Hey Friends! Buzz here. Mom asked me to say thanks to everybody for their generosity and for sharing our GoFundMe. She told me that we almost have enough money for gas to make the loop from our home here in Maryland to New Mexico, up to Yellowstone and back home. She said the fund drive is going pretty well.

Oh, and for those inquiring minds? We planning to start out on our trip in late February of '26.

Again, thanks for all of your help!

Yay, friends!!!!

Hey, everyone! Thanks to everyone who has donated to the cause. Our stuffy, Buzz, heard about this effort and wants to help out.

Hi everybody!

My name is Buzz D Chimp & I’m a retired Astro chimp named after Buzz Aldrin. Mom started a GoFundMe for Dad & I want to help! I don’t type very well, so my Mom, Christine Brendle, is giving me a hand.

The doctors told my Dad, Vernon Portner, that he has Alzheimer’s disease. It is still in the really early stages & hasn’t affected his memory or his cognitive function too much. (I think cognitive function means thinking & figuring things out.) There are drugs he’ll be able to take to help him, but the doctors say they won’t help him right now.

Our stuffy family, with Mom’s help, would like to take him on a road trip so he can take lots of pictures to share with everyone. Mom says that someday Dad won’t be able to travel & that we don’t know when that will happen because this Alzheimer’s thing is like that. So, the stuffies & I want to take him on this trip soon.

He loves the West & wants to see more of New Mexico & Arizona, & the Grand Canyon, & Yellowstone & the Badlands & all those weird, wild, beautiful rocks in Utah. Of course, there’s also lots to see between our home here in Maryland & the west (& especially places a retired Astro chimp would like to see).

We all want to camp in a tent & Mom says that some camping will be okay, but that we have to stay in hotels some nights, too. (She has to remind Dad that he doesn’t get around as well as he used to.)

Mom & Dad are retired & don’t have extra money for a trip. I’m retired, too, & the rest of the stuffies don’t have a job, so that’s why we started this GoFundMe thing to raise funds for a trip for Dad. I don’t really understand it (I AM just a stuffy, after all), but Mom says we’ll use the donations for gas, lodging & groceries. (She’s really good at cooking out of the back of their mini-van.) And, even though I don’t understand how all of this stuff works, I hope you can help us take my Dad on this adventure.

Sincerely, Buzz (& my Stuffy family) (& Mom)

Vernon Portner, my love and best friend, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's/frontal lobe dementia and is in the very early stages. He will be able to take Leqembi, but he hasn’t gotten to the stage of Alzheimer's where it will be effective. Once his Alzheimer’s progresses to the point where he will start taking that drug, it will mean infusions every 2 weeks for a very long time. He’s also got some mobility issues. (The older we get, the more we become aware that aging is NOT for sissies.)

He’s loved our visits to Arizona and New Mexico in years past, and he really wants to return and take his time exploring more of the West and Southwest—not only the well-known places like the Grand Canyon & Yellowstone, but also the Pueblos of NM, the petroglyph sites, the Badlands, & all the quirky places in between. He has been an avid amateur photographer for decades and would love nothing more than to spend time making photographs while he still can. And of course, this trip will also give us the chance to visit our many friends and family that are spread around the country.

He would love to tent camp, but the reality is that we really aren’t able to tent camp anymore—at least not for weeks at a time. A small motor home would be a dream come true for us, but we’re realistic old farts and we’ll settle for staying in motels and cooking our meals out of the back of our min-ivan.

This wonderful man has spent his life taking care of other people in health care as a registered ICU nurse, oncology nurse, dialysis & general medical tech & EMT/paramedic, and I would love to be able to take care of him and make this trip become a reality.

I’ve never done a GoFundMe before, and it feels strange to ask people for money like this; ditto for setting a goal amount—it feels strange, too.

If you have a few extra dollars you can spare, I would be forever grateful for your help in giving him this one last trip before he can’t travel anymore.