Re: Riding safety with Alzheimer's?

On Sat, 8 Mar 2025 14:43:12 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com>
wrote:

My question is, what else should I prepare for? Searches on the web
didn't reveal much, other than that cycling is beneficial in slowing the
progress of such diseases.

I suggest some kind of senior GPS tracker:
<https://www.google.com/search?q=senior%20gps%20tracker&num=10&udm=2>

During the pandemic, our group of about 6 hikers would regularly meet
for walks (not bicycle rides) in Henry Cowell state park.  One of our
friends asked if he could join and if he could bring a friend.  No
problem, as long as the observed the usual Covid precautions.  The
friend of the friend turned out to be a rather serious diabetic.  We
discovered later that he had a history of not monitoring his blood
sugar and wandering off. 

All seemed to be going well until we made a detour to the nearest
public restroom.  15 minutes later, we discovered that he had
disappeared.  He also wasn't answering his cell phone.  We checked
with nearby hikers, but nobody had seen him.  We were about to alert
the park rangers, when someone saw him driving away from the park.
That's also when our friend casually mentioned that he had driven
himself to the state park in his car.  We called his wife to alert her
of the problem and asked her to call us if and when he arrives home.
Half an hour later, we received the call.  His cell phone battery was
dead because he had forgotten to charge it.

To avoid a repetition of this type of fire drill, someone should
purchase a "senior GPS tracker" for your riding companion and
permanently attach it to his clothes so that he doesn't loose it.  The
one's that run on a smartphone will rapidly discharge the phone
battery.  The one's that have an SOS button require an expensive
service plan and are marginal in dense foliage.  I haven't looked at
the watches that use a smartphone as a repeater (i.e. Apple Watch).
Those appeared after all this happened and might an improvement.

Also, if you think that a cell phone is sufficient, be sure to enable
location tracking on the phone.  If you have his Google account login
and password, you can use another computer to locate his position
without requiring that he do anything:
<https://myaccount.google.com/find-your-phone>
<https://support.google.com/maps/answer/15437054>

Thanks for volunteering.


--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558