On the Road with Barry – Missouri

Day One

I’m headed to Missouri. On the other airline. The other airline always makes me nervous. Yes, I hold grudges. Not lying, I remember things for a long time. The vast majority of my delays while flying for Leader have come at the hands of the other airline. They put me up in a “hotel” when my flight to Pittsburgh was just flat-out cancelled at midnight. This “hotel” was the kind of thing you see in movies where police cruise to scope out drug deals and ladies of the night. I never took my shoes off the whole time I was there. Especially in the shower. Ugh. So, yes, I hold a grudge. Just now I took a break from writing to go wash my hands again from thinking about it.

Despite my misgivings, my flight was on time and while I was back on the steerage where there are not enough lifeboats, I wasn’t crammed in. The St. Louis airport is small, which is nice, but it’s not nearly as scenic as other airports. It’s still in the city so all you can see is urban sprawl. The rental facility is off-site, like a lot of places, but the selection is small.

I know, I’m griping about St. Louis, but I’m a Cubs fan. I’m not going to like St. Louis for lots of reasons. I grew up a Cardinals fan because my dad was a Cardinals fan. Growing up in northeast Arkansas, the KMOX radio station out of St. Louis came in the clearest and my dad got to listen to a lot of Cardinals baseball on the radio. I rooted for the Cardinals until the Cubs traded for Ron Cey in 1983. Despite him being a Los Angeles Dodger, I loved the way Ron played third base. I became an instant Cubs fan and have been ever since. Dad didn’t mind too much because, unfortunately, the Cubs weren’t a threat to his seemingly always better Cardinals. Anyway, I’m not a fan of St. Louis and I chose a rental car from their meager selection and got out of town quickly.

Linda with a white cane walking along a sidewalk on a sunny day.

Day two

I’m in Missouri for Linda, who’s been to Leader for orientation and mobility (O&M) a while back, but there’s a big, busy street in between her and most of her destinations. I’m here to help her conquer this busy highway and its intersections so she can feel confident when getting into town. It’s a lovely day and we set out after quickly getting to know each other.

Linda has good cane skills, although she doesn’t cover far enough of her left all the time. This is common among cane users, to not cover far enough on the side opposite their cane hand. I’ve mentioned it to Linda and she’s aware of it and tries hard to keep the cane out there.

We get to the first intersection at which we intend to cross. This intersection is fitted with an audible pedestrian signal (APS) which will give some audible clue that it’s time to cross. This is very helpful in this situation because the busy street is a through-street, and the cross-street is not busy at all. This means that if Linda is waiting on parallel traffic to surge across the street to determine whether it’s safe to cross, she might be waiting a long time. The APS announces that the crosswalk signal is on and Linda makes a safe crossing.

The sidewalk ahead curves, narrows, and has a drop-off on the left — see what’s coming? In literary terms, I foreshadowed this event (I learned that in high school. Thanks, Mrs. Abusaab!). At the curve, at the exact point where the sidewalk narrows and has a drop off, Linda didn’t cover far enough on her left and didn’t detect the drop off. She lost her balance at the unexpected level change and fell. So fast that I didn’t have time to catch her. She falls on her knee and cuts it pretty good. It all happened in a second, like life usually does. I have a handkerchief, but she didn’t think she needed it, and tried to go on, but the blood started running down her leg into her sock. Luckily there was a dog grooming business in the parking lot. We stepped in and asked for some paper towels to staunch the bleeding, and the owner happily assisted us. The schnauzer she was currently grooming didn’t seem to mind. I left Linda there and went back to her house to get the rental and take her back home where we cleaned and bandaged the wound then called it a day.

I went into a lot of detail of this event to make a point. People fall sometimes. The world isn’t straight, or level, or predictable. People with perfect cane skills fall sometimes too. It just happens. Thomas Wayne told his son Bruce that the reason we fall is so we can learn to pick ourselves up. Bruce went on to be Batman, so things worked out pretty well for him. Linda is even more of a superhero because you know what? The next day, she went back out into the crooked, unlevel, unpredictable world and got better. She persevered, which is what it takes to be an independent traveler without sight or limited vision.

So, if you’re leery of leaving the house, you have a good reason to be, but what’s the trade-off? There’s a big, wide (unlevel) world out there to explore. Is it scary? Sure. Will you fall? Probably. I fell in my garage the other day. Slipped on some wet concrete in my son’s too-big Crocs (my feet went right out from under me). Is it worth it to be independent? I sure think so. So did Linda.

