Downtown Raleigh and BOB

I keep forgetting to write about St. Patrick's Day. I had won 2 free tickets to the Titanic Exhibit from the N&O. The Titanic Exhibit ends at the end of April, so we'd been looking for a good weather day to walk down to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. We hadn't been since they built the additional building with the globe out front. We enjoyed the Titanic exhibit and got to touch a piece of the hull that was recovered. That was cool because in a month or so, we'll be at the Titanic Museum in Belfast where it was built. Anyway, we went to the new section of the building by walking through the pedestrian bridge over the street and that was weird. But, here is the special part. We didn't take Bob! He is still holding a grudge because he missed a great photo op. And because, you know, Bob. Here goes. There is a whale skeleton in there called Stumpy. Underneath her is a zodiac carrying a black dog wearing a life vest. The dog's name is Bob! He is a "whale scat sniffing dog". Can you believe it? The sign said he could "smell floating whale scat for a mile". Clay's comment was, "It floats?" I know! But, seriously, a mile?! What I was really thinking was, BOB? I mean they named a floating scat smelling dog, BOB? Is that a joke, like did they mean it to be a pun? I think I snorted. It was a busy day in the museum. It was Reptile Day. Way too busy in there and not in any good way. I was a little overwhelmed and failed to notice if there was any reproduction scat in the display. Since it wasn't real water, it couldn't have bobbed! Anyway, our Bob was not amused when he heard about it. I snickered every time I said Good Morning, Bob for at least a week. Then we all got over it. Still, though... Funny right?

Clay took some photos, but he never shared them. We also went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. It was a good day except for leaving Bob at home.

Here is a link. At the photo sequence, scroll down to Investigating Right Whales and then click the photo labeled to enlarge it. You can see Bob the scat sniffing dog under there. Enjoy!

Tremor update

Yeah, no this has nothing to do with road trips! I plan to post here about our trip to England, Scotland and Ireland too later and I guess it is a stretch to call that a road trip either. So much for my sticking to the theme...

First off, I should update by saying that about a week after stopping carbidopa/levodopa that the left leg kicking had stopped. So, that was good news. Clearly, it was a side effect of the drug and not a progression of my disease. It wasn't as bad as the first drug, generic Mirapex or Pramipexole. That one made me exhausted, headachy, gave me extreme sweats, visual hallucinations of fire at night and dangerously constipated. It did though the most to relax my right toes. Dr. Carnes pulled the plug on that one though.

I saw Dr. Carnes on 3/11 and he prescribed Ropinirole or generic Requip as the next drug to try. He said he has dozens more! I am not sure I am up for all that! I stopped taking Ropinirole today with permission from Dr. Carnes' nurse. I had been taking it for just over 3 weeks. It made me really tired at first, but the Pramipexole did too at first. So, I just kept taking it and by the middle of week 2 I had muscle burning. I felt like if you've been running and your leg muscles start to burn and you cannot get enough oxygen to them. Except this was all over my body, literally every muscle in my body, not just the muscles affected by the tremor but my entire body. By this week, I started thinking I was going to die from this. I mean I could not exercise for 3 weeks. I could barely get up the stairs or through the house, etc. Clearly, this wasn't going to be a long term solution and like the other drugs Ropinirole wasn't reducing the tremor.

I will go drug free at least until my next appointment on 4/23. Until then I have to say that the knitting I have taken up stops the hand tremor. I just wish something could stop my right foot from fisting under. It is the most painful part of the symptoms. Dr. Carnes' nurse today asked if I'd like to be referred to a movement specialist. I declined. Unless there is some holding still specialist... Anyway, she said I should be journaling to keep up with my medications and reactions and symptoms. I have loosely done that here and I will continue. I can use any good wishes. Thanks.

We'll miss this year's spring NC Rail excursion

We got our email this week from the NC Transportation Museum about their spring railroad excursions. Notice that "s" at the end! They are doing 2 trips this spring. Unfortunately, both of them conflict with our big spring trip that we've already got booked! Unbelievable.

