On the Road with Barry – Jacksonville

Image description: Alexis stands on the sidewalk outside her home. She’s wearing jeans and a green Leader Dog shirt depicting the figure of a person using a cane. The caption reads “I drive a stick”.

Day 1

Jacksonville, Florida. Warm, sunny Jacksonville, Florida. Nope. Not in the cards, young man. The high today was 50. 50.
I’m here to see Alexis, who was on campus in August, so we’re just doing some follow-up with specific routes and intersections. I’ve put in my complaints with her about the weather, and she told me that she’d see what she could do. I hope she hurries up. I only have a week in sunny Jacksonville, Florida.

Like I said, Alexis has already been to campus, and she had the pleasure and good fortune of working with my friend and certified orientation and mobility specialist (COMS), Tommy. This means she got top-notch instruction for five days in a row. I could say this about anyone on our orientation and mobility (O&M) team, but this time, I’m saying it about Tommy. If you’re considering O&M with Leader, I strongly suggest you go to campus. We pay for the flight, your private room, three squares a day, and the absolute best team of COMS out there. Then, after your five days, if you need assistance at home, we can do that, too. Happy to do it.

Hic sunt dracones. In Latin, this means “Here be dragons.” On old maps, these words (and sometimes drawings of actual dragons) signified dangerous, uncharted or unknown territories. A phrase used to warn explorers, stemming from medieval fears of the unknown. It’s a literary and cartographical symbol for peril, mystery, and unexplored frontiers. There’s a dragon not 100 yards outside Alexis’s apartment. A very tricky-lighted intersection. One about which she’s been told she shouldn’t cross. When we talked about it on the phone, all I could say was that we would look at it. Maybe “they” were right. Maybe the intersection just wasn’t safe. All we can do is go and look at it. So, after a quick introduction, we went out dragon-slaying. The intersection is intimidating. It’s wide. It’s loud. It’s really busy. Hic sunt dracones. Without sounding TOO dramatic, I will tell you that we slew a dragon today. The intersection was as complicated as they come, but it WAS designed to be crossed. We listened. We watched. We determined the best time to cross, and she just did it. The main reason Alexis wants to get across this intersection is that there’s a Publix there. Y’all know how I love Publix. I went there last night for this week’s groceries. Alexis uses it for her pharmacy as well as her main grocery store. Now, she can go on her own.

Image description: Alexis stands at the intersection, preparing to cross the street. She wears jeans and a blue shirt and is holding her white cane in her right hand. The inexperienced photographer’s shadow is seen in the bottom right corner.

Day 2

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that transportation for someone who’s blind or low vision is a really big deal. Public transportation in Jacksonville is undergoing some big changes, rate hikes, etc., and it’s going to affect Alexis and her ride to work. The per-ride fee is going up significantly, and she wants to explore other options, like riding the bus or even walking. It’s a hike from her house, and in (normally) warm and humid Florida, a brisk morning walk in work attire is not ideal. Maybe a combination of bus ride and a shorter walk could be done? Just like yesterday, let’s go see. Again, she’s been told by some that it’s too dangerous and/or she shouldn’t attempt it.

And they were right this time. Well, partly. Getting to and from work from the closest bus stop would require Alexis to cross several streets on which she would have no problems. And there was one that would be an absolute bear. Maybe a polar bear, which are the deadliest of all bears. Did you know that? Google it. It’s true.

Anyway, this one intersection was also the on-ramp for I-95. No, don’t get fired up. Yes, it’s an on-ramp for a major interstate. Yes, it’s busy. All of that. However, like the off-ramp, it has excellent line of sight for drivers for a more-than-adequate distance. It was a single-lane crossing. It was well-marked for pedestrians and motorists alike. The crux, the apex, the main reason we decided this one intersection was not a great one to cross is the placement of the pedestrian ramp and the angle at which it led you across the crossing. It was a very acute angle back toward the main road, making the crossing the length of a two-lane road, at least. Those things and the fact that neither the on-ramp nor the off-ramp had audible pedestrian signals and that traffic on Atlantic (that aforementioned main road) was so loud and constant that it would be very difficult for Alexis to determine if the crossing was safe at any given time. The rest of the route was fine, which is like saying your pet polar bear was nice to you until he ate you. Alexis has a friend who is on the mayor’s council for disabilities in Jacksonville, and she’s going to advocate for herself concerning this crossing. Being able to cross those questionable streets would really open up Alexis’s options for travel to work. That’s a pretty big deal. So, c’mon, Jacksonville! Listen up!

