[Ag-eq] Getting around in the country

[Fred's Win7 Catastrophe]

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