In other news, I have stopped taking the carbidopa/levodopa medication early. It was causing my left leg (previously unaffected by the tremor!) to kick violently between about 9pm and 2am for hours at a time when we were trying to rest. I also did not think it was helping with the tremor that much, though it did make my handwriting big again. I am less than 48 hours off and I don't know how long it takes to clear the body, but the night time kicking has not stopped yet. I really was hoping and sure that the pills caused it and that when I stopped the pills the kicking would stop too. The left leg kicking seemed to have started within days of starting the pills and I hoped it was them and not some progression of my disease. We'll have to wait and see. Cross your fingers for me, please. I return to Dr. Carnes on March 11 and will be medication free until then. I am wondering about his Parkinson's Disease diagnosis. If I don't respond to the Parkinson's standard medications, then maybe it isn't PD?

We'll be posting here probably about our big spring trip after we return. I know it should probably have its own blog, but since the longest segment of it will be a bus trip, I think it can be categorized as a road trip. I expect to post the trip journal here later. Stay tuned.

Clay is still in India for a few more days and he may wind up having some more travel news to post online somewhere as well. Today some of his coworkers took him in a van on a road trip to Pondicherry. So, do check back.

Jim Corbett National Park in India

Clay is on his farewell, pre-retirement trip to Chennai, India for work. He finally got to go on a side trip to look for tigers in the wild at Jim Corbett National Park in the north of India. He was lucky enough to get to glimpse a tiger! Click on the link to his solo trips on the right. Or click here for his photos.

Christmas 2012

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I know I am not timely with this post. I have no single excuse. Anyway, we have gone to Bonita Springs and are back! We had a great Christmas at Mom's with friends and family. I have some photos here. Clay got a new lens for his camera. It cost as much as his camera! That led to a post-Christmas visit and hike at Lovers Key State Park. We went because you are supposed to be able to see manatees, dolphins, eagles, alligators, etc. We did not. Clay saw an eagle and chased after it as it flew over, trying to get a photo but no joy. I won't hold you in suspense, scroll down for Clay's photos with his new lens of what we did see. All photos after the Christmas ones are with Clay's new lens. I did take some photos with Clay's old pocket Olympus but I haven't seen them yet. If Clay gets them to me I might post some for comparison!

In other news for the New Year, my neurologist has decided that the benefits of Mirapex do not outweigh the negatives of the side effects for me. I'm sorry he didn't make that decision 2 months ago when I did, but next week I start a new drug. Sinemet. Honestly, it sounds worse than the first drug. I hope I respond better with fewer side effects. Same dosing rules apply so the nifty pill timer I found will still work! If you're reading this, please wish me luck. Thanks.

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Return to Winnipeg

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Friday, November 16, 2012 - High  14°F Low  -2°F  - I was up with Clay early this morning as he tried to get the 66 photos our fellow passenger was sharing with the group uploaded before we lost Internet. He did not get it done before we went to Gypsy's, but he was able to finish it during breakfast in Gypsy’s with their Internet. Clay took a lot of photos in Churchill this morning, mainly because it was a beautiful morning. It was very cold again, but no wind and with gently falling snow that had gone on all last night. Pat told us that amount of snow on the ground looked like mid-December in Churchill.

We had to be in the lobby at 7:50am this morning. Pat had originally said he wanted bags out in the hall by then. But, he came around our doors a little before that time and told everyone to leave the bags just inside the rooms for pick up after breakfast as we depart the Aurora Inn for the last time. At Gypsy’s for our last meal, I had oatmeal again with raisins this time and some bacon and a peach yogurt and coffee. Clay had his usual 2 egg breakfast with meat and toast. Around 9am, Pat took us back to the hotel. He told everyone except me to get off and bring everything to the lobby and he would take me to get a requested photograph of the Port of Churchill sign and be back in 5 minutes. That was a surprise and a nice thing to do. I had asked about it days ago when he had driven us around town and told us if we saw anything we wanted photos of to let him know and we’d go back on Friday morning. I guess I was the only one. Interestingly, the sign has a no hunting warning. You don't see that on many port signs in my experience! There were a couple of other people though who had requested to return to Mike Macri’s studio to purchase photo prints and that is what we did after we got back and loaded everyone and the bags.