Image description: Alexis walks on a ramp on her way to Publix. She’s using her white cane in her right hand and is wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

Day 3

We went back to Publix today, and Alexis is really getting good at these crossings. Luckily for us, the pattern of the traffic seems to stay the same regardless of the time of day. Some lighted intersections’ patterns change depending on the volume of traffic, but this one has, so far, remained steady. The thing that changes, every time, is the individual drivers’ behavior when there’s a pedestrian crossing at the crosswalk. Some folks yield a bajillion miles away, some folks run right up on you and wait impatiently for you to go on, and some don’t yield at all. Honestly, I’d prefer numbers two or three. The folks that yield so far away that you think that maybe the rapture has occurred are a little tricky. The folks that come at you like they’re gonna run you down are a little un-nerving, but you can tell what they’re doing and where they are. The ones that don’t yield at all are “easy” to spot as well. At least you know what’s happening. I’ve discussed with Alexis, and all of my clients, that if you expect folks to not yield to you, then you won’t be surprised when they don’t. Expecting it to happen helps you prepare for it. If you get really surprised by a driver’s behavior, it can freeze you for a bit, and the middle of a busy, seven-lane crossing is a really bad place to freeze. Just cross like you own it, slow your roll when you can tell that people are not gonna yield to you, and pick up the pace after they cross in front of you, and finish out. Never turn around during a crossing. Turning around and going the other direction is why you see so many flat squirrels on the road.

After returning from Publix safely and soundly, we headed out to a shopping center for escalator travel. Hic Sunt Dracones. dracones. Inside Dillard’s, Here Be Dragons. Be dragons. Alexis admitted to me yesterday that she’s terrified (did she say “terrified”? I don’t rightly remember, but I’m claiming author’s privileges) of escalators. Now, there are a lot of sighted folks who are not fans of escalators either, so no judgments. However, if you get a group of blind folks together to talk about escalator travel, I would bet you a milkshake that at least one of them is going to tell you a horror story about an escalator sucking up someone because of a loose shoelace and dismembering them because of it. It’s like back surgery. You’ll never have back surgery without folks telling you their horror stories about back surgery. We also didn’t used to eat tomatoes, folks. We thought they were poisonous. I’m not saying the shoelace-induced dismemberment didn’t happen, but I bet it didn’t happen this century. Probably not the last one, either. Rational fear should be reserved for serious things like being eaten by a great white shark or a polar bear, liver (in any form), and flying monkeys. If you give me a minute, I can show you an “easy” way to get up and down an escalator without being dismembered. Alexis can tell you. She has all her limbs still intact after just a few pointers. Here Be (no more) Dragons.

Now, blind people navigating the escalators makes some rationally dependent people really nervous. They’re the same ones still not eating tomatoes or wearing lace-less shoes. We had a guy tell us, repeatedly, that there were elevators nearby that we could use. Even after we got off, he made it a point to come over and tell us the location of the elevators in Dillard’s. I did notice that he was wearing boots, the kind without the laces. A young lady who came up behind the non-tomato eating man came up to us and apologized because she thought he had been rude to us. She was wearing Chuck Taylors. Blue ones. Many laces.

After Dillard’s, we headed out to find Alexis’s massage place, which happens to be in the same shopping area. It was not close, so we got lots of practice on street crossings and obstacle detection. We avoided the temptation of going into Barnes and Noble, which for me, is like an alcoholic parking in front of their favorite bar and not going in. It was tough, but we had dinner plans, and so we moved on.

