The Journey Continues, Sort Of.

     Yakama Nation RV Park in Toppenish, WA

Well we have successfully made our way back to Oregon and into the Willamette Valley. Cherelle working the sounds like a pro. Good thing too because I've been distracted and l left the refrigerator door practically gaping, something you'd think would be difficult to do in a motorhome. Cherelle heard the door ajar alarm and let me know that I'd better get the thing closed. During a visit to my mother's in Forest Grove, Oregon, where we had lunch and a nice visit, Cher alerted me to both the toaster-oven timer and the microwave. My auntie who has lived with my mom since dad passed away three years ago, always seems to get a kick out of Cher. She and mom make sure that the big water dish is set out and filled for my girl when we visit. Last night we went to a gathering at my sister-in-law's where Cherelle gave me a tap with her nose when some guests knocked on the door and while there alerted me to a mystery sound. She and a couple of the guests heard it but could not quite pinpoint exactly from where it was coming. Cher and the guests were in agreement that the sound was somewhere in the kitchen but then it stopped and did not reoccur, leaving everyone scratching their heads. Me? I had to trust everyone else on the matter but was very proud of Cher showing her skills, working when there were a number of distractions.

    Catching some z's on her cot.

We will be taking a bit of a hiatus from traipsing all over the countryside, staying awhile in the town from which we launched our travels,Corvallis, Oregon.  I have found that I need some of the familiar. It is nice to be someplace where Cherelle and I are a fairly common sight and where I know that the odds of her and me being challenged as a Service Dog Team are slim. It is a relief to interact with people who know I have a severe hearing loss and take it in stride, making the effort that it often takes to communicate with me. 

Every interaction has some stress for me. I need to always and I mean always be concentrating each time I talk with anyone, and more so when there is environmental noise and the individual's voice is not familiar to me and/or soft spoken and/or has an accent and/or the person turns their face away and/or......you get the idea. And as a "tourist" discovering that you are missing out on information that everyone else has access to via audio, is disheartening. Financially it is no bargain to get one third or one half for what you have paid.  All these factors, combined with frequent new environments, does after a time, this case almost four months, push me to my limit. 

So I am taking time to recharge the batteries, so to speak, before further travels. But then every day each one of us is traveling on a journey that is our individual lives.  So then "Travels With Hearing Dog" continues even when the motorhome does not.

Best wishes from me and tail wags from Cherelle (aka Cher). The journey continues...........

Update On The "Oxbow Incident"

The General Manager | Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce contacted me via email to let me know that he was sorry that I had such an unpleasant experience while staying in Penticton, BC. His email was timely and thoughtful which speaks highly of the Penticton Chamber of Commerce. He sent me a complaint form to fill out to file with the Chamber. I replied, thanking him and expressing my regrets at not being able to spend more time in his city.

The Chamber of Commerce cannot address the incident with the owner of Oxbow RV Resort because Oxbow is no longer a current member of the Chamber. However Oxbow has the Penticton Chamber of Commerce member symbol posted predominately on its web page. 

Not for long I imagine since the Chamber now knows.

I have been informed by the BC Human Rights Tribunal that a US citizen is able to file a complaint with the Tribunal. I will need to wade through Section 8 of the Human Rights Code and review Tribunal Guides 1 and 2 before filling out the compliant. My issue may or may not fall within the guidelines. I have 6 months to file. A little light reading in the evenings while I snuggle with Cherelle. (Big wink inserted here.)

I want to thank everyone who has offered words of encouragement, support and words of comfort to me and snide comments about the individual discussed in my earlier blog and Facebook page. Each one has helped alleviate the unpleasantness of that encounter.

Hugs to all of you

Cherelle sends kisses along with the tail wags.

Stay tuned.........

    Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

 

Canada: The Good, The Bad and the Truly Ugly.

I thought I would try for light humor, hence the title, but I just cannot do it. I had a truly ugly experience at a RV park in Penticton, B.C. Canada. It involved not only the denial of access for my service dog, and therefore denial of lodging for me and my husband, but pure harassment about my status as a person with a hearing loss. 