We got to the airport about 10am for an 11am departure on Calm Air. In Winnipeg, we flew them too but had a regular-TSA style experience. Here we didn’t have to even show ID or go through security. We just lined up at the ticket counter and told the woman our names. She printed our open seating boarding passes and weighed and tagged and took our large suitcases. (50 pound limit) and then weighed our small carry-on bags (20 pound limit). My suitcase had now been expanded and was 25 pounds and my backpack was 14. I gained 5 pounds in the suitcase by carrying all of Clay’s dirty laundry and most of our souvenirs. I am not sure how his bag was still always full, when he only added 2 t-shirts.



We drew the prop plane and not the jet back, so it took an hour longer than the flight up. Also, it meant no hot food. We had a cold box lunch with a sandwich, a slice of cheese and a blue Jell-O cup and a beverage. I don’t think I mentioned before that Calm Air serves Pepsi products. That’s too bad for me since they use citric acid. Still I am not complaining because it was much more inflight service than we saw on Delta in coach class. I think these flights are really expensive though, like $700 to $1000 roundtrip and that is equal to the cost of the flights from Raleigh to Winnipeg!

Speaking of costs. We paid Churchill Nature Tours a total of $9990 and Delta a total of $1584.66. Our only extra costs were lunch in Winnipeg the day we arrived and tips. But, that works out to have cost us $2314.93 per polar bear seen on the ground, which in all honesty just seems ridiculously excessive. I told Clay the next time I say Polar Bear, he can just drive me to Asheboro to the NC Zoo! He wondered why I didn’t think of that before. Well, of course, because it isn’t the same thing. We both know that and we are still glad that we went to Churchill. (Oops! While searching for the NC Zoo link, I found that NC's polar bears have been gone for almost 2 years now. Good news is that they should return to a new enclosure in 2013. But, at least now I have a legitimate excuse!)

We got back to Winnipeg in the early afternoon and soon all had our luggage claimed and were off in 2 vans to the Airport Hilton Suites. Our first night here we were in 402 and it had a view of a parking lot and the swimming pool roof, but it was nicely laid out and large and clean. Tonight we are in 210, which is a much differently laid out and smaller and the carpet is filthy. We had a view of the roof of the front carport. This afternoon would have been free time to spend in Winnipeg, but once again we didn’t leave the hotel. The streets and sidewalks around us were all cleared of snow this time, but Clay had more shared photos to get uploaded. Plus, he was desperate to get in some time on a treadmill again. I worked at repacking for the different luggage allowances on Delta and I took a long nap.

Our farewell dinner was at 7pm, if I recall correctly. We were just about the only table occupied in the restaurant downstairs at the hotel tonight. The meal was quite good again. I had beef barley soup and Clay had salad. I had chicken and Clay had steak. I had bread pudding and Clay had cheesecake. It was a nice farewell and Pat got everyone’s email addresses and passed them out. He also gave us all a 2013 Polar Bear calendar. Clay passed out slips of paper to everyone with the links to our fellow passenger’s generously shared photos. Cynthia thanked her for sharing her photos with a map-print covered journal that she had everyone sign. Cynthia also gave Clay a bag of local candy called OMG’s and OMG, they were good. He opened them when we got on our first flight of the morning and we ate the whole bag before the plane lifted off from Winnipeg. So, thank you Cynthia!

We went to bed right after dinner. We got up the next morning at 5am and I had a cup of their excellent coffee made in the room. We finalized packing and were downstairs with our breakfast vouchers at 6am for opening. They did not actually open the doors until 10 past. We needed to be getting on a shuttle to the airport at 6:50am. That was only 2 hours before our flight time. Since you clear US customs and immigration at YWG, Pat and the front desk clerk we asked both advised getting to the airport 3 hours early. This didn’t seem like such a big and busy airport, it was only a few minutes’ drive away and we were assured there was no wait for an airport shuttle that was on demand. But, still we worried we might be cutting it close and we rushed through breakfast by going to the buffet. They did not have the scrambled eggs out yet and so offered us eggs cooked to order and we both got them fried. They were quick and we had no problems. We walked right out onto a shuttle and cleared airport security and US ICE in a timely fashion.

