I have found that even after giving GPS demonstrations to people who are sighted in their own community that they find things that they didn't even know were there. These are locations that they pass by all of the time on a daily basis going to and from home. This happens to a greater extent with blind folks because so much of the information is visual signage. It is almost like a new window has opened when they hear the Sendero GPS announcing things like the streets they are on, the cross streets and the various points of interest that are around them. This was the feeling that I had when I first obtained the Sendero GPS two years ago. I felt that I was in control and didn't have to rely on sighted people telling me about what things were around and what streets I was on and what streets we were approaching. I find myself being the person answering questions like, "what street are we on?" and, "where are we?" It is quite powerful having this ability to have just as much if not more information than the sighted folks you are with. The people I was in the car with were stunned when I was able to say we were on 4th and Mission. I also find myself being the person finding distances to certain locations, getting the phone number of restaurants and making reservations all within a matter of a few seconds. I also find myself being the person saving the driver from unfolding their map on the dashboard and me telling them where to turn and where to get on and off the freeway. I wouldn't even think twice about walking out the door without my PK and GPS.

Friday night, I was navigating for a trip. A couple of friends and I were going to see the Tori Amos show in Oakland. The show was problematic, but the GPS functioned flawlessly, better than the Thomas Guide that we had for backup. In particular after the show, we were figuring how to get from the Paramount Theater to I-580 in the most efficient way. I was able to do an address lookup without specifying an address number or a cross street. For those who don't know, if you don't put in an address, GPS will offer you the option of choosing the nearest address. As an experiment, we tried this, and it directed us to an on-ramp that my driver didn't even know existed. Awesome, and a lot faster than calculating a 100-mile route back to Sacramento just to find the appropriate highway ramp to choose. This is a win for the Sendero product.