Emily is now taking a cross-country trip with her husband Jeff via Amtrak. She is chronicling their trip in her Blog - http://messandclutter.blogspot.com/ and has pictures on her Facebook Page. I am enjoying "traveling with them" via pic and description as they make this trip. Check it out. Emily I am following your trip daily. What a wonderful trip for both of you. I hope to do a Amtrack trip someday and this is the firs pictures I have seen of "close-up encounter with Amtrack_. Good Luck.
Thanks for letting us know about that Lois. As I recall, Emily is a writer so her blog is really great! I am trying to remember how far along Jeff is--she is really brave to attempt this. The only overnight train trip we ever took was the Orient Express in Europe, and it wasn't conducive to good sleep (for me, anyway). However, it was only one night. I don't know that I'd want to do a longer one than that.
Good morning Lois...this was a surprising thread heading! At the moment we are in Santa Fe, NM, and Jeff is looking a bit cranky on waking up, but I hope a shower and some breakfast will buy us a good portion of a day to walk around town.
As for Jeff and stage...it's a little tough to pin down since his AD is worse in the visuospatial areas, so he doesn't always match up with the descriptions. 5ish.
This morning was the first time I wondered if I'm insane or at least overly ambitious. Due to the westward time shift, I woke up at 6am with my head thinking it was 8am. This left me with a whopping migraine-like caffeine withdrawal headache and malaise. We are always wondering, of course, how will we cope if WE are sick?
Fortunately, a lot of taking it easy, some coffee, and a little food have helped. The crisp morning air and sunshine of NM have helped with Jeff's cognition, and he's being absolutely cooperative and supportive, so I think that after a bit more morning resting, we'll be ready to explore a bit.
THANK YOU, lomhr*, for creating this thread! I've bookmarked your blog, emily, and am thoroughly enjoying it. First, I've been thinking we (I?) might like to take an AMTRAK trip; so I can learn from your experience. Second, your creative writing is excellente! I'm supposed to be cleaning floors, but catching up with years of your blog is much more fun and relaxing. Your books look fun for the kids in my life, too.
I started reading Emily's blog and I want to thank her for explaining to me the reason for my lifelong aversion to mainstream supermarkets. I've never spent too much time analyzing it, but I agree that things like lighting, layout, and just too much stuff overwhelm me too. Like Emily, I much prefer the smaller markets, especially Trader Joe's.
My DIL took me to a Trader Joe's in eastern PA last May and it was a delightful suprise! Didn't know it existed. After that I started hearing about it in her whole area. Anybody know of any in NW Ohio?
Emily, I agree with longyears about your headache. Our son had been living in Santa Fe for almost one year when he returned to Maine (sea-level) for 2 weeks. On his return to Santa Fe he developed a severe headache which lasted a few days.
Thanks longyears...I'm sure it was a contributing factor. But I do also know from experience that I have a terrible time if I mess with my sleep/wake cycles in the direction of sleeping too late, which is essentially what happens when you go west. Luckily, coffee, food, and a few hours helped that day, and I spent the remainder of the week getting up at 5 am.
As for general recommendations re: train travel... I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think Jeff did too, inasmuch as he enjoys snippets of anything, and has difficulty with other aspects. Same as at home. Lack of familiarity with his surroundings is not as disturbing to him as it would be for some, and that is something any caregiver would have to know about his/her spouse and take into consideration.
Having a bedroom compartment on the train made it workable, because he did get up multiple times our first night aboard, and it was not physically difficult to get him into the bathroom since it was only 3 feet away. He was confused about the movement, but accepted my reassurances and would go back to sleep. The second night we both slept better.
Another problem anyone would need to consider is mobility and balance. A train, obviously, moves, and it can be tricky for even the most balanced among us to stay upright when a moment of lurching occurs. A cognitively intact person can generally make a quick appropriate choice as to what to grab for stability, but the impaired person can have trouble with that.
As a couple, you will always be seated with other people at meal--dining car tables seat 4, and you know to expect "community seating" as part of the deal. It's fun, in general, and I had some nice conversations. Of course, there is always the thing where I'm wondering just how much the other people are "getting" what's going on with how I interact with Jeff...I help him order, unwrap his utensils, point out which glass is his (several times,) help cut his food sometimes...etc. I think that due to his limited ability to follow the group conversation, and the fact that he therefore doesn't say much, they do catch on that there's something impaired about him and I'm not just an overbearing spouse. (Which is what I get sometimes, when people don't have enough data to make a good assessment.)
I would definitely do it again. Unfortunately, reserving a bedroom on Amtrak needs to be done at least weeks, and probably months, in advance. I know we can manage it right now. I do not, obviously, know whether that will hold 6 months from now. At this point I'm nervous about making any big plans very far in advance, because I can look retrospectively and see ground we've lost in just the past year.
Interesting followup tidbit. For the last two nights, as I fidget my way into bed (he goes to bed earlier than I, generally,) he said "Are we moving?" I said, "no, we're not on a train, I'm just fidgety."