On the Road with Barry – Texas, Wisconsin, & Tennessee

Day 1

Rooster and I headed to Houston today in preparation for a speaking engagement at the University of Houston College of Optometry. Dr. Modi has invited us for the past 2 years, and we’re excited to do it. I mean, Rooster is excited to go just about anywhere with new people who will love on him, scratch him, and possibly feed him. He’s a great traveler as he just hops in the back seat and goes to sleep. He always alerts when the vehicle comes to a stop, but he doesn’t get excited until he hears me unbuckle the seat belt. He knows that we’re headed out when he hears that.

I always leave early when traveling to Houston because there’s ALWAYS traffic, and this time is no different. Too many people in too small a space. That’s all there is to it. To reward ourselves for our surprising lack of road rage, we stop at Star Pizza, my favorite Texas pizza and second on my all-time list. Lou Malnati’s in Chicago is my all-time favorite. I figured, secretly, you’d want to know, so I told you. The Star Pizza is as good as it always is, and we make it an early evening after a long walk around campus.

Day 2

The speaking engagement goes well, Rooster does what he does, and we head northwest for a camp in Leuders, Texas. North-ish from Abilene, the camp is one that Rooster and I have been to for the past 2 years as well. There will be kids and parents there, learning all kinds of stuff, and having a lot of fun. Texas School for the Blind is represented there, as well as the Texas Workforce Commission, so the kids and their parents are getting a lot of great information about service options.

Rooster and I make it to Brownwood, about an hour and a half south of Leuders and spend the night. I ate some barbeque at Underwoods, a must if in Brownwood, and made it another early night. While I was in junior high and high school, I went to church camp at the Heart of Texas Baptist encampment just west of Brownwood. At the end of camp, all the cool kids went to Underwoods before heading home, but not my youth group. We had to go straight home. Well, I rectified that unspeakable wrong tonight. Midway Baptist Church youth group members of my youth, you have been avenged.

Days 3-5

Rooster and I do camp, and all that entails. Early mornings, late nights, and no naps. For Rooster or me. This is hardest on ole’ black dog because he’s a world champion napper. He’s been loved on by so many different people this weekend, he’s not doing too poorly. We’re headed back to Nacogdoches after lunch because I’m headed to Wisconsin on Monday. We got home just in time for Rooster to get fed on time, while I repacked my bag for the north country.

Day 6

Houston to Atlanta to Milwaukee in the air, then Milwaukee to Barneveld in the rental. I committed a rookie mistake a couple of days ago in finishing my latest book on the Apache Wars while I was at home last week. This is a mistake because there is NO bookstore in Nacogdoches, and the library is limited on things I like to read. I’m traveling sans libro for the first time in a long while. I finished watching a couple of movies I’d started on the first flight (Napolean Dynamite and Miracle, two classics) and listened to a book about Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson on the second.

The flights were unremarkable, as was Atlanta, which is very queer. Something’s always afoot in Atlanta, but I missed it this time. I had hoped for a bookstore to appear on my route from Milwaukee to Barneveld, but it did not happen. I got to my destination, ate dinner (a burger with bacon and a fried egg on it. I figured, secretly, you’d all want to know.), went shopping for groceries, and typed this blog. I’m spent and headed for bed. This non-branded hotel has a real Hotel California vibe and I’m hoping it’s just me. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave (epic guitar solo)”.

Day 7

Baneveld is a town of a little over 1,200 souls about 30 miles west of Madison. Right in between Mt. Horeb and Dodgeville, if that helps you zero in on where I am. The area is also known to be in the Driftless region. This is, in layman’s terms, because during the Ice Age, the glacier didn’t cover this area. It’s more of the rolling farmlands with steep bluffs and forested ridges. It’s really beautiful.

After living in Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, Roger and his wife Nina retired to Barneveld on a beautiful piece of land with their dog and their chickens. They even tap their maple trees for syrup. Just lovely. Roger has had dogs from Leader and is waiting for another and needed a little more Orientation and Mobility (O&M) in the meantime. After getting to know each other a little bit, we headed off to Mt. Horeb, just down the road, because there’s plenty of training opportunities there, and not very much at all in Barneveld.

