Camping with Friends and Family and Parkinson's

        We went camping for a few days. I just had no idea how I would be camping with Parkinson's. I tried to leave Parkinson's home but it insisted on coming with me!! I told it to behave because I wanted to have a nice time with family and our friends! But as all Parkinson's People know, it rarely behaves! We left to go camping on Sat. but we went to my girlfriend's 60th birthday party first! The party was fun, I had taken my meds about 30 minutes before so I was able to leave Parkinson's outside in the car!  Parkinson's sometimes listens to me for the first two hours after I take Carbidopa Levodopa. After that, it starts to be uncontrollable and misbehave! My girlfriend had a purple themed party, everyone had to wear purple(even the guys).  Dan and I went to TJ MAXX earlier in the week and he got a purple POLO shirt! He really likes her so he wanted to follow the party plan! Her house looked so adorable, purple was everywhere! She is a very thoughtful friend, she used the glass plate I had given her as a housewarming gift!  She made purple flowers for all of the female friends to wear!!

I wonder what her favorite color is!!

 Olivia, Frankie, and Olya also came to the party.  I think the birthday girl was my first friend that they met when they came to America!  After the party, we all took off for camping because we wanted to set  up before it got dark. Oilvia, Frankie, and Olya got there before us and had already set up the tent!

Then they helped Dan set up the camper because Parkinson's told me NOT to help because I had no balance at that time!

  I got out of the car but kept doing the two or three step shuffle. That night we had a campfire and chatted and had a lot of fun!

Lots of room inside the camper!

I started to have trouble swallowing that night. It just came up all of a sudden out of the blue! Parkinson's NEVER lets me forget that it has control of my life and I hate that! The girls and Frankie and Dan had fun riding our scooter!!  I tried riding the scooter but my balance was poor! Frankie had to leave Sunday night because he had to work on Monday.

        The next day Olya's boyfriend Matt and his parents came to hang out with us.

The lake water was really warm.  The  kids swam and we chatted!!

I just love both of his parents.  They are so nice and they are so kind to Olya. We hope that Matt and Olya keep dating because we really like all of them!! Matt's brother Kyle couldn't come because he was away with a friend! The girls both really enjoy hanging out with Kyle.  We had so much fun chatting and eating(always about the food) and laughing!!   

They brought homemade pasta salad and all the Smore's  ingredients!! Matt is very funny! He is very bright and has a dry sense of humor and is very quick witted!  While Matt's parents were with us, I mostly forgot about Parkinson's unless I had to get up or down!  They stayed for our campfire and then had to leave because they all had work the next morning!! Matt came the next night to hang out with Olya! They played cards. I had to teach them how to play Crazy Eights and Gin Rummy!  Kids(young adults) today don't know what fun we had as kids chasing lightning bugs, playing tag and card games !! 
        We packed up most of our things Monday night because we had to leave the campground by
7 a m to get Olivia to work by 11 a m. It took about an hour to close up the camper and again I couldn't help because Parkinson's was in charge. I did little things but couldn't do much.  It is very frustrating when you are an anal person like me and have to watch instead of participate.  I usually do all of the driving, even with the camper attached because Dan drives too fast for me! However, this trip I had to let him drive both ways because Parkinson's kept me off balance! I just didn't feel like I could handle the responsibility of the attached camper. I feel like Parkinson's is my prison warden!  I want TIME OFF for good behavior!! But it isn't happening.     

I keep trying to break out but the warden keeps capturing me!