Sendero Group Travel Blog

Even though I am on my 6th Seeing Eye dog and 38 years since I got my first dog, I am still blown away at the experience of working with my current dog Tank.

It has only been 17 years since I first enjoyed the benefits of using GPS, albeit in a 12 pound back pack. All these years later and many pounds lighter, I am still thrilled by the freedom to find places on my own. In a place where French is often the language spoken by passers by, asking for and getting proper directions is an extra challenge.

Montreal is a really good city to walk in. There are plenty of tall buildings so the GPS accuracy does vary. Nonetheless, I have been able to set my destination and find it on my own. I might only ask for help in the final frustrating 50 feet.

Then, when we drove out of town to the HumanWare headquarters, I was the navigator through highways and city streets. Thank goodness for the Braille display as the synthesizer butchers the French street names.

Thank goodness also for the real keyboard as I had to consistently explore our surroundings, switching between GPS and virtual mode, looking at alternative routes, searching for a restaurant, recording some user points and pulling up phone numbers from my BrailleNote address book. The truth is if I didn't have this technology or was just using a basic GPS, I would have left the navigating to the driver.

Note, I had data roaming turned off because of the international charges so using online GPS wasn't an option.

Mike

Mike and Ron at the World Pro Ski Foundation event in Aspen Colorado along with Olympic ski stars from 1964 through 2011.