Home Training Day Six

17 February, 2011:

Home Training Day Six:

Over coffee, Mike-the-trainer and I laid out today's training programme. Since the local shopping mall is only a single story with no open-work stairs/bannisters or elevators I chose to scrub the Mall Crawl and focus on training with LD Mike and the Kapsys Kapten Plus GPS system.

We headed uptown and LD Mike and I began our normal route to the Post Office. I had the Kapten running in Free Navigation Mode and I must say it was very, VERY nice to hear Serena (the voice of the Kapten) announce my direction of travel, the street name and the side of the street that I was on periodically. Upcoming intersection announcements were also very handy. When we arrived at the Post Office Mike-the-trainer and I figured out how to add a K-Tag (Landmark) to the system. Next we headed to a nearby State Governmental office and took care of some business. Working with both LD Mike and the Kapten was very pleasant! As we were passing by Groucho's I stopped and set up a K-tag for the coffee shop. Then back to the library and another K-tag and we were finished with the morning session. Later that afternoon, we went back up to the library and did some more training, again, utilizing the Kapten. LD Mike did very well with some obstacle work as well as working past a bank where someone was using a noisy pressure washer to clean the sidewalk (TWICE!!). LD Mike showed caution but did not balk. I am VERY proud of how he gave the pressure washer a wide berth as we passed it the second time. On the wide sidewalk, he was practically walking along the ridge of the kerb. GREAT job LD Mike!! We finished the session by stopping in at Groucho's. LD Mike sprawled out at my side and promptly fell asleep (He snores!) while Mike-the-trainer and I enjoyed our respective coffees.

When Mike-the-trainer dropped LD Mike and I off at home we set up a time for the next day to finalize the paperwork. For, save for the paperwork the Home Training of LD Mike and I was over.

To Be Continued...