Day three

Linda is ready to go today. Bandaged and bruised, but ready to work. She’s already taken 10,000 steps before I showed up. She’s mapped out a route in her house she can walk regardless of the weather, which is really smart. Despite the plethora of steps she’s already taken, she’s ready to take some more. She’s lived in the area all her life, and specifically in Union most of it. She knows this town.

We went on a trip around town and took a LOT more steps than 10,000. We crossed streets all over town. She’s a lot more cautious about covering her left side than she was the previous day, for sure.

It’s another lovely day, weather-wise, so that’s a real bonus. We made it to one of the city parks that contains a large pond. Another couple out for a walk told us they found some snakes sunning themselves on the path on the other side of the water, and I’m already ready to leave. I know that not all snakes are poisonous, but all snakes are deadly to me. I will have a heart attack on the spot and Linda would have to fare for herself, which I’m sure she can do, but it’s not good form to leave a client like that. She’s not really excited about seeing any snakes either, so we divert to another route. We walked downtown and back to her house without seeing one snake. I’m a happy (and relieved) man.

Day four

I went to the Union Lions Club last night to give a quick presentation about Leader, but mostly to say “thank you”. If you don’t know the history, Leader was founded by three Lions 85 years ago and Lions Club International are still an integral part of what we do on campus and out in the world every day. It’s amazing to me to listen to how involved they are in their local community. Lions clubs around the country are deeply involved in making their communities better places with scholarships, donations, service projects, fundraisers, etc. If you’re not a Lion, I strongly encourage you to become one. Fantastic organization.

Linda and I ran a route downtown again and went right by the restaurant where the Lions Club meeting was held. We met a couple of ladies from the meeting last night who are out for a lunch-time stroll. I told them at the meeting last night that they would probably see us around town, and I was right.

I told everyone last night that if they did see us to please don’t honk. It can be terribly startling to get honked at, and not very specific to someone who can’t see the situation. Does the honk mean “stop”? Does it mean “go?” Is it a warning? Or is someone just getting their buddy’s attention at the intersection? Is the honk even meant for me? Who knows?

Linda walking with her white cane on a sidewalk with trees and a clear blue sky in the background.

Day five

Linda is a road warrior. She walks all the time. She walks so much before I ever get there, I’m amazed that she has the energy to go even more every day. We decided to head down that busy street a little bit further to tackle another light-controlled intersection. This is the second of two intersections that will give her more access to destinations in the downtown area. For a smaller town, it’s really impressive that two of their three major intersections are accessible to travelers who have vision or hearing impairments.

Every street we cross, Linda has a story about what this building used to be, what used to be in that parking lot, etc. We find a bench downtown on the square and she tells me a something I hear a lot around the country: “We used to have a real nice courthouse, but then they renovated it and we have this one now.” I hear it in Nacogdoches, Texas, all the time. I can attest that this is true, as I’ve seen photos of the old Nacogdoches County courthouse. It was a beautiful old building. The one we have now reminds me of the 70’s era of building baseball parks. They are all cookie-cutter-ugly and were covered in astroturf. Not like the cathedrals they’re building those days. Anyway, we have a nice rest on a bench on the square and plan our route home.

Day six

Linda asked if a friend could come with us today so she can learn how to help Linda be more independent. Because of this situation, we decided to run the same route as yesterday, which will be beneficial anyway because Linda will get another look at that intersection.

A couple of the buttons don’t work, and Linda has already called the city to make sure they get fixed. It’s another good example of how things work in the real world. I can make a phone call about those things, and I have, but when a local taxpayer calls and advocates for themselves, it’s much more powerful than me doing it. You know that old saying “the squeaky taxpayer gets the APS fixed”. Or something like that. But it really does make a difference. If you see something in your neighborhood that needs to be taken care of, as a local taxpayer, make that call. Making things accessible helps more than just you, just like having those APSs working correctly will help way more folks than just Linda.

Linda did great using APSs today, and did well using her hearing to determine safe crossings when the signals didn’t work. That’s another point I’d like to hit on: APSs are great, but what if they don’t work? You have to be able to get across the street without those signals using our sight and/or hearing to determine when it is safe to cross because the APS doesn’t always work. They are mechanical and will break at some point. If you’re just depending on that technology to get you across the street, you’ve put all your eggs in one basket.

All my travel eggs are in the other airline’s basket tomorrow morning for travel home. I may have to heed my own rantings if they hold to form.