At age 78 and with a spouse with advanced dementia, it is natural that I might worry if my own cognitive abilities are declining. When I was invited to attend a wedding in a Boston suburb I decided that this would be a good test, both of my problem solving abilities and whether or not I wanted to travel on my own.
I spent considerable time planning, I chose a hotel adjacent to the end of a "T" line that ran into Boston but wasn't far from the wedding venue. It went well, I learned to use the T and negotiate routes that required using several trains. I learned to use the Lyft app and got a ride to the wedding venue.
On Saturday, Oct 21 I used three trains to get me to the Amtrak station for my planned train trip across the country. I settled into my compartment and the train started to pull out of the station. Then it backed back into the station. An announcement said anyone going beyond Albany, NY needed to get off the train. I was certainly going beyond Albany as were many other passengers. It seems that a mudslide had damaged the track, not the track we would pass over but the track on which the New York train, and with which ours would merge needed to travel. For some logistical reason that was not made clear it meant that our train could not proceed beyond Albany.
What to do? I looked at flights for that day but it was getting late and I was not at the airport. I decided to get a room at an airport hotel. It was raining and the nearest Lyft was 15 min away so I decided to take a cab. He must have been the most clueless cab driver in all of Boston. I told him what hotel I needed to get to, he had no idea whereto go. He needed the address. So I put the name of the hotel into the app on my phone and got him the address (he couldn't do this himself?). When we got to the airport complex he drove right by the sign that pointed the way to my hotel and started to go around in circles. Finally I pulled up google maps on my phone and guided him to the hotel. Once settled I booked a flight home.
I'm reassured that the old girl still has it. I used the Delta app, the Amtrak app and the Lyft app, found my way around Boston and did some problem solving. I'm still not sure how I feel about traveling on my own, I do miss my companion of 57 years but now I feel confident that I can do it if I want to, at least for now.
