Blue Cross Blue Shield
Judy Vickberg took her first plane trip with a stand-by ticket and $20 when she got out of college. That adventure hooked her for life, but after she got married, traveling took a backseat to toddlers and toilet training. She says she didn’t really start traveling until she was 49. “The first time I went to Europe I did it alone with my 16-year old daughter.”
Since that voyage, she’s made up for lost time. She now has 30 states and 13 countries under her belt – some of them multiple times, “It’s a great way to learn and it motivates me to keep up my health to do it!” says Judy.
For some, that motivation might have faded after one particular trip that didn’t go as planned, but not Judy, “In 2007, our ship sunk off the coast of Santorini right when we got there…but I got a free trip!”
At 72 years old, Judy shows no sign of slowing down — there’s just too much to do she says. And, as a born-organizer, she’s not about to let her friends slow down either, “For my 70th birthday, I decided we needed one more pajama party,” so she planned a weekend trip to a bed and breakfast near their childhood home.
Last winter, however, a broken shoulder meant staying put for a while. In her non-stop style, Judy was cleaning her house for company and took a spill on a rug. Her shoulder snapped. Even then, she threw herself into physical therapy — determined to get back to life as she knew it.
As soon as her doctor gave her the ok, she headed right back to exercise classes at the Y. She’s convinced that attending her Silver and Fit classes is the only thing keeping her off blood pressure medication. She goes three times a week to stay fit and connected. “I plan to go the Y as long as I can get there. I told my younger neighbor that she has to take me if they ever take my car away.”
Now that her shoulder is repaired, she’s been exercising in the pool to avoid having surgery on her knee. She went through that once for a torn meniscus and says she isn’t willing to risk it again, “Motion is lotion. I’ve had better results from four times a week in the pool than the surgery.”
And she’s got another reason she wants her knee in working order fast: a fall train trip to Banff, Canada. All aboard!
