AARP

I have been taking the AARP Smart Driver online course. After I pass the course I save a little money on my car insurance. However, as I work through the material, my mind hasn’t been on driving a car but rather on paddling a canoe. The authors of the driving course seem to be speaking directly to me.

As I anticipate our upcoming epic canoe trip, of course I am a wee bit worried. I don’t remember previously fretting about the things that give me pause now. Maybe that is because the AARP course is pointing them out so clearly. Here is a direct quote:
“Throughout this course, our goals have been to teach you to boost your safety awareness, refresh and improve your driving skills, minimize your risk of a crash, increase your confidence, prolong your mobility, and maintain your independence.” To translate, I MUST increase my safety awareness this summer. Many parts of this trip are treacherous and the key is to know when to portage and when to run the many sets of rapids. After the decision is made to run a particular set, my sterning skills had best be up to date. None of us wants to capsize in a freezing arctic river. On the other hand, none of us wants to portage when we don’t have to, so building up our confidence in our abilities will be crucial. As far as prolonging our mobility goes, if we can get through this trip safely and without breaking any bones, we won’t worry about mobility. The same is true with Independence. We will have been independent enough to last a lifetime.

The AARP course then addresses how to manage change. “Maintaining awareness of the changes in our vehicles, our roads, and ourselves allows us to be safer travelers and drivers.” I haven’t really considered how our bodies have changed since we started paddling together 20 years ago. AARP points out that our eyesight is worse, our bones are more fragile, our hearing is less dependable, our reaction time is slower, and our strength and flexibility have both lessened, causing  balance and stability issues. Perhaps most insidious are cognitive changes that can result in loss of awareness and poor decisions. AARP also warns about getting lost, but that will be pretty hard for us to do when we are on a river.

Here are some AARP words of advice that apply to us very well: “Give yourself time to react: take into account your driving situation. No matter what, be sure you can stop in time. Give yourself extra time in difficult road situations like rain, snow, or heavy traffic. Avoid driving at dusk or dawn when you can. Another key strategy to keep in mind is to avoid situations that are difficult or especially risky.” All of these are good to remember, except for perhaps the traffic warning. I doubt we will see another canoe for a whole month.

The course concludes with this statement: “the valuable strategies you have gained in this course will also lead you to renew your smart driving skills, improve your flexibility and fitness, and extend your safe driving for many years.” I would be thrilled if all it took for us to get ready for this trip was to take the AARP Smart Driver course. Unfortunately, the skills aren’t quite that transferable. At the very least, the words from this course will be playing in my mind as we charge down the river.

This last caveat will hopefully float out into Hudson Bay with us, unused: “Older drivers are much more likely to be seriously hurt or even killed should an accident occur.”