Day 4

Publix. Again. Alexis killed it. Both ways. I backed up and shut up on the whole route and didn’t say a word to her the whole time. I also videoed it for her. She does the Facebook thing and has been posting about her progress daily. She is gonna have some really impressive video for tonight’s posting. And, in case you’re wondering, yes, I can video my client crossing a street and monitor her safety at the same time. Honestly, she didn’t need me at all. I’ve worked myself out of a job. Which was my goal all along. It’s my goal with every one of my clients. I want them to be able to do it without me intervening at all. She did it today. Actually, she did it yesterday, too.

We only did one route before lunch because Alexis showed me one of her hobbies before we left her apartment. She’s very interested in crime scene investigation. Not the TV show. In actual crime scene investigations. She even has tactile blood splatter demos. She asked me to identify each type without looking at them. Now, at the time, I thought she was using it as a way to teach blind folks some type of tactile identification deal, but even if I had fully understood the assignment, I would not have been able to tactually distinguish blood spatter from blunt force trauma from long-range handgun injury. But Alexis can. I saw an episode of NCIS (back when it was good, before Mark Harmon left) where a blind photographer assisted the team in identifying and apprehending a murderer. This could be Alexis’s day job in the near future, so don’t get your hopes up about committing crimes around her, if you were thinking you could get away with something.

I got away with a lunch at the Bearded Pig. Alexis suggested it, as well as the travel agent, Brian, who made my flight and car reservations. Brian happens to live in Jacksonville, and he mentioned that fact when he completed my reservations. I asked him for restaurant suggestions, and he happily complied. The Bearded Pig is a barbecue joint that is within walking distance of my hotel, and I’m glad I only discovered the exact location on my second to last day here. I might have walked over here quite a bit during my stay. The pulled pork was excellent, as was the smoked sausage. They had some different sauces, which I sampled for tasting sake. The meat was so tender and smoky, it didn’t need sauce. Just lovely. I’m going to one of Brian’s seafood suggestions for dinner tonight, so I made sure to leave some room.

I just realized that I got days mixed up. The CSI thing happened on the morning of Day three, not four, but I’m not gonna cut and paste all that. What actually happened this morning was I made a tactile map of the intersection of the new route we started yesterday afternoon. This tactile map is basically a velcro board that comes with a ton of shapes and sizes with which you can make a map of just about anything. Not everyone can use the information from a tactile map, but if you can transfer that information from your fingertips to your brain and make the route “easier”, more power to you.

Alexis is one of those who uses tactile maps to her advantage, and we use that advantage on a route to Walgreen’s. This intersection is completely different from the one we cross to get to Publix, except that it has a traffic pattern. All lighted intersections have a pattern. Recognizing that pattern takes well-developed skills like sound localization and sound differentiation. Stuff like that. What line of traffic is moving now? Which way is it going? Where did it come from? What folks with visual impairments are trying to figure out is when the initial surge of parallel traffic occurs. That’s a very simple description of what’s going on. You get all that figured out, then it’s time to step into the street and get across, all while paying attention to what all the moving pieces in the intersection are doing at the same time. Is that guy turning in front of me, or is he slowing down to yield? What was that honk for? Was it directed at me? (Retinally dependent folks reading this: Please don’t honk at blind people on the street. We’ve covered this. If you have questions as to why, contact me. I’d love to tell you. No matter how good an idea it seems to be, it’s just not. That is all) — Lots of moving parts.

Alexis figures out the pattern with little trouble and gets across safely. Oddly, the intersection is the “easy” part of this route. We have to cross an evil, evil parking lot to get to the front door of Walgreens. But like the Allied forces in the Pacific Theater of World War II we employ an island-hopping campaign. There are islands (curbs) interspaced strategically in the parking lot to which we can travel and stay out of the main flow of traffic. Two island hops, and we’re shopping for gummy candy. This will take a lot of practice, but this is another very doable route for Alexis, right from her apartment.

