me and instantly cut up my Hen so that I could eat it (she remembered my troubles with knives).  

 We sat around gabbing and telling stories and then we played a game where we each drew a picture of a pig and learned all about ourselves from our drawings.  My piggy looked like he was doing a wiggle dance.  Then I taught everyone how to draw a swan by making a number 2 and Freida showed us how to draw a 3-dimensional box. 

How to make a swan from a number 2

Pretty soon it was late (for us) and we drove Lynn to a nice hotel nearby (not a 4-star resort, but nice).  We decided she'd be more comfortable there, especially with me wandering around the house in the middle of the night.  


By the time we got back home, it was 11:30 pm and I was ready for bed.  I had been up for 19 hours.  I had survived Day One of my Parkinson's vacation.

Thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it. This is just one of a hundred stories in my book, Parkinson's Humor - Funny Stories about My Life with Parkinson's Disease. Please consider purchasing a copy from Amazon.com or your favorite online book seller. Thank you and have a Happy Parkie Day!