Moving to Portland….via the Long Way Home

     It’s now only 2 months before the World Parkinson Congress and I hope many of you will be traveling to Portland in September. I’ve gotten a head start on the travel to Portland by actually moving there - 23 years ago after graduating from medical school. Since I took a rather unique route to Portland that took me over a month to complete, I thought I share some of my travel images here.

      My trek started with a 1000 mile road trip to move a dog and two fish from Las Vegas to Portland and allow me to meet the first shipment of our household goods. I was fortunate to have companions, because my path took me along a lot of open roads including “The Loneliest Road in America” – US Route 50 in Nevada.

     Two days after reaching Portland, I flew back to Las Vegas to begin a journey to attend six US National Team soccer games within a month’s time. We flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the first game and the start of a week long journey to visit  three of the major cities in Caribbean. The other two cities were Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Port au Prince – with this stop in Haiti added one more countries to the list of those I’ve visited.

  

Puerto Rico                                                                        Dominican Republic

  

Haiti                                                                                 Haiti

     After a brief two day stop in Portland to begin unpacking, I traveled to work a few days in Seattle and Denver.  Then we were off on a cross country journey to watch Copa America games in four US cities:  Santa Clara, Chicago, Philadelphia and Argentina  

    

     Our month of travels culminated is a very special event when Lila and I spent 4 days in Bermuda to renew our wedding vows and celebrate of our 25^th wedding anniversary.

  

    Our return to the States was then followed by another 1000 mile drive from Las Vegas to Portland to move our second vehicle and finally unload the second shipment of house goods in Portland.  Now that we are somewhat settled back in Portland I am beginning to plan for some activities during WPC 2016. Here are a few highlights:

-    I will be emcee for the Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon Sole Support walk on the weekend leading up to WPC.  I hope to see many of you there, so here is the link to further information:  Sole Support for Parkinson's

-   I’m looking forwarding to coordinating get-togethers for my fellow WPC bloggers and those that have been involved with my travel challenges in the past...more to come later.

-  Finally, I was fortunate to have my video for WPC selected to the top 12 and therefore, eligible for “People’s Choice Award” voting. You can view all of the top 12 videos and place your vote at the following link:  WPC Video Competition voting

- Mark