Day One
I flew into Philadelphia, picked up my rental car and set the GPS for my drive out to Morrisville, Philadelphia, which is just across the river from Trenton, New Jersey. I’ve only been to Philadelphia one other time many years ago. I took a train trip down the East Coast to see some baseball games and stopped in Philly to see the Phillies.
I spent the day traveling around the city to all the important historical sites like the Liberty Bell, Founders Hall, the Rocky Statue, etc. then saw a late afternoon game at the old Vet, Veteran’s Stadium. While I loved all the history and baseball, I found the city’s public transportation hard to figure out. The system was not intuitive at the time, and I pride myself in being able to figure out things like that.
I say all of that to emphasize the point that I’m not very well oriented to the area, so I fully relied on my GPS to get me out of town. The rental car facility and my final destination of Morrisville are north of the airport, but the route planned for me took me south. Back through all of the airport traffic, back past the rental car facility and forever off my schedule.
The city of brotherly love, so far, has not treated me very lovingly. That and the memory of the vendor at the Vet who insisted on putting ketchup on my Philly cheesesteak even though I specifically requested no ketchup. He argued that it wouldn’t be an authentic cheesesteak without ketchup. I very pleasantly replied that I didn’t want an authentic sandwich, I wanted the sandwich I requested. He was not very loving, either… Ketchup belongs with French fries. Not on them. Beside them, for dipping. And nothing else. I will die on this hill.
Day two
I stayed in New Jersey, but it all looks the same to me. It’s about a 15-minute drive from the hotel to Roger’s (the Leader Dog client I am working with this trip) home in Morrisville, but New Jersey traffic happened. Once again following my GPS, I pulled up at the address and it was an apartment complex. In which Roger does not live. According to Roger, I am not the only one to be led astray by the GPS, but it’s still very frustrating.
Roger and his wife Floss (Yes, I asked. That’s correct.) have lived in Bucks County for a while now, having downsized after the kids moved out. I mention Bucks County because Roger did. A lot of people around these parts talk about what county they’re from, not necessarily the town. Buck’s County is also the fictional home of M. Night Shyamalan’s film “Signs”. This is also the closest thing to a scary movie that I will watch. Very clever.
Roger has had a dog from Leader Dogs for the Blind in the past, but for this trip, we are focusing on cane skills. His goal is to travel the routes that he usually travels and feel better about doing it.
The weather was beautiful, we had a good first walk and did not encounter anything out of the ordinary. A very boring orientation and mobility (O&M) day.
I stopped at an Eastern market (I couldn’t read any of the signs, but I’m pretty sure it was Eastern) on the way back and got some tea for breakfast. It’s a brand I’ve never seen before, nor can I read the label, but everyone depicted on the package seems to be enjoying it, so I bet I will, too.
Day three
I gotta be honest. Roger’s cane skills are good enough that he makes an O&M lesson boring. He is also very familiar with his surroundings, and he is also very introspective about his decisions. Now, he needs to speed up, and he knows that. He needs to expand his routes, and he knows that too. But as far as what I can teach him in the skills of orientation and mobility, he’s made it very hard on me.
He’s having an assistance dog trained for him and he took her along today to see how she’ll do while he’s using his cane. Marcy is a mix of a boxer and an elephant! This is a big dog. But true to most big dogs, she is convinced that she’s not that big. She’s a sweet dog they got from somewhere in West Virginia.
We walked to McDonald’s for lunch and Marcy went along with us. She didn’t heel as well as Roger had hoped, but she wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. When we walked into McDonald’s, a patron exclaimed “Oh, there’s a damned dog! Does he bite?” Roger and I both admitted later that we wanted to say “yes”, but we did not. Marcy just lay at Roger’s feet, completely non-plussed by the whole event. It was a nice day, again, so we went onto the patio to eat, and again, Marcy lay at his feet very nicely.
After dropping them off at home, I drove up the road a little bit to a ferry crossing where, on the evening of December 25, 1776, General Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River and surprised the Hessians who were holed up in Trenton, New Jersey. Things had been going really, really bad for the rebels up to that point, and the crossing was a real feat of bravery mixed with a little bit of craziness that turned things around nicely in the war against the Imperialists.
It’s a nice little park, but less of a landmark than I was expecting. There was a nice museum and a decent gift shop, but only two monuments. One of General Washington himself and one modest stone structure with a plaque on it that told me what happened there. That part was pretty underwhelming. There is a lively discussion among historians about whether George went over standing up or seated on his horse, but I found nothing about that at Washington Crossing Park.
Day four
After Roger and I went a little further past McDonald’s than the day before, thus expanding his route (see what we did there?), we turned around and headed back home. I picked up a couple of slices of pizza and headed back to Washington Crossing Park to see if I missed anything. I didn’t, but I was two pizza slices better off for the trip. And, the weather is just beautiful. Being a mobility specialist is a great gig, about 95% of the time, weather-wise.
Day five
Roger and I took a new route this morning. Look at us! Expanding our routes! It’s one that I think he could do regularly to boost his confidence, his endurance and get him out more. Waiting for us at his house are hoagies that Floss bought for us at Sheets. Sheets is this wonderland of a place, kind of like a small Buccees, and they make these great hoagies. For those of you who might not know (like me) a hoagie is a deli sandwich. We had our lunch, then Roger showed me his train collection. He’s got a great setup out in his garage. I wanted to stay longer, but he had other appointments.
Day six
On my way back to Houston I’ve got a layover in Detroit. While I’m there, volunteer extraordinaire, Doug K., is bringing me a dog. Specifically, he’s bringing me a canine ambassador with whom I’m going to travel to conferences and speaking engagements. He’s a black lab named Rooster (I know, isn’t it a great name?) and I’m already in love with him. Rooster got bumped up to first class and they let me ride along with him. He startled a little on takeoff and landing but slept in between. He did a great job on his first flight. I can’t wait for all y’all to meet him.
