Clam Creek Picnic Area

Jekyll Island, GA

November 2014

We spent an afternoon on the very accessible Jekyll Island, one of Georgia's Golden Isles. The island has many miles of paved trails to explore, but we headed to the Clam Creek Picnic Area on the northern end of the island. We walked the North Loop Trail which was fully paved with a few rough spots in need of repair. After or little hike, both girls enjoyed exploring the very accessible fishing pier.

 

 

 

 

I would think most wheelchairs could navigate the few rough areas on the paved trail:

 

Egypt investigating scat:

 

It was relaxing to walk while hearing the waves from the ocean, just beyond this tree:

We walked the entire length of the out and back paved trail:

 

A short break to refuel back at the Pilot:

 

Both girls were excited to explore the accessible fishing pier:

 

Sidney Lanier Bridge:

 

We walked a total of 3.32 miles at Clam Creek Picnic Area:

 

TRAILS

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Chesser Island Boardwalk

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

 

November 2014

 

 
 

Only an hour from our home, we visited one of our favorite places, the Chesser Island Boardwalk in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. We saw a few alligators, including a mama gator protecting her young. When Laurel got a little too close, the mama let out a giant warning hiss and I think Laurel jumped back at least five feet.

 

More Okefenokee Pictures

States Visited- Laurel

With the Carolinas, Laurel has now visited 28 of the 50 United States:

 



A Wheelchair Guide Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Florida 

August 2014

 

We spent several afternoons at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge while we spent a week in south Florida. It was hot, but we still enjoyed a quick stroll along the nice accessible boardwalk. We saw one alligator and one snake in the wild. Both girls loved the interactive visitor center, especially the animal exhibits, virtual airboat ride and the nighttime sounds in the swamp dark room.  

 

(More pictures can be found here)



One of the Days I Almost Died

Somewhere in Georgia

 

Thanksgiving 2001

 

My Thanksgiving 2001 story actually starts back in July of that year. We were in Jacksonville for a few days to check out the housing market. We were living in Edgewater, FL and I had a job interview in Jacksonville. We had decided that we needed to live closer to a big city for Kellisa's health care. The night before the interview, I had severe pain and thought I had food poisoning. It got so bad that I drove myself to the emergency room. I spent most of the night at the hospital being diagnosed with an ulcer which made a lot of sense considering all the uncertainty and stress in our lives at the time.   (Read the rest of the story here)

 



A Wheelchair Guide to Daggerwing Nature Centure

Palm Beach County, FL

August 2014

 

 

 

 

The girls enjoyed an afternoon at the Daggerwing Nature Center in Boca Raton, FL learning about the native wildlife. The enjoyed the hands-on exhibits and live animals, including a snake presentation.

 
 
(More pictures from Daggerwing Nature Center)

 



A Wheelchair Guide to the Cathy Burdett Nature Trail

Daggerwing Nature Center

Palm Beach County, FL
August 2014

 
 
 

We managed to escape the congestion of Palm Beach County for a nice little hike at the Daggerwing Nature Center.  The Cathy Burdett Nature Trail was fully accessible and a pleasant walk. It was blistering hot with little shade, so we did not linger on the trail.

 

Introduction

“Emergency” and “Dad come quick”. In an instant, I went from a deep sleep to running around a dark, unfamiliar hotel room. Usually, when my five-year-old daughter Laurel screams emergency, it means that her 15-year-old sister, Kellisa is having a seizure. However, this emergency was Laurel waking up in the middle of the night with a stomach illness. If the bathroom would have been a few feet closer to her bed it would have been a minor emergency instead of the four alarm kind with considerable cleanup. I desperately wanted more sleep, but I had to shower Laurel and find the laundry room to start a load of wash. I felt bad for Laurel as she struggled to fall back asleep. As I cleaned and washed, I kept telling myself, (Read the entire Introduction to Embrace the Exceptional here).

 

 

Embrace the Exceptional

 

 

We are excited to announce a companion website dedicated to our book, Embrace the Exceptional. The site is in it's infancy with just a brief summary of the book along with a few pictures. However, we will be adding the Introduction, Chapter Summaries, Short Stories, Pictures and more on a regular basis.

 

This website (Kellisa's Path) will continue without any changes except for new links to our Embrace the Exceptional website. You can sign up to receive email updates from both websites on the home pages.

 

(Click here to go to Embrace the Exceptional)

 



Losco Regional Park

Jacksonville, FL

 

October 2014

 

 

Kellisa and I had a rare few hours alone and took the opportunity to hike the new trail system at Losco Regional Park. The park opened in 2004 only 2.5 miles from our previous home. I was anxiously awaiting Phase Two when they added the trails. Unfortunately, they didn't create the trails until we moved 16.5 miles away.

 

Anyway, we were still excited to try the trails and were greatly rewarded. The trails were mostly root free, wide, flat, and almost sand free. The one small section of sand was easy to navigate. The only real obstacle was a creek crossing between two of the loop trails. Not the easiest to cross (twice), but doable and Kellisa thought it was hilarious. The trails are not at all ADA compliant, but they are completely accessible with the Hippocampe. You won't find peace and quiet since the park is surrounded by expressways on two sides, but we found solitude as we only saw one trail runner during our hour on the trails.

 

(More pictures from Losco Regional Park)

 



Visited States

Laurel: 26

2014 Additions: Oregon - Arizona - Colorado - Louisiana - Connecticut - Rhode Island

Kellisa: 39

Muir Woods National Monument

California

 

July 2014

 

Our last hike of the trip was at Muir Woods National Monument. Even though it was well over 100 degrees and early on a Friday afternoon, the road leading to the park had cars parked on both shoulders for miles. I knew I couldn't walk a great distance with both girls on such a narrow road with so many cars coming and going. With doubt that we could visit the park, we pressed on hoping for a disabled spot close to the visitor center. As we approached, I realized that there was an entire parking lot for disabled parking. Of course it was full, but we got lucky, a car was backing out as we arrived. I know all about hidden disabilities, but Kellisa was the only wheelchair we saw. For every one hidden disability, I bet there's 10 people abusing the disabled parking card...if not more.

 

Anyway, we found the trail to be fully accessible and easy as we hiked through our last redwood forest for the trip. Laurel again insisted on pushing Kellisa for most of the trail. We saw more people on this trail than all of our other hikes on this trip combined. The count wouldn't even be close, but the golden rule of hiking definitely applied to this trail. As soon as we were about a mile from the trailhead, we almost had the trail to ourselves. At 1.5 miles away, we were by ourselves. I dreaded turning back and fighting the crowds. But, an ice cream awaited us at the park café on this hot summer afternoon making the return trek tolerable.

 

(More pictures from Muir Woods)