Observations

Here are some observations I’ve made at the center in the last four months.

When I’m out with the gang and there is a sign for a restaurant or some other business I can’t ask the students who are with me, “Hey, what’s that sign say?” That’s the same with t-shirts with logos on as well. If the logo is big enough I sometime can read them, but usually I can’t unless I get real close and then the person thinks what the hell are you doing?

Once there were four of us watching TV and a funny scene flashed on the screen. I looked at the person on my right and asked what was the scene about and he looked to the person on his right, and that person was clueless. Then I asked the person on my left and she just shrugged. No one picked it up. I think we all laughed at the scene even though we didn’t know what it was all about.

Sometimes you can tell who a person is by the way they are tapping with their cane. Some tap, tap and others brush the floor more than tap. Whatever their method it should be in the shape of an arc. The cane should go out three or four inches wider than your shoulders and about an inch off the ground.

Voices are pretty individualized. Most people have a unique voice, probably like fingerprints, although some sound pretty similar to each other.
More later.

Ledges part II

After my third dismissal of offered help I stretched to the second to the last block. I started to lean toward the road, over compensated too much to the right and toward the runoff pool and s*@*, I was falling into the water! My left leg stayed on the edge of the road but the rest of me fell to the pool of water. I landed on my rear, with the left leg following in about 3 feet of water. Water was up to my neck. It took my breath away. After I had regained my footing and stood up I reached for a couple of helping hands. No way could they pull my sodden body and clothes, which included blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, out from the pool. I finally climbed out on the road after two or three unsuccessful attempts to free myself from the freezing water.

I was a bit embarrassed, but mostly angry at myself for not accepting the help from my teacher. We still had about a mile of walking ahead of us until we reached the shelter we were going to eat lunch at. When we finally got there my knee started to swell and hurt. I did not have to go to the doctor for my knee, and it is doing much better.

Nest time a teacher offers me some help, I'm sure I will take it.

Trip to Ledges State Park

On Tuesday the school went to Ledges State Park near Boone, Iowa. It was supposed to be a walk in the park but ended in a soggy mess.

Once a month the school plans a group activity for the students and staff. For the month of September a field trip was scheduled for Ledges State Park. We were to walk some trails, eat a picnic lunch and play some group games.

It all started out fine with a beautiful walk on a couple of trails. We were all sleep-shaded (wearing our blindfolds) as we navigated along rocky trails that traversed up and down and around the park. Our canes came in very handy on the stone steps. The steps had varying degrees of width and steepness.

After walking about one hour we came across a rocky ledge called table rock. At that time our trail leader (who was totally blind) told us we could take off our shades. It was a beautiful view with breath taking descent to the road down below us.

I had heard a few cars on the park road and also heard the cars splashing through some unseen water.

After trekking down to the road I could hear running water across the road. When our group encountered the water we had two options: walk through the two inch water flowing across the road or try to walk along the edge, half skipping and half jumping from one cement block to another block. These blocks were about 18 to 24 inches long and about 8 inches wide. The distance between each cement block was approximately two feet from each other.

While being sleep-shaded the step from one block to the other block was anything but easy. If you slipped off one of the blocks you had two directions you could fall. One way was back on the road and step into the two inch water. The other direction was to plop into three feet of water that flowed to the river. You can probably guess which direction I took.

I had already crossed over one set of blocks without too much trouble. It was very exhilarating stretching from one block to the other. After successfully finishing the challenge, I gave a war cry and thought the water crossings were over. Not so. Up came the second water crossing.

It seemed to be a little deeper on the road as the cars made bigger splashes. Well, I knew if I chose the walk on the road I’d have wet feet for the rest of the day and I had just completed my first trek over the water.

I started over the water with a seemingly longer stretch than my first block bridge I conquered. Mark, my travel instructor, was there and asked me if I needed a hand. Three times he asked and three times I declined his offer. Sort of like Peter did in the Bible.

To be continued…