Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category
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[caption id="attachment_4233" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Capitol building in DC"]
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Memorial day came early during our visit and today, our third day in DC, was the day it came for us. Spring break was over and the various memorials were once again accessible without hindrance from bored teenagers clogging the halls and walkways. A few tour groups remained and I found it somewhat sad that the tour youngsters experienced such little interest in the sacrifices that our ancestors endured in order to achieve the freedoms and prosperity that all we now enjoy. Pleading the tour guides tried to capture their attention but were seldom successful at the memorials. Except while visiting a hi-tech exhibit such as the Air and Space museum they'd roll their eyes before ignoring the guide in order to "discuss" their social lives. i guess Memorial day is a good day to post this report.
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The time has come to relate our wheelchair adventures visiting the nation's capitol using public transportation. Prior to arriving grandma and I investigated trying to tour the White House, the Capitol building, and the Washington monument among other ideas. We found out that you need to make arrangements through our representatives or senators at least a month in advance and we had waited until it was too late. We could have bought tickets to ride to the top of the Washington monument but by the time we knew about the tickets they were all gone. This didn't deter our son. -
[caption id="attachment_3723" align="alignleft" width="195" caption="Our son with me and my wheelchair"]
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Forward, on with the adventure ! The time has come to reveal all (well, almost all – I do have some secrets). My previous posts alluded to some of these adventures in our nation's capitol. The experience was a bit different than we expected.
OOPs, I don't want to get ahead of myself so I'd better start at the beginning with our arrival at Union Station in Washington, DC (I tend to think way faster than I write and by the time I finish writing a thought I often forget the next thought so I'm trying to slow things down while I write). The weather was nice upon arrival. In fact the weather in DC was quite pleasant for most of our visit though on a couple of occasions it did get a bit windy and cool.
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[caption id="attachment_3175" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Adventure Begins"]
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AMTRAK had the privilege of hosting our initial journey and an interesting journey it turned out to be. Much different than our pre-trip expectations. We had originally planned to visit Washington, DC and then follow it up with a Panama Canal cruise. As it turned out we couldn't actually carry out such an ambitious journey but, in hindsight, that turned out to be a blessing. Even our reduced itinerary was almost more stress than I could cope with because of my MS.
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[caption id="attachment_3156" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Grandpa Oddball at the FDR memorial"]
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We're back !! Our ten day adventure has ended and we're still alive and kicking (barely). As the regular blog readers know our original plans had to be scrapped so we had to devise a fallback plan. In hindsight this was a good thing because we made a lot of planning and travel mistakes. For example, while both grandma and I talked about taking along a gait belt in the end we both forgot to put it on our pre-trip lists.
Anyway it was a good trip to visit our son whom I hadn't been able to visit for years due to my illness. Our scaled back trip commenced with a three day ANTRAK train trip from Seattle to Washington, DC. We then spent a week in DC with our son visiting our nations capital before flying home.
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Ah, I suspect you've run across them too. I'll be charitable and use them as a morality tale. Unfortunately a recent incidence illustrates the problems that are all too prevalent on today's roads.
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That's right I need help. I've never run out of ideas before and it's a new experience for me. Always a surfeit of ideas have boiled up in my brain often driving me crazy; usually they were not good ideas but at least they were ideas. Now my brain has hit a brick wall and feels somewhat numb. It's more than a little disconcerting.
I did have a number of ideas but they have all evaporated leaving the idea well dry. They evaporated because of a number of unfortunate circumstances. Our vacation plans seem to be crashing around us and my grandchildren have stopped asking science questions. They seem to have proceeded on to new interests as they grow up. And it's not just my grandchildren who are silent. People have stopped asking me questions via the web site ask or suggest contact pages. This has left me in a quandary.
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"It's coming, there's nothing you can do about it. Might as well get used to it." Grandma Oddball intoned with disgusting cheerfulness.
I snuggled further under the covers and wished someone would remove that awful glare shinning through the window. My head ached, my body was tired, and I was in no mood for cheerfulness. I just wanted to remain warm and cozy, sleeping until day passed on into night when I could remain peacefully and comfortably buried in bed. That didn't deter grandma. With mock sweetness she started singing,
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Hard to believe I know. I can hardly believe it myself. Time doesn't march on inexorably; it simply evaporates leaving behind a residue full of memories, emotions, and past regrets !! Just yesterday we were married and now two children and two grandchildren later we are celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary.
