Tape and a Sock to the Rescue
We went back to the Musee D'Orsay and the babka bakery. A lovely few days.
From there it was a train to Avignon. The train has reserved seating and our seats were up a flight of staris, but a railyway employee, when she saw me, wasn't having it. She found us seats on the lower level, and off we went.
Because I screwed up dates, we arrived in Avignon the day before our food and wine tour started, but that turned out to be fortuitous. We checked into our hotel and had a day to explore the old town. We found a great place for lunch, and I got to practice my cobblestone-walking skills.
The next day Marlene, our driver and tour guide, picked us up to take us to our villa. And villa was not an exaggeration. A beautiful old stone chateau with a swimming pool and spa. Pascal, the owner, greeted us with wine, olives, and crackers. There were eight in the group, and we sat outside, drank some grenache/syrah and got to know each other a bit. It didn't take long to discover we were all politically aligned, which was a relief. Then, we were taken to our rooms.
We had the room on the first floor, and sometimes having a disability has its advantages. It was a suite with a huge bedroom, living room, kitchen, and patio The bathroom had a walk-in shower, and they supplied me with a plastic chair.
After a nice dinner at a downtown restaurant, we returned to our villa, full and exhausted. I took a shower, got ready for bed, which includes plugging in my leg. My leg currently is a loaner while mine is in Germany for its three-year service. So, I plug it in. The power light goes on but the charging light does not. Hmmm. I fiddle with the plug and discover if I twist the end that goes into the leg, it charges. With no plans to keep holding it all night I call Jerry, my resident engineer. He had packed some tape, so he taped it into place to keep the charger light glowing. My biggest concern was getting the leg to charge after my inevitable middle-of-the-night bathroom trip. But I succeeded in retaping it and woke to fully charged leg.
All was well for the next few days. My microprocessor knee got a real workout. I put lots and lots of steps on it, and it served me well.
Then, on maybe Day Four, we ran out of tape. We tried velcro, which we had bought in Avignon to use after the tape ran out. It didn't work. We were panicking a bit, and thenI remembered we brought some self-sticking gauze in case I needed to recushion my cane handle. We tried that, but it didn't quite do the trick, so Jerry put on his engineer hat and got one of his socks. It had pigs on it. He tied that over the gauze and Voila! We have charge!
It was delightful not to have to worry about that the rest of the trip. I worked hard to be normal, but my tour colleagues were constantly amazed at my stamina. At our first cooking class, I stood throughout it. I just had to remember to distribute weight and trust my leg.
On our walking tours I pretty much kept up with everybody. In reality, we were all a bunch of old farts, but the pace was pretty good.
After our week in Provence we headed to Toulouse for a few days. Again, lots of walking. I did well.
We arrived home yesterday, and today we headed to the prosthetist. They gave me another charger, so no more gauze and pig sock.
On this trip I ate and drank much more than I usually do when I travel, but came home with moderate weight loss. I credit lots of walking and no processed food.
The trip was good on so many levels. I didn't fall, I mde at least one new friend, and my confidence soared. I ws afraid it would be too hard, that i couldn't keep up. But it wasn't and I did. I'm ready to start planning the next.
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