Roger is a little rusty with his cane, and he would admit to the same. You’ve heard me say it her before, but it takes a while to develop trust in the cane, especially if you’ve been trusting dogs for as long as Roger has. Just like others, he hasn’t forgotten how to use it, it’s just been a while. It doesn’t take long to get him going. ‘

One thing we did was change tips. He has a rolling marshmallow tip named for it’s resemblance to, get this, a marshmallow. O&M’ers are really creative. We replaced his rolling marshmallow with a roller ball. Guess what it looks like? I’ll give you three guesses, but you’re only gonna need one. The larger circumference of the ball allows it to not catch in every sidewalk crack and, therefore, allows for more consistent movement. More consistent movement begets a straighter line of travel, and a straighter line of travel begets better alignment at the curb. Straighter alignment at the curb begets straighter street crossings, and the cycle (hopefully) continues.

Anyway, Roger gets better as the day goes on and we quit on a high note. I was gonna eat at a place he recommended over in Dodgeville, but it’s closed for Spring Break. I would love to see my supervisor’s face when she approves my expense report with Bob’s Bitchin’ Barbeque on the list, but alas, she’ll have to settle for Culver’s, a Midwest chain known for its hamburgers, cheese curds, and frozen custard. I skipped the custard, but the burger and curds were as good as they usually are.

Day 8

I was the only guest at the Deer Valley Lodge last night. Kinda weird to be the only one here. They cooked a lot of sausage and boiled a lot of eggs for one person, and I didn’t even eat breakfast at the hotel this morning because I ate Culver’s too late.

Roger and I went back to Mt. Horeb and worked on more street crossings. We’re using a different tip this morning, one called the pathfinder. It rolls like side to side and swivels, kinda like the caster on a rolling chair. “Pathfinder” is a little more creative than “marshmallow” or “ball”. I like it. A lot of folks like this tip, too. It’s still kinda expensive because of the groovy technology, but it’s worth it if it keeps people moving.

After our afternoon training, I went shopping at Duluth Trading Company. Their corporate headquarters are here in Mt. Horeb, not Duluth, like you’d think, and they have a big retail store right on Main Street. After looking around at a lot of clothing I can’t afford, I went to an early lunch at the Viking Bar and Grill, just down the street, also on Main. I’ve been eyeing it for the last couple of days. I had a nice breakfast burger, with bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns added to the burger. Nice touch. I’m eating earlier so my digestive track will be happier tonight, and just in case I’m the only guest again, I don’t want to completely skip breakfast tomorrow. I’d hate for them to go through all that trouble just for me to not partake.

The Viking has a really great logo of, you guessed it, a Viking, but it’s a really groovy Viking. Mt. Horeb high school mascot is the Vikings, and the owner is an alum. He had a friend create this particular Viking rendering and, although the artist didn’t like it at all, I sure do. I was pondering purchasing a t-shirt when the owner tossed a ball cap on my table and told me it was on the house. Secretly, I think he wanted me to replace it with the Cubs cap I was proudly sporting. It’s Brewer country here and, while there’s no accounting for his particular tastes, I appreciate the generosity and promise to wear it proudly.

Day 9

I was, in fact, the only guest at the hotel again last night. They’ve had exactly the same amount and types of food every morning, so they must be feeding someone else besides me. Who knows?

Roger and I head out to Mt. Horeb one more time and we explore some different territory as well as our more familiar route. He’s getting better and feeling more confident with every rep we take, which is why the program works. You get a lot of reps. Repetition breeds confidence. Obviously, everyone develops this at a different rate, but it happens for almost every client with whom I’ve had the pleasure to work.

Before I leave, Roger tells me about a store north of Barneveld that sells fresh cheese curds on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It’s Thursday, but I’m pretty sure that day-old cheese curds can’t be that bad, right? I head out, sans GPS because, well, I’m a good navigator. About 45 minutes later, I’d basically driven in an amoeba-like circle and the rental needs fuel. I’ll have to wait for fresh-ish cheese curds. I’m headed to Milwaukee tonight in preparation for a flight to Nashville, and my route takes me through/around Madison, the home of the University of Wisconsin. Surely, there’s a bookstore there.

I spent a little too much time in the local Barnes & Noble, but it was time well spent. I not only purchased a new travel companion The Longest Winter by David Halberstam, but got lots of ideas for the next, next, next, and next books. The Longest Winter is about America and the Korean War. This particularly interests me because it’s what originally got my father into the military. When the Korean War broke out, he quit high school in his junior year to join the Navy and go fight.

