Celiac on the Road (and trying to eat Veganish-Pescatarian)

When one eats in a less typical way or has an autoimmune illness like celiac, traveling is more complicated, challenging, and requires planning. On our recent travels, at moments I lost my planning mojo, allowing myself to slide into a “It will work out” mindset. Not a good state for a celiac.

More than half our travel time was spent on an Azamara cruise ship, a line I give top marks for thoughtful, mostly careful food preparation and variety. At every meal, the kitchen offered at least one vegan entree, several vegetarian options, wonderful fish and lots of fresh vegetable and fruit salads. I could count on a delicious vegan curry or dal each day at lunch.

One evening, the chef made me a savory seafood stir fry with rice noodles and vegetables.

Looks good, doesn’t it?

Following a tour of Carara National Park and the Tarcoles River, we stopped for a typical Costa Rican lunch at the stunning Villa Caletos.

Beautiful fish, black beans, fresh veggies.

An this was the view from the restaurant. In my relaxed state, I grew loose with planning.

Once off the ship and in California for a road trip, securing food resumed the more typical pattern of sometimes all goes well and sometimes it doesn’t. No pampering, like on the ship.

In Los Angeles after an entertaining tour of the impressive Union Station, we and our friends headed to Olvera Street for lunch, the land of Mexican food (usually a safe choice) but which offered limited options for me. The restaurants were ripe for cross contamination, the beans were prepared with lard, the cooks disinterested in answering questions about the food. A little research ahead of time could have prevented this goof. I was off my planning game.

A quick google search produced a list of gluten free friendly restaurants and we headed to True Food Kitchen (truefoodkitchen.com) in Santa Monica which offered excellent safe food, lots of vegan options, a jazzy, fun atmosphere.

Our travels continued. Next up, traveling and eating on the Central coast

From Disenchantment to Forward

Enjoying nature. Is there a better way to re-engage with life?

My last post left off with me pondering the Disenchantment Stage of Atchley’s Retirement Stages. For some time, I’ve reflected on my own disenchantment, allowing myself to consider all kinds of reasons and ultimately solutions.
My thoughts continued to drift back to 2015 and a cycling trip to Puglia, Italy. On the trip, we met a couple from California, he a mostly retired ER then later radiology doctor and she, a self-described housewife and mother of five. As R and I sat with her in the lobby of our gorgeous masseria, all trying to connect to the finicky internet, me nursing my injuries from the previous day’s bike crash, she spontaneously began reflecting on life. Her radiologist husband had completed his own round of radiation for prostate cancer four and a half months earlier. This bike trip in Puglia was both his reward at the end of treatment and possibly his last trip to Europe. In her musing, she revealed that they were both just passed 70 years-old. She then said something that resonated with me, something I’ve often contemplated, though I doubt she considered her words impactful.

She said any good, healthy years past age 70 are “gravy,” Gravy. Past 70.

Her words stuck with me, this wise woman from California.

But why?

When we returned home from that trip, R visited his internist for a follow up on a rising PSA reading, the test designed to detect prostate cancer, the same cancer the doc on the bike trip was recovering from. R’s PSA numbers earned him a visit to a urologist, and over the next 1 1/2 years more tests, a biopsy, more tests, eventually an MRI, then a super biopsy, a diagnosis of cancer, full body scans to see if the cancer had metastasized. He was 66. What followed was a radical prostatectomy, a recovery, frequent testing to see if the cancer was metastasizing and lots of sadness, anger, and ongoing worry.

This historical summary leads me back to Atchley’s Disenchantment and Reorientation Stages of retirement. Atchley cites a number of reasons people feel disenchanted with retirement after the initial honeymoon phase, including limited alternatives, limited financial resources, over-identification with work, other role losses in retirement and two that apply to me — leaving a community where one has lived for years and health issues.

Many people move when they retire, many people stay put and some live in two places.
Moving from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest was always our plan and that piece has worked out mostly fine.

That leaves health issues. None of us seek health issues or illnesses such as cancer; with the help of genetics, lifestyle choices, and sometimes from nothing beyond just aging or being human, illness finds us. Doesn’t seem surprising that one might end up feeling disappointed and land in the Disenchanted Stage if this occurred in retirement. That was my route.

R has a PSA in January 2018 and if it is clear, testing will move to twice a year, allowing us more freedom from appointments.

According to Atchley, everyone arrives, some sooner and others way later, at the Disenchantment Stage. Whether one arrives organically or is pushed into disenchantment by unwanted illness, figuring out the best use of retirement is necessary and an opportunity. Slogging best describes our movement through most of this year, a year we can’t wait to kiss good-bye. However, we plan to end the year actively considering possibilities for next year. R has a PSA in January 2018 and if it is clear, testing will move to twice a year, allowing us freedom from frequent check ups.

I imagine many, if not all, cancer survivors view life after treatment and recovery as a new beginning, a second chance. I’m not sure we took retirement for granted prior to R’s cancer. I know we won’t now. Who knows if we’ll ever greet the gravy years. For now we are focused on the opportunity and privilege to re-engage in life as we enter Atchley’s Reorientation Stage.

A happy moment just before sunset in Ngala, South Africa. 2018 will bring more and more moments.

How do passionate travelers spend their time when traveling is sidelined?

I’ve moved or I should say I’m moving from Blogger to WordPress. When blogger stopped supporting its app for the IPad, blogger became too frustrating.  So 50 Beds and counting (50bedsgapyear.blogspot.com) has morphed into this blog. I’m trying to work out issues with glitchy performance from Word Press and I’m hopeful we’ll get there.

Forward we go.

Back to my title question: If you are a traveler and can’t travel for awhile how do you spend your time?

I’ve pondered this question hundreds of times over the last five months. We’ve been sidelined, benched, our traveling life suspended by cancer, the nasty game changer. This is a blow to two people who have visited 25 countries, most of them new destinations for us, over the past two and a half years as well as a number of US destinations. Two people who planned their early retirement years, their “Go-Go Years,” as a time filled with adventures have been stuck at home.

When I say stuck, I mean stuck at home.

We’ve enjoyed pleasures while hanging around town — made new friends, deepened friendships with current friends, protested, worked to get out the Democratic vote, took classes — mosaic, XC skiing, snowshoed, read tons of books, binged watched British mystery and crime TV shows, mourned the election results, shoveled snow, worried about snow on our roof, joined our neighbors in digging out the storm drains, stocked up on Smartwool socks, slid on the ice, and drank margaritas.
We’ve also scoured cruise specials, bike tours, airfare deals as a means of staying connected to our traveling dreams. Planning a trip prior to receiving an all-clear from the surgeon-oncologist and approval to board a long haul flight seemed risky, like we might jinx a most wanted outcome. So we’ve contented ourselves with dreaming.
I’m glad we did not delay travel over the past two and a half years.
Now surgery is over, recovery has begun, the pathology report will soon be known. We’ll be traveling again once good news is ours. Because if you are a person who loves traveling, exploring, learning about the world, being sidelined….isn’t so great.

Bend Women’s March.