On the Road with Barry – West Virginia

Day one

I flew into Pittsburg, an airport I really enjoy. It’s a small airport representing a big city. Major flights without the major hassle. I’m on my way to Clarksburg, West Virginia to work with Kris, who I first contacted in May about coming out to see him. It’s a beautiful drive down through the Allegheny mountains. The fall colors are not in full prime, but there’s plenty of color to see during the drive. I wish I had a driver so I could just watch.

Clarksburg is the birthplace of Civil War General Stonewall Jackson and Jimbo Fisher (of Florida State Football fame/Texas A&M shame), and the site of a federal supply depot during the Civil War. Lots of history around here, and that’s just what I learned from the interweb. Who knows what I’ll learn when I get out on the streets…

 

Day two

Kris has been completely visually impaired for a while now, and totally blind for right around seven years, due to the complications of an industrial accident. He was able to get some cane instruction from the state of West Virginia but hasn’t had any in quite some time. I met him at his home that he shared with his wife and son and we made a plan for the day. Kris doesn’t currently work, but he’s actively out in the community regularly.

One place he goes a lot is the local senior center which serves lunch every day. Kris takes me downtown and shows me the center, the courthouse, the post office and the social security office. Big day. We had a hot drink at Stonewall Coffee, next to the courthouse. The namesake is obvious, and they had a mural of General Jackson, probably about four feet by four feet in size, that was made completely out of pennies of different patinas. Very groovy.

My colleague suggested that I go see the New River Gorge and bridge, which is not too far from Clarksburg. I’m so glad she did, and glad I did. Breathtaking, really. I felt like singing the John Denver song, but I refrained. I don’t sing well, and I don’t know all the words, and it’s probably already been done here.

 

Day three

Kris and his family shop a lot at the local mall, so we spent our time learning techniques for shopping and mall travel. The Hallmark Store and Marshall’s are two stores they frequent, so we spend time there and in Bosco’s, which is a department store, looking at cookware.

Kris loves to cook but feels nervous about doing it since he lost his vision. There are lots of accommodations you can make as a blind person to be able to continue to do things you like to do. For instance, there are elbow-length oven mitts that keep you from burning your hands and/or forearms when you reach into the oven. Or a simple tool called a liquid level indicator. It’s a nine-volt battery attached to a sensor that you can hang over your coffee cup, and it beeps when the cup is full. Simple things make a big difference.

Mall travel is mall travel, if you’ve read my blog before, you’ve already heard my sermon on traveling in a mall. And honestly, what good is a mall without an Orange Julius? So disappointing…

 

Day four

We went the other way on Main Street today, over a route Kris used to walk home from work when he was still working. He’s familiar with the route, even though he hasn’t seen it in years. There are some off-set and mid-block crossings along this route, and Kris handled them perfectly. There was one mid-block crossing that had push buttons for the crosswalk, but they were not in working order.

I talked to Kris about how powerful his voice is if he would call the city to report this and other areas in the city that need repair. If you have situations in your area that need repair, call your local city or municipality to report them. Getting things fixed so they work like they should will not only help you but also everyone else. Crossing that street today mid-block, at the bottom of a hill, on a curve is so far from ideal that I don’t have a good analogy for it. It needs to be fixed so everyone is safe.

 

Day five

It’s actually chilly today. I’ve been wearing shorts and t-shirts all week because of the unseasonably warm weather here in West Virginia, but today I could’ve used my long pants. What was nice, though, is that my rental has heated seats. I’ve had vehicles before with heated seats, but I’ve never really needed them. Well, maybe in New Mexico. It WAS cold then. Heated steering wheels are also quite nice. Anyway, the heated seat sure was nice with me wearing shorts today, and being too lazy to go back inside to change.

We planned to do some store orientation today at Kroger, WalMart, and Lowe’s. Store orientation is a sermon you’ve heard before as well if you’re a frequent reader of this blog: learn the perimeter shape, then fill in the details in the middle. We also discussed the different ways to manipulate a shopping cart and how to talk to Customer Service when requesting assistance for shopping. It was a very productive morning.

 

Day six

We went to Lowe’s this morning, the one store we didn’t make it to yesterday. Kris is looking for lumber to rebuild his mailbox and attaching it to the front porch. He downloaded the Seeing AI app for his phone, and we plan on using it for several areas of research.

The Seeing AI app is a free app that does a few things for people who don’t see well. It has a Short Text reader, which will read anything your camera sees, a document scanner, a bar code reader, a scene preview, a person identifying feature and a money/bill reader. We locate the correct aisles by using the short text reader, then use the barcode reader to locate the correct lumber, nails and spray paint. It’s like every other technology out there in that it works great for some things, but not all. But if you’re patient you can usually get pretty close to what you’re looking for. Using this app, or any other for that matter, takes practice to get good, but it can be a very useful tool.

I’m flying out this evening from Pittsburgh and it’s kind of a grey day, but the fall colors are really shining through this afternoon. Another beautiful drive, and another sandwich from my favorite Pittsburgh-based restaurant, Primanti Brothers. There was one in Clarksburg, and I resolved to only eat there once, but there was one there close to the airport, and it just made sense. As it turns out, it was the same location at which I ate about five times on my last trip to Pittsburgh. They should have recognized me.

West Virginia was my 47th state to be blessed to visit. Not all with Leader, but they’ve been a part of a lot of them. I only need South Dakota to finish out the lower 48. So, c’mon, South Dakotans! Apply for services from Leader! I need y’all to come through for me! Then we can work on Leader sending me to Hawaii and Alaska…