He’d never been too far away from northeastern Arkansas and ended up in San Diego, California where he passed an aptitude test that made him a Navy Corpsman, which is a medic for the Marine Corps, because they don’t have medics. Something I didn’t realize until later, and something he didn’t either, is that Marines hold their corpsmen in very high regard, going into battle with them as their medical support. Over the years, I’ve had several Marines stand and shake my hand when they learn what my dad did. I’m quick to tell them that he never saw combat, but they don’t care. They knew of the sacrifice he was willing to make, if called upon and wanted to make sure they were grateful. Talk about a proud son…

Day 10

I’m in Nashville to work with Heather who’s a registered nurse. She and her husband moved here about 3 years ago in order to be closer to their daughter. She works from home and is busy ALL the time, but took time off for this training. She’s excited to learn how to travel more independently which means we’re gonna go far this week. Motivated clients make me look like a much better teacher than I really am. I’m not too bad, but when you’re working with a person who really wants to learn, you’ve already got a step up.

Heather lives in east Nashville, which is a really happening place. The sidewalks are in great shape, which makes this O&M really happy, and there are shops and restaurants right in the middle of the neighborhood. I like it a lot. Heather gets the cane in her hand, I show her the basics of cane use, and we headed out for a neighborhood tour.

Reps. This program is all about reps. If you go through this program, that’s the biggest benefit of all is that you get a ton of practice in a short period of time. We went up and down the steps to the church down the street 3 or 4 times in a row (at Heather’s request) just so she could feel good about her stair technique. We navigated in and around her neighborhood three different times today and I had her navigate back home. All the while, Heather’s getting repetitions on her basic cane skills and street crossings.

She points out quite a few restaurants that she and her husband have visited or plan to, all within walking distance from her home. She doesn’t realize it, but she’s giving me more homework ideas for her. No matter how much we repeat our skills here, Heather will be much further down her road if she keeps it up after I’m gone. I’m going to one of her homework assignments after we’re done: The Turkey and the Wolf, a mostly-outdoor dining experience where I sampled their fried bologna sandwich. Mighty tasty. It would have made my father very proud. He would have wanted more bologna, but who wouldn’t?

Day 11

The hotel has had “eggs” every morning I’ve been here, along with a big crock pot full of oatmeal. Fine. I can breakfast with that. Today, though, the crockpot was full of “gravy”. And there were biscuits. Okay, I could really get into some biscuits and gravy. The “gravy” however, was just gray water and I passed on it for a bagel and some cream cheese. Oh well…

Heather and I discuss the different cane tips this morning. They are really up to the client to choose, however some are more useful than others. She used the roller ball tip yesterday, and she’s trying out the Pathfinder today. The Pathfinder, if you don’t know about it, is similar to the roller ball, but it rolls AND swivels, much like the caster on an office chair. Did you know, by the way, that the largest caster on the planet is in Clawson, Michigan? Right down the road from the Leader Dog mothership in Rochester Hills. Anyway, the Pathfinder is the newest tip of which I know, and it works pretty well.

We head out to one of her “bucket list” items: a local park where she and her husband walk their dog and watch their daughter’s boyfriend play softball. His team is the Nashville Dollies. I think this is great. She wants to walk the trails with her husband, without having him have to look after her. She would enjoy it more, and she’s positive that he would, too. The Pathfinder is the best tip for this kind of trail walking. She gets a ton of practice on stairs, locating tree roots and random rocks in the path. A really good outing.

We decide to go from here to downtown Nashville. Broadway or Music Row. The last time I was here with a client, it was wall-to-wall people. Honestly not enough room for my client to even swing his cane. This time was quite a bit different and Heather got some great crowd work and got to work on some more stairs. There’s a club that she and her husband visit that have some pretty significant stairs of which she’s always been terrified. Hic sunt dracones. On her map, this location is labeled “Here be Dragons”. Not anymore. It wasn’t easy for her, but because she has a skill set that works and she’s confident using it, it was something she no longer needed to dread.

We then proceeded to walk the entirety of the streets in Nashville. One at a time. And all the stairs on the planet. We walked from Broadway all the way to the state capitol building and back to our parked car. We literally walked from one end of the earth to the other, up the stairs both ways. Heather got so much practice on the stairs, crossing streets, and most importantly, she’s learning to use her remaining vision for what’s happening out in front of her, not just the next step or two. She’s holding her head up, scanning the environment, and doing really well.

Day 12

We went to the farmer’s market. Heather’s husband, Jeff, is a candle maker (boldburncandles.com) and they spend a lot of time at festivals and the like. Nashville’s farmers market has a permanent building inside of which are lots of great restaurants and shops, one of which sells Jeff’s candles, but they also have the traditional outdoor stalls with vendors of all types.

We went from there to Whole Foods, where Heather shops quite a bit. We worked on escalators, and how to navigate the grocery store while pulling a cart and using a cane. A little clunky, but it can be done. Kinda like a semi, you gotta make wider turns than normal.

