FLORIDA! THE RECOVERY

It's so easy to take your health for granted. Until you remember what it's like to not feel your best you don't really think about it or try to maintain it. Well thanks to an unexpected surgery, I was able to remember how much I liked to plop down on a couch, or walk with ease, or buttoning the top part of my jeans for that matter!

After the surgery, I had to take it easy and wasn't able to really do anything but sit around waiting to heal. My cousin Tish and my mom who flew in from Colorado took good care of me though and I think I've been recoving fairly quickly. I was able to go to a birthday party for an adorable little boy though. Tish's son's little boy John Donovan had his first birthday party and that was exciting to be a part of.

One of the most exciting parts of my stay though was seeing a NASA space launch. I didn't realize how close to Cape Canaveral we were! It was a nighttime launch so it was perfectly visable. It looked like a bright ball of fire streaking upwards through the starry sky. Yeah, pretty magical! It's amazing to think how far we have come in terms of technology and what we can do with it.

When my stay with Tish was over, I headed down the road again toward Alabama. The farther north I got, the more farmland I went through. At one point I saw a sign that said it was the hometown of musician Ray Charles. Naturally, I had to make a stop there.

Greenville, Florida. The first impression I had was that the whole town was in shambles. Some people were living in old shack-like conditions. More than half the town seemed to be filled with abandoned buildings and stores. Vines and other growth were making their way through windows and wood.

 

 

The downtown area was just a handful of buildings and not all were in use.

 



Though the life in the town seemed to be sucked dry, there was still some beauty to be found. These houses that looked like shacks displayed magnificent rose bushes in the front yards with the most vibrant flowers blooming all over them. Spanish moss tangled through the branches of these rose bushes seemed to bring out the contrast between life and death of the plant.

The contrast between the old run down look of the town with these beautiful flowers seemed strange. But it gave this odd town some much needed life.

I wasn't able to find Ray Charles' childhood home in the town, but I was able to find a memorial park to him.

When I left the town, I was glad I had made the pit stop. I stayed in a small town called Madison in a hotel that night and could smell rain in the sky and manure from the cows across the street. For some reason I kind of liked those smells! It reminded me of simple living with no worries. The rest of north western Florida was mostly farmland except for Tallahassee, and until I got to Mobile, Alabama there wasn't too much excitment.

I was getting ready for Mardi Gras...and no surgery could stop me!

~Kelsey P.~

Next up Mobile, Alabama ...