#234 PD Notes, a Story, and Photos

 

San Francisco de Asis Church in Ranchoes de Taos in color and BW

About the photos in this post: I found some photos from a trip to Santa Fe and Taos, NM, we took a few years ago. I combined some I haven’t shown before with a photo program called Sketcher, used to enhance the image or create a more painterly (if that’s a word) look. The photos aren’t meant to go with the PD info or the story, only to brighten up the blog. Hope you enjoy parts or all of this post and I always appreciate your comments.

Barns and ruins in southern Colorado.

Continuing to Live with Parkinson’s Disease

You should easily guess which one of us didn't care for the snake pot displayed in a Taos museum.

There are four main symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease: Resting Tremor (as opposed to active tremors that hit when lifting weight), Slowness of Movement, Impairment of Balance, and Rigidity or Stiffness (the only symptom of the four that I haven’t really experienced yet). Then there are more than forty other and often hidden symptoms, many of which are not pleasant to talk about in detail such as constipation, drooling, and rhinorea (look it up).

What I do want to talk about is the way PD makes the simple things of life so difficult. Autonomic activities, those bits of living we do without thinking about them (such as walking, talking, or eating) are suddenly not so automatic because my brain no longer produces enough dopamine to keep doing those things like putting on a seatbelt in a car. I used to get in the car, grab the seatbelt across my body, plug it in and I was ready to go.Now I slowly get in the car seat, reach around slowly feeling for the belt (remember Slowness of Movement is a major symptom), try to get the metal flange in hand, make several attempts to pull the belt across my body, and hope it only takes me two minutes to plug the buckle in. No wonder I keep my driving to only local and easy jaunts! I find I’m still okay brushing my teeth, but I have some real challenges with dressing. I used to throw on a jacket to go out in the cool winter air, but now I’m pleased to get one arm in correctly before I begin battle with the second arm hole. Buttons are a new challenge when they used to be something I didn’t even think about. There are a few (very few) positives—perfecting the perfect 007 martini, shaken not stirred seems more doable now.

PD does change living patterns. I now leave a full half hour to get dressed—make it an hour if I’m going to add beard trim and shower. And tell me when I lost the ability to dry my back after a shower. Come on, dopamines, let me have a dry back back. 

Line of cottonwoods in southern Colorado.

Sangre de Cristo Mtns from Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and from Taos.

Pure Nostalgic Story about Nona, Silver Bells, and Coney Dogs

Museum art, Taos.

Every Christmas season brings with it special memories of my Nona (Italian grandmother, although Nona was probably a mix of Mexican and Apache adopted by an Italian family in Colorado), the song Silver Bells, and Coney Island hot dogs. During my childhood years I would spend a lot of time with Nona, my maternal grandmother. At Christmas time in Sacramento Nona and I would get on a city bus and travel downtown to what was for me a wonderland of decorated streets and shops. On every corner in the downtown area would be large decorated silver bells and stores would have the song playing in the background. Nona was half blind from Diabetes and I learned to help guide her around town—I was maybe seven or eight years old. My reward was always the same, a lunch at The Coney Island, a hot dog store with a few tables and a long counter with bar stools. A staple in the K Street area in the fifties and sixties, The Coney Island (new owners changed its name to Lindy’s in 1957) closed in the early seventies. I remember hot dogs were 15 cents and coneys were 25 cents and the coney sauce was to die for. As I recall there was never much money for shopping, but Nona and I had great times looking and singing Silver Bells.   

Next: More found photos I hope. PS. Thanks, Rumpelstiltskin, for the kind comments.

The Southwest Trip that Wasn't

     On Saturday morning in the Taos, NM, Urgent Care the first customer called up was a man with his young daughter. Their insurance had expired a year ago and Urgent Care wouldn’t see the girl without $130 co-pay up front. He seemed to be known in the clinic and they absolutely wouldn’t see the girl without payment. He stormed out. Next called was an Australian couple where the woman had severe back issues. They did have traveler’s insurance and were told, after checking their policy, it would be $130 to see the doctor, but they’d get that back from their insurance. This post is about why we were witness to this early morning scene in Taos and what resulted from our visit to Urgent Care.

Oldest House in America

The plan for our fall southwest trip was well thought out and meticulously executed. Two days in Santa Fe staying in timeshare, three days in Taos timeshare with time to visit our adopted niece and her family. There would be lots of time for photography. Then we’d move north to Durango, CO, for four days with visits to Mesa Verde and Silverton. Next, we’d swing into Arizona to visit Canyon de Chelly with a Navajo guide and a couple more days in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest before driving back to Albuquerque and flying home. Brilliant! Too bad reality didn’t match the planning.