I do want to say that the parts of Canada in Alberta and B.C. that we visited are beautiful and the majority of the citizens warm and friendly and other than three incidents of Cher being accosted by off lead dogs (that is "the bad"), she and I had no problems and were accepted as a team. However the following experience at the final leg of our trip was upsetting enough for me to dampen my spirits and my enthusiasm about that part of B.C. 

The humiliation I experienced yesterday (September 15th, 2013) as we attempted to check into Oxbow RV Resort with my Service Dog was inexcusable. Her ID, which I showed when asked was rejected. "It's a fake" the owner screamed at me (the husband of the husband wife owner team).  When I refused to back down on Cherelle's legitimacy as a Service Dog, he then attacked my disability status. This made the situation more appalling and traumatic for me. The owner harassed me, insisting I prove I was "deaf". I never claimed I was deaf, rather severely hearing impaired. He demanded I show him if I was wearing hearing aids. Flustered and in shock I did. Even then he refuse to believe that I was hearing impaired because in his opinion I did not meet his criteria as "deaf". He attempted to get me alone to conduct his own hearing evaluation on me which felt just plain creepy and at that point I walked away from him badly shaken. Perhaps if I were Canadian rather than American this would not have happened? If his goal was to be so unpleasant as to make us leave then the campaign was a success. My husband and I could not leave Penticton or B.C. fast enough.

However his demeaning and insulting actions will have consequences. I will be contacting the following and registering a complaint: Good Sam, (which is a huge supporter of Dogs for the Deaf the organization that gave me Cherelle), Penticton Chamber of Commerce, The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, B.C. Human Rights Clinic, BC Human Right Tribunal, and The Ministry of Attorney General. There is also an American Attorney who specializes in legal rights of those with hearing loss whose advice I will be seeking. 

When that business owner went from refusing me access because I had a Service Dog to refusing me lodging because he did not want to believe I was hearing impaired, he crossed over into territory he had no business going into and I might add no qualifications to make that determination. I do not want anyone else having to undergo that kind of ugly experience by that individual. 

Warm Wishes from me.

Tail wags from Cherelle aka, Cher.

    Bow Falls at Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Lost In Translation

Note: We will be in Canada September 4th through the 16th. Alberta to Pendicton BC.  I will not be using my cell or iPad because of the expense so it is unlikely that I will be posting until we are back in the U.S. If I snag a decent wifi I might do a short blog. So until the 17th.......... Everyone take care.

 Rest Area outside of Billings MT as we head to Butte.

As we continued our journey which has taken us through Montana, we drove through The Crazy Mountains.  The "Crazies" as they are sometimes called are a mountain range in Montana in the northern Rocky Mountains. With a name like that I just had to look up the story behind it. There were a couple of stories (see Wikipedia) but the one I thought most likely is attributed to what I think of as a case of "lost in translation". The Crow natives considered the mountains to be a place to go for vision quests. Since trappers and other people of European decent were likely not familiar with the concept of "visions" or of going someplace to have a vision, and the Crow may not have had a word for vision, it probably ended up being interpreted (and I am taking liberties here) by non-natives as "the mountains were the natives go to be crazy".  A more accurate name in my opinion would be Vision Quest Mountains. 

And this all relates to traveling with a Hearing Dog how? Well directly it doesn't but indirectly it does relate to my life as someone with a severe hearing loss. The Crazy Mountains label was, as I mentioned, probably a result of miscommunication and misunderstanding.  Both those words describe what happens to me on just about a daily bases and to basically anyone with a hearing loss. The extent of the "lost in translation" experience depends on the extent of and type of hearing loss as well as an individual's skills in dealing with the loss, such as wearing or not wearing hearing aids, (Dependent upon whether or not a person can benefit from hearing aids.) and ability to lip read and put speech into context. For me the experience of communicating with others is a bit like a trip through crazy mountains rather than of going on a vision quest. I will admit though that living with a hearing loss can lead to insights into others and myself. So maybe there is some "vision" involved even if I haven't sought it out. I suppose I could label my hearing loss as a Crazy Mountains, Vision Quest kind of journey. I am very happy to have Cherelle be my guide through part of it!  And there you have the tie-in to Hearing Dog. 

    Overlooking part of Butte MT and one of the many abandoned mines that surround the city.

Warm wishes to everyone from me and tail wags from Cherelle, aka Cher.