All flights were full and on time and we had no problems, even with checking a single bag. Both flights were small regional jets with 2 by 2 seats and fully booked. We still prefer that to 3 by 3 seating any day. I think they even have more leg room than the bigger jets. At MSP, we could have arrived and departed without leaving Terminal C, but we made a special trip to Surdyk’s Flights for Clay. We ate sandwiches and yogurts from there outbound on our last trip to Canada and Clay wanted to go back there. Mom & Judy’s connection on that return was too tight and on our outbound last Sunday Surdyk’s was closed. We had a little over an hour, so we went to Surdyk’s this time. Clay got a sandwich and a cookie and I had a honey Greek yogurt and a Manchego cheese pretzel for $20.55.

We got home on time, got my checked bag with no problems, and caught a taxi back to Clay’s office to pick up the car. Clay wanted to eat again, so we stopped at Smithfield’s Chicken & BBQ. It was good. We got 2 pints to freeze and take to Mom at Christmas time. That’s all. We got home to find everything at the house in good order. We unpacked and fell gladly into our own bed.

It was a really good trip even though we only saw 5 bears and thought we would get frostbite.

So, that's it for 2012. We have had a busy travel this year! Antarctica, Hawaii and Canada twice. We traveled the furthest we have ever been North and South in 2012. That seems like a pretty big accomplishment for a year in which we had not actually planned in advance to take any big trips. We will go to Florida for Christmas with my family again, but that is it for 2012 travel.

All we have booked for 2013 is Alaska on Alaskan Dream Cruises. Clay has just realized that is late summer/early fall and he is making noise about planning a trip in the spring. We'll see and I'll keep you posted. We are still hoping for another fall trip with Mom & Judy with Caravan Tours to Nova Scotia. We'll see what happens with that too. That's all for now.

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Second day on the tundra

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Thursday, November 15, 2012 – High  14°F Low  -2°F - To Gypsy's for breakfast and it feels, if possible, even colder. The weather changed about 3am. When we went to bed there was no wind sound from the bathroom vent which we had determined was due to South wind and the ice blowing away from shore. About 3am, my head boomed and woke me up out of dead sleep. Cynthia, another in our group, said she woke up like a gong had gone off about 3 am. We both suffer vertigo and we decided that it was a major barometric pressure change we felt. So, as we went out the snow was blowing sideways in hard little sharp shards. Pat said the wind chill was -29. I don’t know whether he meant C or F, but really it didn’t matter because we knew it was really, really, very cold.

I had an egg muffin and a cinnamon fry bun. Clay had pancakes today. We had a much longer drive in sometimes zero visibility out to the tundra loading dock of Great White Bear Tours. The distance was the same, but we went much more slowly today and so it took a lot longer. We set out in our Rovers in near zero visibility.

We got an old Rover today. It did not have foot rests, but the window dividers were better placed than on our previous new Rover. The driver today did not clean the snow off the floor before setting out like Bill had done. There was a lot more snow today. Our driver today was Baz and he was a French Canadian. We drove and drove as visibility came and went. Eventually, around 11am the sun came out. This old Rover had a big furnace in the back with a fan to blow the heat forward. We were bouncing to loosen our brain stems from our spines. In addition to the nausea from the pre-vertigo attack aura that I suffered all day today, I had a headache. Eventually, I got really sleepy and I looked back and all the people behind me were asleep. I got up and went to sit by Clay to incoherently try to tell him that we’d all be dead of carbon monoxide poisoning before anyone found our frozen bodies. He couldn't understand me, which really frightened me, before I pointed back and he saw the furnace I was talking about and all the sleeping people. He just said it is too hot in here.

About this time, we got a little excitement from a Tundra Buggy stuck up to its axles in the snow. Eventually, we drove around it and continued to our first stop by the Great White Bear Tundra Lodge.

Other Rovers were leaving and the word was no polar bears here. We drove to where we had gone on the Nunavut tidal flats before and it looked like the bay. It was a high tide storm surge that had completely flooded the area. Baz didn't know which way to go and Pat had no advice for him. Baz sat here for a long time and talked on his radio to others before turning left and away from all the other buggies and rovers.

