Despite the name, snowbird season doesn’t just last from October to January. This season of finding warmer weather continues for most snowbirds through April, making spring a popular time for travel for anyone age 50-plus.
It’s just as important for snowbirds to be aware of travel safety information when heading to their winter home as it is for them in the spring and summer seasons. The tips below ensure staying safe during travels.
Keep friends and family Informed.
Everyone has a cell phone, but you never know if you might get caught in a situation where you have no signal or the battery dies. It’s best to provide friends and family with your travel itinerary before you leave home. And then if you must make any changes, update them along the way. A check-in every few hours with an updated location is a good idea when driving, so that if anything does go wrong, people know a general area of where to look for you.
Put technology to work.
Portable power is a must for the road or air travel to ensure your phone is always powered. And keep any mobile personal emergency-response devices in an accessible garment pocket. This way, they’re within easy reach if you have an emergency and can’t dial your phone. Consider downloading weather reports, route guidance, gas station finders, and other relevant travel apps to your phone. These can give you alerts about bad weather, where to find gas, traffic delays, and local news alerts.
Travel at off times.
While you’re traveling home, millions of other Americans are traveling for their spring-break vacation. If you are driving, map out alternative routes to avoid traffic jams. Don’t always rely on GPS to find you the best route once you’re already in heavy traffic. Identify any stops you can make along the way, especially if you’re traveling with a pet. This gives you time to re-route if needed and gives everyone a break to stretch their legs.
Overpack medicine, vital supplies.
Planning ahead and bringing extra medication and other items that you need to maintain your health on a daily basis is a necessary precaution, as shipping delays and sourcing continue to be a challenge.
There is always a lot to get done when planning and packing for a trip. The planning may take extra steps and require extra gear, but the investment in a well-planned trip back home will be well worth it.
Plan alternative routes to avoid traffic jams. Don’t always rely on GPS to find the best route once in gridlock.
Chris Holbert is the chief executive officer of SecuraTrac, a developer of mobile-safety devices and technology for older adults and business employees.
This year’s 60-day session of the Washington Legislature included efforts to help older adults hold onto as much of their income as possible–paying for hospital visits, expanding senior property tax exemptions, the cost of long-term care, and helping digital users thwart online scams. Cathy MacCaul, AARP Washington’s advocacy director, reports what came of those focuses:
Charity care (House Bill 1616)
About two-thirds of individuals who file for bankruptcy cite medical debt as a key contributor. Charity-care laws require hospitals to forgive some or all out-of-pocket costs for essential healthcare to low-income patients. But Washington’s law only covered those who make up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The passage of HB 1616 will strengthen Washington’s social safety net for low-income residents by expanding access to those who make up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. More information on the new income guidelines is available at CharityCare@doh.wa.gov or 360-236-4210.
Personal Needs Allowance (Senate Bill 5745)
50,000 Washingtonians receive Medicaid-funded in-home care. The Personal Needs Allowance (PNA) is the income that a Medicaid recipient can keep after paying co-pays. Washington’s PNA rate was $1,074 a month, far lower than the national average.
New legislation more than doubles Washington’s allowance to $2,382. This means fewer people will have to choose between paying for their care or necessities like food, rent, and utilities.
Senior property tax exemption.
Changes to the state’s senior property tax exemption program have expanded the number of deductions taxpayers can take to determine if they are eligible. Older adults and those with disabilities can deduct out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, homecare, Medicare and Medicare supplemental insurance premiums, long-term care insurance, and medical equipment. To be eligible, property owners must be at least 61 years old or disabled, a veteran with an 80 percent service-connected disability, or the surviving spouse or domestic partner who is at least 57 and was married to someone previously receiving the exemption.
Digital navigator fraud training.
The COVID pandemic forced many to rely more than ever on the Internet for food, medicine, doctor visits, shopping, and social connection to family and friends. Digital navigator services help new Internet users get online and support individuals seeking work, families supporting students, English language learners, Medicaid clients, people experiencing poverty, and seniors. The services will include a hotline to call during standard business hours for assistance or schedule an appointment with a digital navigator, and ongoing digital skills training. More information is at connect-wa.org or 800-216-1132.
WA Cares.
In December 2021, the Legislature paused the start of WA Cares to make improvements to the long-term care program. The original legislation had a narrow path for those who would retire before the 10-year vesting requirement to be eligible. Including benefits for near-retirees was the number one priority for AARP. Under House Bill 1732, more than 1 million near-retirees are now covered for services that can keep people in their homes as they age. Washington workers born before 1968 will qualify for partial benefits on a pro-rated basis, which equals 10 percent of the $36,500 benefit for each year they have paid into the fund.
Cathy MacCaul, an advocacy director for AARP, says Washington’s Legislature took steps this year to help make life more affordable for older adults.
A nationwide transition to clean, zero-emission vehicles would have a dramatic impact on the air quality and health of Washington residents, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.
The association (ALA) said its “Zeroing in on Healthy Air” report, released March 30, reveals that a widespread transition to vehicles powered by clean electricity would result in up to 531 avoided deaths and $5.9 billion in public health benefits in Washington.
The report (available online at lung.org/EV) illustrates the potential health and climate benefits if all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2035 and all newly sold trucks and buses are zero-emission by 2040. ALA projects that the nation’s electric grid will be powered by clean, non-combustion electricity replacing dirty fossil fuels by 2035.
