Driving in Arizona

One of the things I worried about in Arizona was the idea that Arizona was flooded with senior citizens driving the streets.  It’s funny how I was actually worried a bit after being picked up at the airport during my first visit.  I figured the drive to my parent’s house would be like trying to avoid a bumper car situation.

Visiting Mom with my son

My Dad was already gone.  Mom was alone, so it was always nice when family and friends would visit her.  My oldest son was almost as apprehensive about flying as I was, so the two of us were a good match.  Unfortunately, I needed an aisle seat and he preferred a window.  On the flight in we sat together.  On the flight back we chose our preferred seats and a poor gentleman sat between us, sometimes having to be part of our conversation.

Prior to the trip, we discussed our fear of flying and joked about it.  Everything went fine and we arrived at Mom’s with no problems.  Mom had bad knees and we knew we wanted to do some things without her and she understood.  She let us borrow her big caddy.  She thought I was driving it.

But as soon as we turned the corner in her cul-de-sac, we swtiched seats.  I hate to drive and my son loves to, so it worked out.  I just don’t think Mom would understand as he was still her “little grandson.”  He was about 25 at the time.

I’ll go into our travels in later posts.  I wouldn’t have thought traveling with my son could be so much fun, but we have a lot in common.

When all three of us would go out together, Mom would drive.  As we’re driving somewhere, Mom makes a left turn in front of an oncoming truck!  I screamed, “What are you doing?!”  She slammed on the breaks and screamed back, “I don’t know!”

My son and I joked about how we couldn’t wait to get back on a plane – because it was so safe!  The jokes kept coming about how smooth the flight was and that we didn’t have to worry about a geriatric flying in the sky.

My fears of seniors driving in AZ were validated, by my own mother.  I was able to order my first senior citizen meal over my New Year’s Eve trip to Scottsdale this year.  I better stop making jokes about “us.”