Botany, Barbecue, Buses

Today I went on my first field trip. We went to the Reiman Gardens in Ames. Brother-in-law Dean, you have to get over there. It was fantastic! I was disappointed at first when they said we had to wear our shades in the first hour while there, but I was badly mistaken. Seeing nothing visually really opens your other senses to your surroundings. I never knew the different textures of different flowers and plants could be so varied. It was really a whole new experience at "seeing" my environment. Some flowers felt velvety, some felt spiney, and even some felt serrated. Some smelled like black licorice, some smelled lemony, and some didn't smell at all. We found sage, rosemary, and thyme, but struck out finding parsley. I really was amazed that my other senses could visualize so much. I was a little disappointed taking off my shades and even put them back on for a little while longer. The butterfly house was amazing there. All sorts of butterflies in different sizes and colors. Plus the vegetation there seems like out of prehistoric times.

Following the museum, we stopped at Hickory Park for some barbecue. Luckily for me we didn't have to wear our shades as I find eating with shades on is the most difficult task of all. We got back to the Center (home) and had a retirement celebration for one of our teachers. I will write more about her next week.

My final class of the day was my Travel class. We walked up to the bus stop, me with my shades off because we were crunched for time. That tells you how fast I travel with my shades on. The other guy had no choice because he is totally blind. We jumped on the bus and went out to Wal-Mart again. Stepping out of the air-conditioned bus, the hot air felt like a furnace, and I then put my shades back on. We followed our same path as we did a week ago, and it seemed a bit easier this time. We walked in to the service desk and then sat on a bench in the store while our teacher purchased some batteries. We had a conversation with another guy sitting on the bench who I did not know was there until I jabbed him in his arm with my hand, feeling for a place to sit down. The other guy with me hit him on the leg with his cane. The man on the bench repeated, "That's ok, that's ok."

We retraced our steps and cautiously stepped on the stairs to the bus, felt for the coin deposit, and found a seat. The first two seats in the Des Moines buses are always reserved for people with special needs. It's really amazing the conversations you hear on the bus when your shades are on and you can't see a thing. Instead of only using one sense, your eyesight, you use your other senses, and it just seems like you are aware of more of your surroundings than when you use just your eyesight. That seems really funny to me. We were dropped off two blocks from the Center. The last two blocks went very smoothly because I'd been on the terrain several times before and finally walked into the school 30 minutes after school was dismissed. Chris says I already had to stay after school! More later.