New Mexico Museum of Art

Trying to make a little art of my own in the museum.

     The first part of the trip ran smoothly, even though we had to run clear across the Las Vegas terminal because we misread the reader board and sat in C9 until they were calling our name for our flight leaving from B9. In Santa Fe we did just what we had planned. We visited the Oldest Church in the US, the Oldest House, numerous shops, the Governor’s Palace for native jewelry shopping, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. We ate well with good breakfasts at the New York Deli and The Pantry (the number one dining spot in Santa Fe). We also found some of the best pizza we’ve ever had at Backroad Pizza,  a Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives selection.

Breakfast at The Pantry

Great Pizza

On our way to Taos after two nights in Santa Fe we stopped to visit our adopted niece Jas Cecelic, her husband Zach, and two-year-old daughter Zea. 

They live in a modified yurt on five acres outside Truchas, NM, at a little above 8,000 feet. Here they have a natural farm supplying local produce to area restaurants and are building their own home. It’s a truly rustic lifestyle, but Jas and Zach are brilliant, well-educated, happy, and dedicated; and Zea is beautiful and so in touch with the environment. We visit every chance we get. In Taos that evening is when things started to slip off the rails. I started feeling badly—cough, sniffles, headache, breathless—and felt worse the next morning. That prompted the visit to Urgent Care I mentioned earlier.

San Fransisco de Asis Church, Taos

A favorite subject for artists such as Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe.

When I got my turn—no co-pay required with my insurance—my vital signs weren’t too far off the norm. The young doctor wasn’t sure what to tell me. I had cold symptoms, but no fever (even though I had had the chills) and heart and lungs seemed fine. Finally, her diagnosis was possible walking pneumonia with a touch of altitude sickness. She gave me three prescriptions and said to rest. We got the meds, went back to our timeshare, and I took a nap. A little after noon I thought we might yet do a bit of sightseeing, so we drove out to Arroyo Seco for cokes at the Merchantile. By the time we got our cokes I was so dizzy I could barely make it back to the car. To the Urgent Care for our second visit. Again, the doctor couldn’t figure out what to tell me. Now I had a fever of 101.6 and was in a drug fog that was closing in. She finally swabbed for flu and got a positive. Her reaction was, “That explains everything. You’ve got the flu!” Drop one of the earlier meds, keep the second one, and use your judgement on the third. Also, add a new flu medication and rest. It sounded fine.

Farmhouse Cafe, Taos

Rural Art, Taos

Too bad it wasn’t fine. I finally dropped the third medicine and some of the fog went away, but the flu medicine, although it seemed to make me feel better, had the side-effect of No Sleep. Saturday night I got maybe an hour and a half of sleep all night. And even though I felt good enough to be more active—out for a light lunch and some photography at the Rio Grande Bridge—Sunday night I got no more than two hours of sleep. Earlier on Sunday we had seen the writing on the wall and cancelled all those well planned stays and tours and changed our tickets to fly home on Tuesday. 

I did make it back to the church twice to photograph it in different light.

The drive on Monday with very little sleep and Anne helping was a fright (not because of Anne's driving) and it was four in the morning on Tuesday before I got real sleep, two hours worth. In total, I had gone about 85 hours on four hours of sleep before I got on the plane for home. Thankfully, I did sleep on the plane. At home we got in to see my doctor early on Wednesday and the diagnosis was the flu along with a reaction, sleeplessness, to the medicine. Rest and recovery is now the treatment, but there are some lessons from the trip: First, always be prepared for the unforeseen with cancellation information, medical data, insurance, etc. Second, be flexible and prepared to change. And third, always listen to your wife (spouse)—if I had had my way I would have tried to soldier through the trip, which would have been an absolute disaster, physically and financially. As it was, Anne’s good judgement got me the best care we could get (even with the missed diagnosis), allowed us to recoup most of our planned expenses, and saved us from real disaster. 

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

Rain Storm

    The trip may have not been good, but I hope at least it makes an interesting story.

Rio Grande

Out of Denver on the flight home.

NEXT: Trying to get well.

Southwest 2018 #4: Mesa Verde, Mountain Roads, and Dinosaurs

Sun Temple Dwelling

Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace is one of the cliff dwellings you can tour with a guide.

