For those of you who wonder how the ole guide dog and I travel alone, depending on how adventurous I'm feeling we will either just ask directions and ping pong our way through the terminals or we get someone from TSA to escort us from place to place. "Walkers" as I learned they're called.
Usually this works very well for us. We haven't had many issues through all our travels.. That is, until we started passing through Dulles International in DC. I have passed through that airport three times now and every time has been filled with adventure…whether I like it or not. I'm convinced they just like messing with us blind people.
The first time I went through Dulles was on the trip home from Connecticut back in April. I met a guy named Mike who swims on the US paralumpic team. He was awesome to talk to and we had some good conversation. When we got off the flight I said my goodbyes and the TSA lady escorted me off, first to take Xxon outside, then to get some food, then to my gate.
After getting lost twice and walking all over the airport we finally find the pet relief area and, of course, Xxon doesn't take the opportunity to go. Thanks for that buddy. Fast forward and we are at the gate desk getting my seat a arranged for the flight. I still have about an hour or so before my flight started boarding so I was in no rush and just sat down to eat.
A few minutes into eating Mike sat down by me again and we just picked up the conversation.
About 45 minutes later he asked me what gate I was leaving from. I told him it was B5 and he informed me that I was sitting at something like E16…nowhere near where I needed to be.
The "Walker" had picked me up at that gate earlier. It was where our flight from Connecticut landed. For whatever reason she just decided to take me back there and leave me. I guess I should have confirmed but she had my boarding pass in her hands and between her and the gate agent I think someone probably should have mentioned something before they just set me in the corner like a plant and walk away right?
Anyway, Mike offers to walk with me over to my gate and on our journey we pass my dear old Walker! She asked me where I was going and when I told her it was the gate I was actually supposed to leave from she just replied with an oh sorry, and walked away. This isn't just weird to me right?
So lets jump to the most recent trip. Our first adventure is getting off the plane. They didn't use a jet bridge like every other airport I've been to. They have the steepest and narrowest stairs ever that just lead to the tarmac. After being left on the same tarmac the trip before I made sure to ask for help. It's quite loud out there and Xxon isn't familiar with it at all. We have been known to start heading toward the nearest grass instead of inside…it was a little stressful. He hates those stairs too. It's like climbing a ladder and I can't even hold his leash when we do it.
Anyway, this trip we get met by a lady who, instead of talking to me, just grabs my arm and pulls me toward the building like a bouncer removing someone from a bar. I was able to pull away from her at the ramp and get inside where I discover she can hardly speak English at all and has one of the most difficult accents to understand imaginable. Who sends someone like that to help a blind guy!!! Communication is important and obviously lip reading is out of the question, unless I use my fingers…maybe I should learn that!!!
It takes us about five minutes to just figure out where I'm trying to get. The entire time she is backing away from Xxon saying,
"No dog, no like dog."
She refused to let me carry my own bag and we just set off in silence. Instead of trying to talk she just decided to keep a death grip on my wrist with her sweaty palm…probably because she was so scared of X.
We walk what seemed like forever, get on an actual shuttle, drive for five minutes, walk across most of the state, then finally arrive at baggage claim.
I explain to her that my other bag looked similar to the one she had carried only a little bigger. Same brand and everything. She said ok and set off while I waited.
About ten minutes later one of the Fidelco trainers meets up with me and we just wait, and talk, and wait, and wait some more. NO bag.
This is just great! Who doesn't love lost baggage at the beginning of a trip right? Well it turns out that is wasn't lost…it was just riding the belt in little circles waiting for that lady to realize it was mine.
We stood there for almost an entire hour! I would have stood their all night I'm sure if the trainer hadn't walked over and gotten involved. Seriously, if my bag would have been a snake she would have been bitten, eaten, and digested by the time she noticed it.
Fortunately that was the only adventure of the day. We drove to the Hotel George, checked in, got settled, and hit the sack.
Tuesday morning was wide open so the trainer and I decided to walk to a gas station just .6 miles from the hotel. Nice and easy, and since he had a dog in training with him we decided a little exercise and practice would be a good thing.
If you've never been to DC let me warn you, it's confusing. I think it took us an hour and a half to find the stupid place. We circled all around it like vultures and eventually honed in on it. The walk back took no more than ten or fifteen minutes….gotta love DC.
We got back around noon, changed into our business clothes and got to head over to the Senate building for a few meetings.
We got to meet two Senators from Connecticut, one of which we're getting quite familiar with. Senator Richard Blumenthal is a great supporter of Fidelco and has always seemed very genuine in his interest in them and in Xxon and I. He is always good to make us feel welcome when we see him. Which I guess is rare considering some of the other people we have seen there but been ignored by...
That night was dinner with Governor Dirk Kempthorne, who is President and CEO of the American Counsel of Life Insurers, and the reason I was there.
Every year, since 1991, the ACLI has sponsored the Capitol Hill Challenge which is a three mile team race for all the DC regulars. Teams ranged from the Navy to the FBI to NPR to NASA. There were even a handful of Senators there too. Almost thirty of them.
I got to run with Governor Kempthorne and got introduced to just about everyone throughout the race.
One of the people I got to meet was Ryan Hall who, turns out, is the fastest American…like ever. I ran my half marathon in 2 hours and 2 minutes. I thought that was pretty good right? This guy ran a full marathon in 2 hours and 4 minutes!! I seriously can't even wrap my mind around that. We looked it up and the only people faster than him are a bunch of Kenyans. It's awesome!
This is where the title of this post comes in. No, not because of Ryan, because of me. We ran our three miles in oh…about 35 minutes and guess who is the first blind guy to run in this race and therefore the holder of the best time by blind guy title ever? That's right, me baby! I must say, it feels quite nice to be the holder of the #1 fastest time in my category. King of the castle! I even signed an autograph during this trip…it had nothing to do with the race at all but I can pretend. (It was really just some lady who…since there is no other way to put it…was just a little odd.)
So the race was great and we got to meet a lot of different people and the whole experience was just plain sweet. A giant week long police convention of sorts was in full swing while we were there too.
I'm sure it has a real name but I don't know it and don't want to look it up but Xxon and I stopped regularly to talk to all the different officers walking around the Capitol. I guess they had a big ceremony where they honor their fallen from the previous year. Needless to say it was a really good time to be in town. Xxon caught their interest almost every time we were outside. DC was probably safer that week than any of the other 51 out of the year.
The next day was the return trip. So, back to Dulles, you can imagine my excitement. The trainer walked with me to the desk and I got all checked in. They took over from there and escorted me to a holding area with the other cripples (I can say that since I am one) where we just wait to be picked out like puppies at a pet store.
My new Walker showed up and guess what!!!! Could hardly speak English.. It was fortunate that he was pushing a lady in a wheelchair who was traveling with her daughter or I would have been left behind for sure. The guy said absolutely nothing to me at all. No direction or anything. He just walked off and the daughter said,
"I guess your supposed to follow us then."
She helped me the entire way while my lousy Walker just walked. I heard him speak one word right at the beginning of our journey and I couldn't even recognize it.
So warning to any disabled people traveling through Dulles, make sure to have a backup plan and be on your guard! The Walkers there are awful!
Fortunately I'm not easily angered. I could have raised a fuss, and maybe I should have, but I was having too much fun laughing about it all to really care very much. This is the fun part about traveling! It's always interesting and I always learn something new…like how the Walkers at Dulles are about as useful as the ones from the Walking Dead.
Xxon has the plane travel down.
Traveling is quite regular for us so if you want in on the action in real time look Xxon and I up on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you all for reading and God bless!
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