April things too small for their own post:
- I went back to Trader Joe’s for the first time in two months, but to a different store than the one I worked at. I didn’t want to be bombarded with questions or explain over and over why I left, etc. so Brett and I instead drove to the next closest store up in Nashville. Whoa! It had twice the floorspace of my former store, was better organized, cleaner, and I had fun wandering the aisles as I shopped, looking at how they had everything laid out and organized. And, the best part: no one knew who I was. I bought the items on my list and left. I won’t need to do another TJ’s shop for around two months, but I know where I’ll be going again.
- We’ve now walked all the trails at nearby Smith Park after a mid-month hike with K on the Green Trail. I found myself struggling at times on this last hike because of pain in my left knee, something that started up before I left TJ’s. It was weird because the knee doesn’t hurt at all on two-mile walks around the apartment complex but was very painful on this hike. It has me wondering how I’ll do with all the walking and especially all the stair climbing there will be in Japan.
The train ride across Canada has been a long-held dream.
- Brett and I have often talked about doing something BIG for our 50th anniversary and a few ideas have come and gone over the years. But, we think we’re getting close enough now to come up with something to work toward, and think an extended train trip or two would be a wonderful way to celebrate this big milestone. We’ve long dreamed of taking the train from Vancouver, B.C. to Toronto, for example, but there are many other great rail journeys all over the world to choose from, although many, if not most, are completely out of our price range. We’ll be 79 and 77 on our 50th, so this goal has two parts to it: continuing to maintain our health as well as choosing and making the journey itself. Fingers crossed we can pull both these off!
The Occasional Nomads 
Have you considered getting a cortisone shot in your knee before you go to Japan? I had one before our last trip to Kenya and it helped a lot. They last about 3 months or so.
just a thought….
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I have considered getting a cortisone shot, but more for my hips. The bursitis honestly bothers me more than my knee, but as a doctor once told me, it can be a slippery slope once you get a shot as you can’t do them forever (or shouldn’t). I’m don’t think I’m there yet, although I may be by the time I get home from Japan.
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I have knee issues so I do understand!
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When my kneecap was broken I suddenly understood why people go for the knees when they want to injure someone. Knee injuries are not necessarily over once you recover and the consequences can remain for a lifetime. They are the worst!
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In my experience, knee issues always get worse with stairs and walking, especially downhill walking. I can just take a wrong step and days of misery with my knee.
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It’s been 25 years since I broke my knee and I still cannot go down stairs without holding a railing. Like you, one wrong slip often equals days of misery. I no longer ride bikes or do those sort of activities because of the danger of falling and re-injuring my knee.
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My wonky knee has been acting up lately, and I’m trying to figure out why. Yoga has been a great help in getting it to move more easily and gain flexibility. I think maybe I walked too much on marble floors last week. I did have a cortisone shot in that knee years back, and it didn’t help much. I did shots in one finger for a long time and when I finally went to a hand surgeon, he told me I had to stop or it would destroy that joint. So I’m not keen on doing my knee.
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Your experience with a cortisone shot is my worry – it won’t provide the relief I expect, and I can’t do it frequently or enough to make it worthwhile. My knee only bothers me in certain environments, but I feel like the current pains are a result of all the walking I did on those cement floors at Trader Joe’s. My bursitis never bothered me there though – weird.
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Cortisone in any form can also hurt OTHER tendons in the body such as the achilles,making it more prone to tears. I had a friend who tore hers just stepping off a curb.The shots she got were into the knees.. but they do work systemically.Just not a fan of cortisone but I know pain keeps us from fun activities.. have to pick and choose carefully…
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My brother received cortisone shots in his knees when he was in high school, and it was very tricky then, which I think is one reason I’m so hesitant to get one. I was offered them for my bursitis back in the day by my doctor warned me it was a slippery slope if I got started so I’ve never gotten one (although wished desperately I had a few times).
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I have been trying to post this since you published this post.
Unless it’s important to see the Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba), I would do the train trip from Vancouver to Calgary, AB. The prairies aren’t the most scenic & also, the VIA trains do not have right of way on the tracks, so there is a lot of sitting on side rails waiting for the freight trains. Northwestern Ontario is a lot of bush & while pretty, probably doesn’t have a ton of views. I would consider maybe going east from Toronto to the East Coast. Or better yet, if you don’t mind driving, drive around the east coast. Stunning scenery & fabulous food. There maybe a train trip in the Maritimes but I’m not sure on that. The train trips here are brutally expensive, I have friends who did in and around the west coast of the US, I could likely find out more if you’d like. Hope this helps.
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Thank you, thank you for all this information! We mainly want the long journey to relax and be spoiled by the train company! And nothing could be less scenic than the Nullabor Desert in Australia and yet we still enjoyed traveling through it.
We did talk about driving through the Eastern/Maritime provinces after Toronto, but are also looking at other train journeys in other locations that we can do after Canada. No firm decisions yet though – just ideas being tossed around for now.
I agree about train trips being expensive, but Canada ones are a bargain compared to Europe and some other locations.
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