…..I got freedom and upgraded my wheels!
Have you ever watched ‘Grace and Frankie’? Hilarious Netflix original series with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. If you haven’t seen it you need to! Channeling my inner Grace, (you need to watch Season 4, Episode 6 to understand), I set out in great anticipation to a previously well avoided store! Yes folks, the confines of being immobile have finally gotten to me and I jumped at the chance to accomany my main man to Home Depot…but only so I could ride the motorised cart! Oh jeez…what has my life become?!?!
Anyway, after all the fun of that exciting excursion I’m settled back on to the couch and finally getting around to telling you all about our mini vacay in the New Year when we went up to Falling Waters State Park, up in the Florida Panhandle.
With the festivities of the season behind us, we just wanted to get ourselves away and back to nature for a few days! So we hooked up Betsy. Loaded up the bike, filled up the fridge and headed north to Falling Waters State Park. It’s a 5 hour ride from home, basically on just two roads, take the I-75 and turn left at the I-10. However, I was surprised to find that we changed time zones and went back an hour, which was great for getting there but not so much when heading home!
Arriving at the Park, I was super pleased that it was relatively easy to negotiate and get in to the spot I’d chosen. We often have fun the first 1/2 hour as Iain negotiates and coaxes Betsy into place. She is kinda large! I have to admit, normally this is due to my preference for choosing smaller, parks with more secluded spaces. Not so this time though. Maybe we just have gotten better at working together on this but she slotted in perfectly the first time.
Hurrah! Drama avoided…or not?!?!
You’ve heard the saying; “if the vans a rockin’, don’t come knockin'”?
Well, this van certainly rocked my friends, and we certainly weren’t having “fun” at the time!!
Here’s what rocked my world. Having traveled for so many hours and wanting to get right in to relaxtion mode we were ready for some refreshments. So while Iain got busy setting up the water and electric and leveling out the legs etc, I opened Betsy up to grab some drinks.
(In my defence; I definitely checked that this was OK with him first!)
Next minute, the van lurches forward and I’m on my ass. Good job I have padding!
Now, what worried me more about this was the fact that I did not immediately hear yelling, cursing and general loud angriness coming from my husband. Immediately, visions of him squished under Betsy flashed through my mind. Thankfully this was not the case! When I stepped out he was just standing looking thoroughly bemused…although it actually wasn’t much longer after that that the fireworks began!
Betsy had indeed tipped forward and in doing so buggared up one of her legs. Crap!
Anyway, long story short. We finally got our heads together to fix the issue. Some creative maneuvers with the van which involved me using my body weight over the tow hitch to drop it down low enough; I really do need to go on a diet (!) and then the much anticipated relaxation commenced 🙂
Falling Waters is a really nice park. Not too large and has a great trail to explore that is well maintained and easy to negotiate along a boardwalk. Then there’s the added bonus of there being a waterfall. It’s actually the tallest waterfall in Florida and plunges 73ft into a sinkhole and underground cavern. I did realise that the water flow would be low as it hadn’t rained for weeks so I wasn’t terribly disappointed at the miniscule trickle but I can imagine that in rainy season it would be pretty spectacular. The trail ambles through the densely wooded area and rolls up and down actual hills. So unusual for Florida! With the weather being so much cooler than usual and the trees having shed for the winter we almost belived that we could be in North Carolina.
There’s also a nice area of lake that is set up for picnicking and swimming, although the alligator warning sign didn’t make that idea too appealing!
To see all the pictures and find out more about the park, click here 🙂
We spent the next few days exploring the rest of the area; Florida Caverns State Park, (which would have been better if I was brave enough to go down into the caves!) and a couple of other (unexciting) State Parks which weren’t worth a post! We also rode out to Panama City Beach. Very disappointing. I found it pretty tacky and tired looking. As much as it was nice to be out riding, Florida roads are soooooo boring. We were really reminded of why we want to get our butts up to the mountains as often as we possibly can!
Nevertheless we had a brilliant weekend and I came home fully refreshed and ready for the scary sugery which didn’t turn out to be as scary as I thought, although the whole art of mobilising using crutches has not been the easiest to learn!
The best thing about being plonked on the couch for so long has been that I’ve had plenty of time to start planning this years big adventure…but more on that next time 😉
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