[Ag-eq] Getting around in the country

[nfoster at extremezone.com]

Fred:

It sounds like you have a great guide.  It also sounds like he has a lot of
character.

I have done quite a lot of rural travel with a cane and am very comfortable
with it.  So far the snow is the only thing that I've found to be really
challenging.
Nella
I used to take my guide hiking and he got very good; we did some pretty ruggid
trails.


Quoting Fred's Win7 Catastrophe via Ag-eq <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>:

> Ya, I'm with Tracy



>
> Sounds nice in your little town, but I do like having a fairly busy
> train station or transit station within a short walk.  Mine is
> 5-short  blocks away.  I am considering buying a crew-cab pickup or
> SUV to hire out as an Uber or lyft far, when I'm not needing a ride.
>
> I was a good cane user, but off pavement or in snow and ice is tough!
>
> My guide dog (8-years old, and my first) was a little bigger than I
> was hoping.  He weighs about 70-pounds, has big feet, and is a great
> working dog.  We walk off pavement a bunch, sand, rocks, meadow-like
> grasses and flowers, as well as on the beach, and around rocky
> tidepools.  We only get ice and snow when we go visit it!  Around
> Xmas and New Years, we were visiting friends and my girlfriends
> family near Flagstaff, Arizona.  As a guide team, we were more stable
> than most of the folks we were walking with.  With our 6-feet, and my
> dog's low center of gravity, and his 70-pounds of ballast in my left
> hand, I only fell once.  That one time was because a snowplow had
> piled a berm up on a street corner.  My dog was trying to guide me
> through about a 14-inch wie channel that pedestrians had
> stomped  down.  I just caught my right boot  on the edge of the pile,
> and did a faceplant into the big mound.  It was refreshing!
>
> He is also very good hiking, camping, on farms, and in gardens.  He
> is able to work around all sorts of animals.  Most farm animals keep
> their distance, but male turkeys will walk right up to us.  His puppy
> raisers did a great job exposing him to all sorts of animals,
> equipment, transportation, etc.  He can climb ladders, behind
> me.  (Don't tell his guide dog school!)  He is fearless, and will try
> to guide me wherever I need to go.
>
> The only drawbacks are that he really likes strawberries and
> tomatoes, so I gotta tether him when I'm picking those.  I don't mind
> if he scrounges a few  windfall avocadoes, or macadamia nuts.  The
> other drawback is that he is such a handsome, alert, and friendly dog
> that he attracts much more attention than I would with a cane.
>
> Fred, near San Diego
>
> Member of the Surf Dogs Guide Dog alumni chapter
>
> President of the Ag & Equestrian Division, NFB
>
>
>
>
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