FLORIDA!!!!!

Oh my my my, it has been a very long time since my last post. I am so disappointed in myself that I have let that much time pass. Anyways I hope you can all forgive me and enjoy this post. So the past few weeks have been a whirl wind of days. Between trying to keep up on school work, preparing for the pageant, getting ready for florida, preparing for the DMC Gala, and fighting a bit of depression I have barely found time to waste on pinterest.


I'll start with the Florida trip. Goodness it was a much needed vacation to the sunshine. The original plan was to drive down for a week and visit the boyfriend's brother as well as soaking up some sun but since I was picked to receive the Courage Award we had to cut the trip short, which we didn't mind. So instead we decided to just go for 5 days. As some know we left Friday in the middle of the worst tornado weather in years. Yep we drove right through Kentucky when the worst of it was going through. I was terrified and not doing a good job at hiding it lol. We actually did have a casualty, the temp tag on my van was sucked right off. We drove the whole trip with not license plate and not once did we get pulled over, thank you Jesus. After driving 8 hours in storms and pitch black highways we called it a night just outside Knoxville. Woke up late the next morning, set my alarm for PM not AM. Smooth I know. The next day we spent 8 more hours on the road driving through down pours of rain with probably less than a 1/2 mile of visibility. That was loads of fun. But alas we arrived in the sunshine state and it was 84 degrees :) We met Jared's brother and his girlfriend in St. Augustine for the haunted pub crawl. Got to the hotel room for the night and all I wanted to do was shower but we quickly found out that the shower would have to wait because they had to locate a shower chair and it was a bath tub. I didn't say anything there because we were there for just one night, plus I hadn't taken a bath in years. We headed down to the haunted pub crawl grabbed some dinner and then went ghost hunting. At first I wasn't on board with the ghost deal at all but I was wrong. I actually had so much fun, the guide did an amazing job making sure everything was accessible and that I was getting the same experience as the whole group. The next morning we headed up to Jacksonville and checked into our hotel. And this is where the real fun started. We checked in at the front desk she gave us our rooms and we headed up to check things out. Jared quickly informed me they gave us the standard Handicap accessible room instead of the Wheelchair accessible room. To most the difference doesn't matter but being in a chair I clearly need the wheelchair accessible room. Basically the only difference is the bathroom, a wheelchair accessible room has a roll in shower with a shower bench and hand held shower head. Or at least they are supposed to. So I went back down to the front desk informed the girl I reserved a wheelchair accessible room and that wasn't what she gave me. I told her I needed the roll in shower, the bench, and the hand held shower head. She checked the next room and informed me they didn't have any rooms with the hand held shower head. We decided to take the room and I would just have to figure it out. I asked the girl to bring the shower bench because once again I needed to shower ASAP and that I would like to speak with her boss. The front desk girl called and told me that they didn't own a shower bench and her boss told her to ask me if a lawn chair would work? At this point I was furious because you will never know how frustrating it is to constantly be told something is wheelchair accessible and it isn't. Not to mention I for once want to go somewhere and not have the constant smack in the face of "oh hey you are in a wheelchair and life is difficult". It would be lovely to not have to deal with that for once. Anyways Jared spoke to the owner ( because I was about to cry and didn't want to talk to him) and he tried to tell us he was in complete compliance. Which he wasn't I spoke with an attorney and he confirmed my thought. The boss was a total ASS just arrogant and could careless about the inconvenience I was experiencing. Eventually they found a shower bench somewhere and came to their senses and put a temporary hand held shower head in. It wasn't the best but better than what I started with. But at no point did we ever get an apology or any compensation for our frustration. So in all don't ever stay at the Four Points Hotel in Jacksonville. After that mess, we got on with our vacation. The next day we decided to do tourist stuff. We hit up the outlet malls, went to Harry's Seafood bar and grill back in St. Augustine (sooo yummy) and then just walked around the downtown area of St. Augustine. It isn't the most accessible town but it is the oldest city in the US, so I guess it can slide. It was so nice to be outside in short sleeves and having the sunshine beat down on me.

The Castillo de San Marcos

View from the gun deck

We decided to hit the Castillo de San Marcos, an old spanish fort. I also found out that by being disabled I get free access to all federally owned sites. That was very cool. So we went in looked around and tried to find an elevator so I could go the gun deck..... but guess what there isn't one. Figures the one part of the whole fort I wanted to go to, isn't accessible. But having the most amazing boyfriend that I do, he looked his other brother who drove down with us and said lets take her up. Jared is always hell bent on making sure I get to experience everything everyone else does, it is part of what makes me love him so much. I never feel like a burden or like I am missing out with him being around. Back to the story, they carried me up and boy I was so happy they did. The site was breath taking, looking out to the atlantic ocean. Just gorgeous. 






Later that night we hit up the bar, cut loose and had to sleep in the next day. Jared and I have a thing we always like to do when going on vacation, we like to hit up any restaurant that have been on Man vs Food or Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. So we found the Metro Diner, which we tried to go there the first day but the wait was over an hour, but this time we sat right down. Oh my was this food good. I had a burger and it was probably the best I've ever had! After stuffing our faces off to the beach we went. We drove for about 5 minutes looking for a guard shack to get a beach wheelchair. Yet another thing most don't know, wheelchairs can't wheel through sand. They have special chairs that all beaches are required to provide for those who need it. Finally we found a guard shack Jared went in asked for the chair and it was broken. And the next closest one was over a half hour away. Well that totally figured with how the trip was going. We parked and once again awesome boyfriend mode kicked in, he and his brother carried me out to the hard sand (where I can wheel around). So as they were carrying me out we passed a group of grown men standing and talking. As we passed one of the guys said very loudly, "That's one thing I don't miss, wheelchairs." We kept walking but I just felt like screaming are you serious idiot? What would possess someone to say that in front of me? People can be so rude and annoying sometimes. Finally made it to the beach and it was wonderful.. I could have sat there all day and watched the water. 

We stayed for a few hours then drove back down to St. Augustine to hit up the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. We ended our last night there with dinner with Justin and went to bed early because we were doing the 16 hour drive in one day because of the Gala. It was a long drive home and the last 2 hours were the hardest. But we made it and I had so much fun. Also I wish it could have lasted longer. 


Wow this is long! And probably pretty boring, but I want you all to walk away with realizing that when things aren't accessible that it really does affect us. I wish business owners would understand that just because they are or may think the are ADA compliant it the effort to go above and beyond to make sure your establishment is really convenient for those who use wheelchairs can make all the difference in our day and the likeliness we will come back.