Day 1

Well, this is unusual. I’m usually headed to an airport and have a story to tell about someone I sat next to on the plane or the shuttle, or something like that. Lumberton, Texas is a two-hour drive from my home in Nacogdoches. My very first trip for Leader back in the summer of ’22 was to Austin, and I drove there, but I’ve been on a plane for every trip since then. Until today.

Lumberton is just about 20 minutes north of Beaumont, TX, and is also the home of my very good friends, Dion and Julia Potter. Dion and I went to Stephen F. Austin together to learn to be O&M specialists WAY back when and Julia was already well on her way to world domination, studying to be a physical therapist. She’s now the proud owner, operator and head dishwasher at Potter Pediatrics in Lumberton and Dion has been teaching O&M in deep east Texas since God was a boy. I’m looking forward to spending some time with them, getting Dion’s opinion on training areas for my client and getting some of Julia’s cooking.  I have written about the Potter’s before, but somewhat indirectly while discussing the best BLT I ever had. It was on Julia’s mother and father’s side porch in Jasper, TX., in case you want to look that one up.

Day 2

It’s eclipse day, but I’m afraid that the deep east Texas weather is going to prevent me from seeing anything. If I make it that long, I’ll be in my 90s before the next full one comes this way. It’s neat, I suppose, but I gotta go to work today.

The day started well because breakfast at the hotel included REAL bacon. If that continues, I’ll be doing OK. I’m here in Lumberton to see Kevin, a former draftsman who lost his vision not too long ago. He’s lived in Lumberton for a long, long time and wants to be more independent, more comfortable doing the things he likes to do.

We started in a neighborhood with a pretty good sidewalk pattern over by Potter Pediatrics to make sure Kevin’s cane skills were solid and they were.  He’s had about 12 hours of O&M from the state previously and he has a good foundation. Before we finished for the morning, the skies opened up and began raining on us.  I had an umbrella with me, but I’m not a small person, nor is Kevin.  He’s 6’4 with big, broad shoulders and my little umbrella wasn’t doing the trick. We got pretty soaked before making it back to the vehicle, so heading home or to the hotel for dry clothes felt nice.

After lunch, we headed to Walmart to do parking lot and store travel. You’ve heard me say this before, but parking lots are evil places. They can be navigated safely, though, if you pay attention to the details. Store navigation is different in every store but has some similarities. For instance, most Walmart stores are configured the same: two entrances, customer service between the two in front of the registers, main north/south and east/west thoroughfares, pharmacy, bakery, etc. Now, they do change the store around a lot, I’m sure to keep us inside longer locating useless plastic objects we think we can’t live without. However, the main parts stay the main parts, and you can travel inside independently.  After indoor Walmart was conquered, we worked more in the parking lot and got an introduction to heavier traffic along one of the main streets in town.

After work, I met Dion and Julia for dinner at Tia Juanita’s Fish Camp for blackened redfish Pontchartrain with the jalapeño grits.  Julia said the grits would change my life and she may have been right…

Day 3

The bacon this morning looked remarkably like sausage links, so I passed on that.  The eggs looked real.  Real enough to try again. I did find one of those all-natural bagels with the all-natural cream cheese too.

I met Kevin sitting on his porch waiting for me.  We went out in search of stairs to practice his technique and ended up back at my hotel. If you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any stairs in Walmart or in most grocery stores.  Stair technique is a bit of a trick, but once you have it down, it’s not too bad.  As an O&M instructor, we’re taught to always go upstairs first because usually no one is nervous about falling up the stairs.  Get their confidence up locating the stairs and go up as far as you can to get the technique perfected, then head down.

The best advice I can give someone without vision learning to do stairs with a cane would be to find a technique that works for you and do that exact same technique every time. You don’t want to be guessing on the stairs or trying new things. Find one that works and stick with it. And please, for goodness’ sake, DON’T COUNT THE STAIRS.  Everyone thinks blind people count stairs or even count their steps.