I spotted a small black and gray shore bird as we drove and we stopped to try to photograph it. We didn't get a picture of it, but our group’s best photographer did and she shared it. Pat called it a shore bird. Obviously, but I don’t know exactly what it was. It was black and gray and fairly small and unremarkable, except for being the first and only wildlife we have seen today.



We parked and sat for a long time while Pat gave us a lecture on polar bear reproduction. I watched a huge sheet of ice break off and drift away and tried to stay awake. We had hot chocolate. We saw all the other buggies in the distance moving and word was they were following a bear, but no one could see it even with big binoculars. Baz tried to start our Rover, but couldn't. He said the throttle was frozen. He had a spray bottle of alcohol and got Pat to help him open the doghouse. A passenger held it up for them, but they still couldn't start it. One of the other Rovers came right next to us and the driver got out and came into ours and helped and got it started. This was a little scary because we had been sitting for at least 30 minutes or more and the vehicle had gotten very cold by this time.

We drove for hours more and only saw a ptarmigan that Pat spotted buried in the snow right beside the road.

After 1pm, Pat had Baz drive us to where a bunch of other Rovers and buggies were parked looking at nothing we could see. They told us there was a polar bear sleeping on the other side of a stand of willows in a snow bank. Pat served us soup and cold sandwiches from Gypsy’s again with the drinks we had ordered. About the time we finished lunch, the bear woke up and walked by the closest buggy and then he left. I got a video of him leaving.  I got a video of him playing in the willows as he dug snow beds. I know my videos are really shaky, but be sure to stay long enough to see him shake the snow off himself. There is also a 3rd video from another day of this trip CLICK HERE.

All the buggies and Rovers followed him and he got pretty stressed. We decided we should leave him alone as more buggies arrived and Pat said we had to start back to get our Rover turned in by 4 pm anyway. Then, he got away from most of the buggies and rovers anyway and sheltered in the edge of some willows for a nap.

One bear and a ptarmigan is all we saw today. Oh, and a shore bird. It was a long, hard and pretty sad final day. (Mom watched the Tundra Buggy Cam pretty steadily today and was so happy to see so many bears and they were so active rolling in the snow and play fighting. She was so happy for us. I will point out that we never saw the Tundra Buggy with the webcam on it today and clearly we were in the wrong places almost all day long! Polar Bear Alley blog reports Great White Bear expected a slow bear day and so he must have heard from the people in the Rovers we were in sight of all day that only saw this one bear. The other experiences he reported were clearly in Tundra Buggies as their experiences reflect what Mom described she watched online.)

We were happy to see one bear really well though. We unloaded and all gathered for a group photo by an example Rover. Here is most of our group in a photo courtesy of a fellow passenger.

As Pat took us back into town, he stopped by a town sign for photos, and then to the hotel for a rest before dinner pickup at 6:50pm. Tonight was free and he offered another fox hunt and Northern Lights tour for those who wanted to go. I don't remember what Clay had and he didn't take any photos of our last 2 meals at Gypsy's for some reason. I had another steak. For dessert, Clay had rhubarb pie heated and a la mode. I had another strawberry and whipped cream filled pastry horn. It was slim pickings tonight in the pastry case.

On the way back to the hotel, Pat drove us by the Town Complex to see the bay. It was crazy! There were great rolling breakers and no ice visible in his headlights. Pat said it was a combination of another front coming in from the North as well as the rising tide. Hudson Bay is dramatically altered every time we see it. After dinner, I stayed in. Clay had volunteered a memory stick and to upload a fellow passenger’s volunteered photos and thought about working on that, but instead went out on the bus for Pat’s fox hunt. He saw one fox and Northern Lights that were good, but he said not as dramatic as the first night. I worked on packing for the morning and by 9pm, I was asleep. I did not hear Clay come in and go to bed.

For some reason, today was the day that Clay photographed our room, 139, at the Aurora Inn. I think I talked about it resembling a 1-bedroom loft apartment and if I didn't that's what it was like. Anyway, below are a series of photos Clay took there this morning before we went out for the day. Excuse the mess, it is all ours and housekeeping did a good job, that is not really reflected in these photos. Sorry!

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