Sendero Group Travel Blog

Monday, June 17, 2013

the beauty of sharing user points of interest

As we drove from the San Jose Costa Rica airport to Puerto Viejo on the East coast Caribbean side of the country, I had to rely upon user points since I did not have maps for Costa Rica. I recorded several points on a previous trip several years ago, many along the same highway. Wonderfully, Rich Irwin recorded points in April 2007, something I could tell from the details of the user points. I learned of an aerial tram half way along our trip, which we hope to check out on the trip home.

As our driver told us about towns and sites along the 4 hour drive, I could chime in with my own information. For example, he told us about a national forest we went through and I could add that they had some amazing waterfalls and the forest was 34 kilometers across, something recorded in my user points.

The coolest thing so far was being able to touch Sloths and Monkeys in a rescue center today. One of the monkeys climbed my cane and then perched on my shoulder. From there, he leaped to the branches overhead.

It is now marked in the user database as the Jaguar Center but there aren't any Jaguars there right now.

We are staying at the Tree House lodge, somewhat of a mobility challenge.

For those of you on my Foursquare list, you saw me check in there and it is also in the Sendero user list now.

Anyone wanting to come to Costa Rica, I highly recommend Puerto Viejo, the Tree House and the Jaguar Center.

Mike

posted by Sendero Group  # 8:30 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

traveling in non map countries

I will be in Costa Rica next week. It has been fun using Sendero GPS to put myself virtually at points I recorded several years ago in order to remind myself of where certain things are located. I also updated the categories.

This reminds me, Mr. RFI, the Acapulco Mexico points you recorded need their categories updated.

I even have points marked where we saw a sloth and crocodiles. I am reminded of the lodge rooms too because I had them marked at the Pichira Lodge in Tortuguero.

This time, I'll be using the Braille Sense OnHand. I am bringing a good plastic bag to seal it in when we are in the boats. They have been known to flip over. Sure will be nice one day when we have maps for Costa Rica.

Mike

posted by Sendero Group  # 7:55 AM 7 comments

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Using Dual GPS

I haven't been skiing for a few years at Kirkwood. The trip is about 2 hours  and more than half is completely out of cell range. I like using the Seeing Eye GPS app on the iPhone at the same time as the Sendero GPS on the PK in order to understand the strengths of both. Of course, the PK version has had over 10 years to mature so it is really the bench mark for accessible GPS.

On Highway 16 and 88 where there was no cell service, the iPhone would track the route as long as we didn't stray from it. I really couldn't choose a new destination, which turned out to be necessary when we got within 10 miles of Kirkwood and the road closed due to a 3 car accident. After putting chains on and driving at 10 miles an hour, we turned around. There were 3 tow trucks within 100 feet of us and two police cars, one was in the ditch.

We had to decide, do we wait to see if the cars clear and the road opens, do we find a hotel or do we go home. This is where the search capabilities of the Sendero GPS and explore mode came in very handy. We had lots of time to talk about the options. It gave us something to do as we  waited for the
police car to be pulled out of the ditch so we could proceed back the way we came. About every 5 miles, there was another car off the road and so we would wait again.

I located a hotel about 30 miles down the road. By the time we reached it,  we decided it wasn't that far to go back to Sacramento so we did end up going home, a six and a half hour trip that should have taken 2 hours. We did try again in the morning and made it to Kirkwood in 3 slow hours but no major issues.

It was both entertaining and useful to have GPS on this trip. Kim from Sendero was driving. She had her hands full dealing with snow and other cars so it really was helpful that I could be the navigator. As much as I am excited about the iPhone version coming out, when it comes to hard core navigating, give me my PK any day. I do like having the best of both worlds, power and convenience.

Mike

posted by Sendero Group  # 12:32 PM 84 comments

Monday, January 21, 2013

figuring out how to navigate the Inauguration today

Today brought back fond memories of negotiating the crowds and very cold weather at the Inauguration in 2009. I was with two sighted friends so there was less need for GPS as compared with this year when it was us two blind folks and our two dogs.

The first challenge was dealing with the Priceline web page to book a hotel.  I wanted something that was reasonably close but not too close so it would cost a fortune. We ended up about 1.5 miles away.

Then, we had to get into DC from Virginia with several of the bridges closed. I worked with the taxi driver and together we figured it out.

Then we had to decide how to get from the hotel to the Capital area where the events were taking place. All of the roads within 10 blocks were closed to cars. We could either take the Metro and get somewhat close or take a taxi to an unknown location. We chose the latter and ended up at 1st and K streets, about half a mile from where we needed to be.

I was using a combination of live GPS mode and Virtual mode to sort this all out. Not knowing the address but just the intersection, I used the cross street selection to find a destination.

Our progress came to a screeching halt about 175 feet from 1st Street and Indiana Street. There were masses of people and we were moving forward about 5 feet every 10 minutes. It was a bit dicey with our two dogs in such a packed setting but we kept ourselves next to the side barrier. I noticed a few officials and cameramen moving along the outside of that barrier. When we didn't move at all for 20 minutes, we hoisted our two dogs over the barrier and then clambered over ourselves to the cheers of those near us.

They were happy that at least someone was doing what they were all tempted to do. After that, it was smooth sailing right into the heart of the capital mall and the crowd gathered to hear the Inauguration.

Thank goodness I was not frozen like last Inauguration when it ended. Off we went in reverse, first to find a restaurant and then back to the hotel. I did a search for nearby restaurants and went to them one by one only to find out there was an hour or more wait at all of them. We decided to eat back near the hotel, outside the crazy downtown area. I guessed right that we might find a taxi at Union Station and from there it was easy going back to our hotel. On the way, I look virtually for a restaurant near the hotel. For the heck of it, I switched to Blindsquare and found some options that way.

It was really fun to have navigated such a complicated set of circumstances using the GPS as one of our tools. Hats off to the guide dogs who did an amazing job guiding and being patient in such crowded conditions. Oh, yes, and then there was the Inauguration itself which is such a historical event to be fortunate to attend.

Mike

posted by Sendero Group  # 5:30 PM 5 comments

Saturday, January 19, 2013

intrepid London travelers

It was pretty messy in and around London on Saturday and I feared as people canceled because of the weather that Charles and I would be exploring the hotel and nothing more.

Folks trickled in a bit late but by 1 PM, we had gathered a small group for lunch. We explored the local points of interest on Sendero PC Maps. We then headed outside to see about the snow. It was definitely cold but we zipped up and managed to read our Braille displays without fingers being frozen.

You never know in a big city how accurate things will be but we lucked out and found a bar called the Perseverance, chosen simply because of its name.

As we sipped our favorite drinks, we explored where we might go next. It took a while because we would find an interesting place and then call to find out they were closed or not what we wanted. The Grazing Goat sounded promising but after talking with them, the food didn't sound as good as the name. No, there was no goat on the menu.

Instead we found a wine bar in Saint Pancras Station and tasted some nice wines after a 1 mile walk and frozen feet.

After that, one of our locals suggested a place called the Parcel Yard. That was hard to find until we learned there was a sign over its door saying Gate 9 and three quarters, which you will recognize from Harry Potter.

A sixth person joined us there for a nice dinner and we got a lot of good feedback about improvements we can make to our software. 

I thought everyone would bail when we said we had to get back to our hotel because of an early morning flight. Everyone but one person came along. We finally broke up around 11 PM.

Sorry Peter and some others could not join us but happy that the snow did not ruin the day.

Now, off to DC for the Inauguration tomorrow.

Mike

posted by Sendero Group  # 11:36 PM 4 comments

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