This is not a great way to do things because: 1. What if you lose count? and 2: That’s a lot of counting everywhere you go. DON’T COUNT. And please don’t encourage anyone to do so. Instead, we teach consistency of technique and good use of time and distance in order to be aware of your surroundings. Consistent and efficient cane techniques will let you know when you’re done with the stairs. DON’T COUNT THE STAIRS!

After the stairs (which we DID NOT COUNT) we went in search of heavier traffic and while we found some close to Lumberton High School, we found more dead-end sidewalks.  While on our trip, we discovered the only Accessible Pedestrian Signal (APS) in Lumberton. We went to lunch at Nice Guy Ricky’s American Grill. Cajun food: IFYKYK (if you know, you know).  I had the chicken and sausage gumbo, and I don’t remember what Kevin had because I was in heaven. The roux was so dark and rich, I may not recover.

I had some gumbo on Sunday evening at Dion and Julia’s and I learned that real Cajuns eat their gumbo with potato salad. Not beside your bowl of gumbo, but IN it. I did not partake in that tradition, not being a real Cajun. I didn’t do it Sunday night and I didn’t do it today. Not my thing. No offense to potato salad. I love you too, but in a different way.

Day 4

Alas, the bacon seems to have gone the way of the buffalo. Some buffalo bacon would probably be really good. The “eggs” have lost their allure by breakfast #3 so I filled up on yogurt. If I didn’t need to be productive later, I’d try the waffles, but then I’d need a nap.

Anyway, Kevin and I are headed into Beaumont, a larger town about 20 minutes south of Lumberton. We’re still in search of busier traffic situations. We parked on Crockett Street, close to the last office building that Kevin worked in before losing his vision and headed out. Not too far down our first street I noticed a larger-than-normal police presence at the nearby Jefferson Theatre — a lovely old theatre that has been restored and used to show classic movies. Wanna feel old? Dumb and Dumber is showing at the Jefferson. It’s considered a classic now. I personally think it’s a classic, but “classic” in this case means “old.” Ugh.

Anyway, while we were discussing the police situation another of Beaumont’s finest rolled up next to us and rolled down his window. I assumed he was going to inform us about the situation and maybe ask us to vacate the area, but instead he asked us if we were doing mobility training! Officer Gerber’s wife is legally blind, has had O&M in the past, and had just returned from upstate New York with a brand-new guide dog from Guiding Eyes, a wonderful organization in Yorktown Heights, NY. How groovy is that? After telling us all about the new dog, he told us that there had been minor disturbance at the theatre and the police were there to calm things down. No problems for us.

We finished up our route and headed for lunch with some of Kevin’s old work buddies at a place called the Bayou Café. It’s one of those hole-in-the-wall places that doesn’t look like one of the fancy places at the fancy shopping centers. Guess what I had? That’s right: gumbo. The roux here was darker and richer than the previous two bowls I’ve had so far, and it was fantastic! I actually was going to try the potato-salad-in-the-gumbo thing, but they had just sold out. Maybe I’ll be a real Cajun on another trip to the southeast. Kevin’s friends were a hoot to listen to as they all shared stories from work and life. It’s good to have friends.

After dropping Kevin off I headed to Pearland, barely south of Houston, to speak to a Lions Club there. I was supposed to do this in January, but I got snowed in while still in Michigan and didn’t make the event. I’ve been trying to get over there ever since and tonight is the night. The Pearland Lady Lions is a fairly new club, having split off from another club recently. Not like a church split or anything like that. As far as I know, it was amicable. I know the Lady Lions sure were amicable. Such a vibrant group of ladies. It was a joy to be there and speak just a little about Leader and our programs. When I was done, they presented me/Leader with a check for $20,000! Lions are a HUGE part of what we’re able to do at Leader and it was an honor to represent Leader Dog at this event. There was a ceremonial check, one of those enormously oversized checks for the presentation. Very groovy! It made for a late night and not enough sleep for the next day but very well worth the trip.