Cliff Palace

The park and now World Heritage Site was approved by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 along with the Federal Antiquities Act of 1906.  Mesa Verde, meaning “green table” in Spanish, was “discovered” by Mexican-American missionaries and explorers in the late 1700s. 

These two photos show Square Tower House.

The largest archeological preserve in the country, the park contains more than 600 cliff dwellings of Ancient Puebloans (Anasazi who occupied the area about 750 CE). The area was first settled by ancient natives in c. 7500 BCE and was abandoned by 1285 CE. Today, visitors can visually explore the remains of dwellings from the canyon rims and in some locations tour the ruins with park guides. 

Spruce Tree House is accessible from the main visitor area at the top of the mesa--there is a large Visitor Center at the bottom of the mesa.

We’ve visited several times and always find the views of the ancient cliff dwellings inspiring.

Durango to Silverton to Ouray to Grand Junction.

After four days in Durango our next destination was Grand Junction several hours north. The only practical route was over the mountains—around the mountains would have taken twice as long. The route gave us a full day of adventures.

 
     On the way out of Durango we caught up with the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The tourist train makes daily runs on the 45 mile track to Silverton. Originally opened in 1882 to transport material and silver ore between the two towns, it has run continuously since opening. The line uses only steam engines and was given over to tourist runs in 1947.

The photos above show the scenery between Durango and Silverton.

The view of Silverton coming into town.

Silverton (silver-by-the-ton) is a former silver mining camp. It’s now a National Historic Landmark District and the county seat of San Juan County. 

Waving train passengers over to eat in his restaurant.

It’s one of the highest towns in the US at 9,318’ above sea level, and its population of 531 consists mostly of people in the tourist trade, mine clean-up staff, and a few retirees.

Next on the route comes Ouray, CO, with a population of 1000. It is the county seat of Ouray County and sits at an elevation of 7,792 feet.

Miners (gold and silver) formed the town in 1872 and named it after Chief Ouray of the local Ute tribe. 

The biggest adventure of our day came from driving the Red Mountain Pass road, called the Million Dollar Highway, from Silverton to Ouray. 

Red Mountain

The highway is characterized by steep cliffs on both sides, numerous switchbacks and hairpin corners, narrow lanes, and most frightening a noticeable lack of guardrails. 

Look...No guardrails!!!

Oh, and the day’s journey went over three passes: Coal Bank Pass (10,640’), Molas Pass (10,970’), and red Mountain Pass (11, 018’).

Another dramatic road leading out of Ouray towards Canyon Pintado.

Leaving Ouray we traveled through Canyon Pintado (meaning “painted canyon”). The canyon has several rock art sites along a 14-mile stretch—the art is mostly Fremont Culture (AD650-1150) and Ute (AD1200-1880).

The strapping is holding the Kokopelli (Anasazi hump-backed flute player) rock art in place.

Needless to say, dinner at a nice Grand Junction Italian restaurant with a good glass of wine, was a welcome end to the day.

This cactus plant was in bloom at the Kokopelli site.

Dinosaur National Monument

Our reason to stay in our next location, Vernal, UT, (after Grand Junction) was for access to Dinosaur National Monument on the east side of the Uinta Mountains between Colorado and Utah. President Wilson declared the area a national monument in 1915 after the first bones were discovered in 1909. 

The Wall of Bones

The Quarry Museum, reached by a free shuttle from the Visitor’s Center, houses some great displays of dinosaur fossils and the main attraction: a “wall of bones.” The museum has been refurbished and reopened in 2011.

Confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers near the monument Visitor Center.

Besides having over 800 paleontological sites, we were interested in some of the other historic sites in the monument—especially the native rock art. We took the Tilted Rock Auto Tour—a 15-20 mile route along the border of the monument. 

Especially interesting to us were the petroglyphs and pictographs at varying locations along the tour—Swelter Shelter was the best site with Fremont Culture art about 1000 years old. Josie Bassett’s house at Cub Creek was also fascinating. 

Behind the Bassett House is a beautiful patch of wild iris and a great view.

Built in 1914, Bassett—a rancher and friend to Butch and Sundance—lived in the house until her death in 1963. Photographically, the best site was a small box canyon across from Josie’s house.

From Price (UT) to Moab (UT) to Durango (CO) to Grand Juction (CO) to Vernal (UT) to home. What a great southwest trip.

One of the iris behind Bassett House.

NEXT: The weather has turned for the better (after a rainy start) on our trip to Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. Photos and stories to follow.