Failure and Success

A few weeks, ago I spent some quality time with my wife while our children were away in sleepover camp. We used this chance to get away for a weekend and booked us into a cottage near a group of waterfalls that I really like, close to the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania. So far so good, but there were some hurdles to take in order to make this an all-around successful trip.

The issue was “how to get there?” Sure, my wife can drive, but that was not the point. Instead, I wanted to proof that I can STILL drive. I guess I have to explain this a little, in case you haven’t heard this story before. About 2 years ago, we took a trip to Colorado and among many other things we drove from Durango to Ouray, on the famous “Million Dollar Highway.” You know that one? No? Well, here is some info: 1 lane each direction, across 2 12,000 feet (or more) passes, via steep inclines, hairpin turns, and no shoulders or guardrails, with drops right next to the road, straight down for what seems like thousands of feet!!!

In short, having already had Parkinson’s, but still being on almost no medication at all (having just been diagnosed a few months earlier), my right leg was shaking so vividly that it was hard to push the gas paddle consistently and I feared for my family’s and my life in ways I never experienced before. The following day, I could not even drive on a wide highway in flat country, still shaking. It shocked me so bad that I completely lost my confidence in driving on a street outside of my hometown. The result was that my wife had to drive more than the liked, including on that excursion in Colorado.

OK, so back now to current trip to the waterfalls. Well, I drove us there, and back as well, and on all the roads traveled in between! Yep, occasionally the leg was still shaking, but very mildly, and occasionally my hands gripped the steering wheel like I wanted to have a mind-melt with it, but for the most part it was a good driving experience that allowed me to look forward to another road trip in the future, with me as the driver.

Oh, and the waterfalls? Well, that was a failure, haha, as recent rainstorms caused too much water in the streams, making for very poor conditions to photograph a smooth silky flow of water in the falls. Not to mention that an overhaul to the pathways took access away from the really good shooting spots! But life is not all about photography, and at least as far as this particular weekend was concerned it was completely irrelevant, what mattered was that I regained something that I thought I lost forever!

Ingo