After Walgreens, multiple times, I drove out to Singleton’s Seafood Shack in Mayport. The restaurant is right on the St. John’s River, just short of the Atlantic Ocean, and right next to Florida’s only ferry. I find it hard to believe that this is the only ferry in this whole state, but a young lady who was born and raised here told me so. Well, she was born in Jacksonville, not Mayport, because she says that there were no hospitals in Mayport at the time. But if she’d had her way, she would have been born in Mayport. She also told me that Mayport is the oldest town in the United States, not the more-widely touted St. Augustine. It’s funny, my town in Texas, Nacogdoches, IS the oldest town in Texas. But there’s a town just east of here named San Augustine that ridiculously claims to be the oldest. Augustine must be the patron saint of folks who don’t pay attention to the facts, or something like that. Silly St./San Augustine.

Singleton’s has their own fishing boat, and today’s catch of the day was triggerfish. I didn’t know such a thing existed until now, but it sure was good. I sat on the deck, on the water, and watched the sun go down. I took too many pictures, like a dadgummed tourist, that don’t even come close to doing what I saw justice. But, to my credit, even the locals were taking pictures. Pretty is pretty, no matter how many times you’ve seen it. One of my favorite movies is Running Scared with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines. They’re Chicago detectives and go on vacation to Key West. The first day they’re there, they see a large group of people gathering to watch the sunset, and they don’t get it. Until they watch it. By the end of the week, they’re like locals, gathering to watch. I’m sure it looks even more glorious in Key West, where nothing else gets in the way, but this was pretty groovy.

Image description: Alexis crosses the evil, evil parking lot. She wears a pink shirt and jeans and is using her white cane in her right hand.

Day 5

All day yesterday, the airline was blowing up my phone about the coming winter storm advisory and how they could offer me a free flight change if I wanted to get out of town sooner. The storm is not gonna affect Jacksonville, but it will eventually affect flights all over the country. While eating my Bearded Pig BBQ yesterday, I officially joined the mania and changed my flight to this afternoon instead of Saturday. It won’t hurt to get home a day earlier, and, Atlanta’s airport being Atlanta’s airport, things will clog up quickly if there’s a hint of bad weather.

So I ate up all my groceries for breakfast this morning, then headed out to get Alexis across these two intersections again. More like watch Alexis get herself across these two intersections because she’s got it down. We did something a little different on the way to Publix. We did a Juno walk. Juno is basically walking while holding on to an empty dog harness while practicing or evaluating your guide dog readiness. I didn’t have a handle with me, but we went with Alexis just holding on to my elbow. She called me “Armstrong,” who was her second dog, and called me a “good boy” several times. If I had a tail, it would have been wagging. Now, I didn’t let her call me by her first dog’s name, which was Yankee. And if I have to tell you why, we may not can be friends.

Anyway, “Armstrong” guided Alexis to Publix, and she got herself back with her cane, and then we went straight on to Walgreen’s. She really aced it… until she turned the wrong way coming out of the evil, evil parking lot. She didn’t go too far before realizing her miscue, turned around, and went on to the house. This is important, folks. In boxing, they say that everyone has a plan until you get hit. In O&M, people make wrong turns. They veer when they cross the street sometimes. They lose count of how many streets they’ve crossed. Construction blocks your intended path. Things don’t always go exactly as planned. More often than not. Is it important to know why those things happen? Sure. If the reasons are correctible, get it fixed. More importantly, you need to know what to do WHEN it happens. Not IF. It’s going to happen. The best and worst travelers in the world make mistakes sometimes. Knowing how to figure it out is WAY more important than figuring out why, in my humble opinion. Because, and I can’t stress this part enough: IT’S GONNA HAPPEN. I betcha a milkshake. And if my stomach could handle that many milkshakes, all y’all would be sending them my way. (If you packed a milkshake in dry ice, or something like that, could you ship it?) Anyway, I let Alexis go the wrong way. Part of working myself out of a job is to let her make those mistakes and correct them herself. I’m not here to make sure she has smooth sailing. It’s my job to make sure she has the tools to correct course when she needs to.

She has the tools, used them, and got me on my way to the airport a little sooner than I expected. My flight is at 5:30-ish this afternoon, so IF Snowmageddon actually does happen, I should be home in front of my fireplace when it does.

Written by Barry Staford, certified orientation and mobility specialist (COMS)