I also learned about another fine program called Isaiah 117. Yes, that a Bible reference and it goes like this: “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” This group builds houses all over the place for kids in transition to/from foster care. Instead of going to some government building and waiting in a caseworker’s office on probably a really bad day in their lives, they get to go to a home where they can have their own room, hang out in a living room, watch TV with their siblings, have a home-cooked meal at a dining table and sleep in a bed with fresh sheets and pillows. Just a fantastic deal, all around. Check them out. 

Day 5

I’m not even going to discuss breakfast. So disappointing. Moving on. Kevin was waiting for me on his front porch, and we headed off to Beaumont again. We stopped at Academy first to do store orientation. One of Kevin’s goals is to be more independent while out shopping with his family, so we spent time in one of his favorite stores. When orienting to big stores like this, I try to break it up into smaller sections. I call it “not drinking from the fire hose.” If you try to learn it all at once, it can be overwhelming. One way to do this is to learn the shape or perimeter of the building then fill in with the details of the interior.

Kevin is a pocketknife collector, so we spent a lot of time in the knife section. I’ve seen Kevin’s collection and it’s impressive. He even has an Instagram page about his every-day carry called “Hawaiian.shirt.Friday_edc” in which he posts about what he’s carrying in his pocket like his knife, challenge coin, and handkerchief. You know he’s a good guy if he carries a pocketknife and a handkerchief! He also has a page called “kevs_blind_life”, in which he discusses all kinds of topics related to blindness and other things in life. Give him a follow if you think about it.

Anyway, we spent a lot of time with the knives, and I have all kinds of new items on my wish list. We finished up at Academy and headed over to the mall to figure out how to navigate escalators. We explored the mall and worked on orienting to this very large space, again NOT drinking from the fire hose, and ended up in Dillard’s where we found the escalators. Escalators can be scary for folks who can’t see them, but not difficult to navigate at all with just a little information beforehand. Kevin and I made the ascending and descending trip a couple of times until he told me that he felt comfortable and we headed out of the store.

On our way through the men’s cologne section we were stopped and offered a sniff at a new fragrance, by Jane, who is from Scotland. Lovely, lovely accent about which Kevin noticed right away and asked about. Turns out, Jane’s husband, Gary, who is still in Scotland, is blind and lost his vision as a result of taking the same medication as Kevin. Weird, right? Gary, however, is not handling his vision loss like Kevin is. Gary is not at the point of acceptance and is having a really hard time dealing with this enormous life change. Kevin and I gave her as much information and resources as we could, including how to measure him for a cane and how to use it. Obviously just the basics, but I hope we were of some help to her. The biggest help she got, though, was watching Kevin traveling independently through life. Just out there doing it, despite his setback. I wish Gary could have seen that as well.

We stopped for a late lunch, and I noticed that there was a lot of information on the TVs in the restaurant about O.J. Simpson. I was too far away to read any of the scrolling information on the bottom of the TV, so I didn’t realize until I got back to the hotel that he died. Fantastic football player. Had a good role in The Naked Gun movies. Fairly sordid life details outside of those things.  As Forrest Gump says: “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Day 6

I had dinner with Dion and Julia last night at a place called The Tree. A great spot where I had a pork loin steak and some purple hull peas. Fantastic. That, coupled with the fact that I’m checking out this morning, necessitated me skipping breakfast. On the day they finally decided to cook more bacon. Seriously? I mean, dadgummit!  Anyway, I went on over to Kevin’s for our last day with the aroma of bacon still in my nostrils. He was waiting for me on the porch like every other day this week. We’re heading to a local grocery store, HEB, this morning because it’s the one Kevin uses the most. We employed our not-drinking-from-the-fire-hose technique of indoor orientation, and he figured it out pretty quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we had time to film a reel for Kevin’s Instagram page. If you happen to watch it, you will see me almost wipe out after falling off a curb while walking backwards filming Kevin. The reel turned out great and it was fun to do.

I’ll be home, in my bed, tonight, which is different from most of my trips. I usually don’t fly out until the next morning, but it’s just a two-hour drive this time. I love to travel, but I sure enjoy getting home. I’ll be writing to you from Mechanicsburg, PA next time, so if anyone has any dining suggestions for that area of the world, drop me some hints!