Saturday 2 July 2022
"We're with The White House. We're returning from the G7 in Germany."
"So they fly you on British Airways rather than Air Force One?"
"We flew out on Air Force One but President Biden went on to the NATO summit in Madrid, so we peeled off to return to DC."
I didn't have anything remotely as interesting to say to the two thirty-something guys standing next to me as we waited for the shuttle bus to take us from the gate to the main arrivals building at Dulles International Airport.
"Well I'm just here as a tourist for a few days. I've been to Washington before, but only briefly, so I really wanted to see the US Capitol, the Smithsonian museums and so on. My wife has some friends who used to live here and has already been a few times, so I decided to come on my own."
We then got into a brief conversation about the Air and Space Museum before the shuttle bus arrived.
The bit I didn't say was before it's too late. The 8 hour flight squeezed into an Economy seat was pretty uncomfortable, and eating lunch had been a particularly tricky - and messy - affair. No doubt it will be even worse on the overnight return flight. But I can still do it and I can still enjoy stuff when I'm here, so I'm making the best of it before I inevitably get to the stage where long haul travel is no longer viable.
Travelling with Parkinson's does have its challenges. Often it's the little things that are difficult, like fumbling to take off my watch and belt every time I go through the ubiquitous security checks on the way in to museums and other sights, or having difficulty opening a bottle of mineral water. Or having to repeat myself several times because my voice is too soft. I also have to pace myself and not try to do too much, and keep out of the sun as much as possible.
It's been worth it though. In a couple of days I've seen the seat of US government, the largest library in the world, the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the US and Magna Carta, the Changing of the Guard at Arlington Cemetery, the impressive National Gallery of Art, and much more.
I have a couple more days here to take in a few more museums and monuments. Enough, I hope, to have something interesting to talk about in case I start chatting to anyone on the way home...
