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