From there, we head to the clinic where Heather has a lot of her appointments. It’s an old, traditional mall that Vanderbilt University Hospital system repurposed into a really nice medical area. I love the idea that the old mall isn’t just sitting there rotting. Another great travel environment which, among other things, contains a pretty significant set of escalators. It also has a ton of lighting changes, floor color and texture changes, and very few straight lines. It’s also crowded with people, most of whom aren’t paying attention to us.

It’s hard to believe that Heather has just been using a cane for three days because she’s starting to look pretty smooth. She’s less tense and is moving much more fluidly than before. This is the benefit of the consecutive days of instruction. Lots and lots of reps.

Day 13

I’m an inventor. You wouldn’t know it because someone else got the credit for it.

Me and my best friend Brian invented the Blizzard in high school, well before Dairy Queen put it on the market. The snack bar next to the cafeteria started selling soft-serve ice cream and Brian and I started buying Reese’s and crumbling them up into our soft serve. Smart, right? And delicious. We were too naïve to think that something so fantastic wasn’t being done by everyone else on the planet. Dairy Queen got the scoop on us.

I also invented the Frito burrito (and the Frito sandwich) WAY before I ever even heard of a Taco Bell, much less ate at one. My fried bologna sandwich from Monday (I told you about that, right?) had potato chips on it. I mean, who hasn’t done that? But Taco Bell got the dibs on that one. Missed opportunities…

All that to say that I’m pretty sure that I was not the first one to think that using a trekking pole in the free hand would make a person who is visually impaired feel a little more balanced and comfortable while hiking on off-road trails, but it’s a dadgummed good idea. Heather and I tested this theory on the trails we had visited on Tuesday, but this time with a trekking pole in her free hand. She reports that it made her feel more confident and balanced, especially while going up or down bigger elevation changes. If you’re reading this and you’d like to feel more independent on the trails, get yourself some trekking poles. Whether your blind or not, more balance is a good thing, right? Try it out. Get out and get on your local trails. Go for a hike!

We left the park and went to another park, Centennial Park, near Vanderbilt. If you’ve never been to the area, they have a real-life version of the Parthenon, just like the one in Greece. This one may have been there first, I’m not sure. This one looks pretty old. The Parthenon sits on the border of Centennial Park which is a lovely place with a huge green space in the middle of a wide, cement walkway. Only a small part of the park, today the square is lined with white tents in preparation for a festival. More specifically, the Nashville Craft Fair that is happening this weekend. This is another place in which Jeff might be able to sell his candles, so we find the command tent and get some information. Before leaving, Heather wanted to climb the Parthenon stairs, and she did, so there’s no real reason to go to Rome anymore. She looks so comfortable on the stairs now, it’s fun to watch. We head home after that because we’re doing a night lesson this evening.

I got to Jeff and Heather’s just a little bit after sundown. Jeff and the family dog, Bella, are suited up to go with us. This is great because he’ll get to see the progress his wife has made in the last 4 days. Heather has a strand of Retinitis Pigmentosa which, among many other things, causes night blindness. Any useable vision she’s been using this week will not be available to her in the dark.

Now, there are no new skills related to night travel, but it’s no less harrowing for the person performing it. Heather really has to trust the skills she’s recently developed to keep her safe and not depend on any vision she may have left. She doesn’t move as quickly as she has been, but she does a great job. She even ascended and descended a set of stairs in the dark. Her idea, not mine. I also got an opportunity to talk with Jeff and help him understand how he can help his wife without helping too much. Learning how to back up and shut up, just like I did, lo, those many years ago.

Day 14

Heather and I are on our last day, and we decided to hit a new area. Germantown is another neighborhood in Nashville and is actually where my hotel sits. Lots of restaurants and shops, and wonderfully persevered older homes, most with lovely wrap-around porches. Another very walkable neighborhood, we bought some custom-made cupcakes right before getting stuck in a large crowd of extended family celebrating a young man’s graduation from Tennessee State University this morning. Almost everyone involved wore a white t-shirt with the graduate’s picture on the front, and was personalized to say, “The graduate’s Gramma” or “the graduate’s cousin”, etc. It would have been a fun brunch to attend, I’m sure. They were all very jovial and boisterous.

We went from there to a few places with which Heather was familiar as her daughter once lived in this area. I picked up a croissant bun that had more layers than my new book has pages. I’m eating it as I finish writing up this day of the blog. If there are any crumbs on the pages, you’ll know where they came from. We sat on a stone wall in the sun while we ate our cupcakes, discussed our very successful week, and greeted every dog that came by, quite a significant number. Not a bad day at all.

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