Nationally, a widespread transition to electric vehicles would generate more than $1.2 trillion in health benefits and $1.7 trillion in additional climate benefits by 2050. In Washington, the transition would generate $5.9 billion in public health benefits and result in up to:
531 avoided deaths.
15,000 avoided asthma attacks.
73,200 avoided lost workdays.
“The transportation sector is a leading contributor to air pollution and climate change,” said Carrie Nyssen, senior director of advocacy for American Lung Association in Washington. “Thankfully, the technologies and systems are in place to make these benefits a reality, especially in communities most impacted by harmful pollution today. We need our state leaders to act to implement equitable policies and invest in the transition to healthy air today. This is an urgent health issue for millions of people in the U.S.”
If not for too many obstacles stacked up against Seattle’s first Major League Baseball team, the Pilots might very well be a month into the 2022 season right now instead of the Mariners.
Depending on their age, baseball fans have either distant memories or none at all of the beleaguered Pilots, who played their one and only season in 1969. A year later, the franchise was moved half way across the country to Wisconsin and became (and still are) the Milwaukee Brewers.
The abrupt move followed legal wrangling in efforts to block the sale of the team and keep it in Seattle. Then came an eight-year stretch of more court proceedings aimed at holding baseball’s powers-that-be responsible for the Pilots’ demise and getting another team for Seattle, which eventually happened with the launch of the Mariners in 1977.
So what made the Pilots go so wrong? Shaky team finances. Ownership that couldn’t build a solid operation. A home stadium that was a minor-league ballpark masquerading (poorly) as a big-league venue. Combined, they doomed the Pilots virtually from the start. And a predictably bad win-loss record helped seal their fate.
The story began with Seattle as a potential jewel for expansion of Major League Baseball (MLB). The city anchored the third-largest metropolitan area on the West Coast, had a long history of supporting minor league baseball, and a group pushing for an MLB team that was headed by Dewey Soriano, a former pitcher and executive for minor league teams and ex-president of the Pacific Coast League, which included the Seattle Rainiers.
Existing MLB teams that were looking for greener pastures flirted in the 1960s with moving to Seattle, but instead the American League (AL) granted the city an expansion team. It was originally scheduled to start playing in 1971, but the debut was moved up two years because of political pressure from Missouri. The AL had also given Kansas City an expansion club to replace that city’s longtime team, the Athletics, who moved to Oakland in 1968. Stuart Symington, a then-U.S. senator (and a powerful one) for Missouri, objected to his state being told to wait three years for a new team and threatened legal and political trouble for MLB unless there was an earlier start. AL bosses, not wanting the new teams to enter the league in different years, switched the starts for Kansas City and Seattle to 1969.
Voters in King County, on the promise that MLB would come, approved a bond measure in 1968 for funding for the construction of the Kingdome, a domed stadium that would house baseball. The Kingdome wouldn’t be built in time for the Pilots, though, so that left a renovated Sicks Stadium as their temporary, inaugural home. As a condition for getting a franchise, the team’s owners promised the American League they would expand seating at the 31-year-old minor-league ballpark to 30,000. Only 19,500 were ready for opening day in April, and there were 25,000 by June, when the additions stopped. The place lacked other Major League amenities, and for games that drew more than 10,000 spectators, low-water pressure caused problems for toilets in restrooms.
With the Pilots playing losing ball most of the time (their final record was 64-98, last place in their division) and in a sub-standard venue, fan attendance was predictably low—but surprisingly not the worst. The Pilots drew 677,944 spectators to 81 home games, 20th-best among the 24 MLB teams and better than the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres. But the numbers were paltry and hurt the club’s bottom line, which wasn’t great to begin with. Right from the start, the Soriano-led ownership group needed the then-owner of the Indians (since renamed the Guardians) to finance much of the franchise purchase price.
With money drying up and no decent place to play for years to come, the Pilots’ future was bleak as the 1969 season wound down. Soriano began negotiations for the team to be sold and moved to Milwaukee. The deal went down for $10.8 million, but not without a fight. Soriano’s ownership partners rejected it under pressure from Washington’s U.S. senators, Henry Jackson and Warren Magnuson. Prospective new owners tried to buy the team but couldn’t pull the financing together or get the approval of other MLB team owners.
By the spring of 1970, court battles waged over the Pilots custody included a state-won court injunction temporarily blocking the sale. And the state, the city and King County jointly sued the American League for alleged breach of contract. None of that stopped the Pilots from heading east.
But the news eventually got better for Seattle-area baseball fans. The lawsuit continued until 1976, when the AL agreed to give Seattle another expansion team in exchange for dropping the case. During that time, the county—confident of baseball’s return—finished building the Kingdome, where the Mariners made their debut in 1977 wearing uniforms with the same blue-and-gold colors as the Pilots’.
Since then, the Kingdome and Sicks Stadium have been demolished, and many of the people involved in the story of a rag-tag, short-lived team are out of baseball or have passed away, Like a home run knocked out of the park, the Pilots are long gone, too. But not forgotten.
The players, coaches and top executives of the Seattle Pilots posed on their home field for an official team photo in 1969.
