Adam's Adventures in the Real World
Pictures, videos, and rants on traveling in a wheelchair
Took a stroll through the mangroves at the Anne Kolbe Nature Center in Hollywood, Florida. More than a mile of great accessible trails through natural Florida and a nice small exhibition room showcasing some of the wild animals of the area.
Got a few items from their self-serve gift shop.
Used my freewheel to tour the stunningly beautiful Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida. The gardens have a trail nearly a mile long and my freewheel made easy work over the gravel. I saw several elderly people being pushed in manual wheelchairs so the accessibility is great. The gardens have giant koi fish, japanese cranes, bonsai trees, and a lantern memorial to the Challenger space shuttle crew including the first Japanese astronaut Ellison Onizuka.
Rode my new Rio Dragonfly handcycle around the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk the day after Christmas. Starts at the north end and goes all the down to Margaritaville and back. Lots of holiday decorations and drunknen tourists.
Last week I took a solo road trip from Orlando to New Orleans. I stopped a little over half way through and decided to spend the night in Panama City Beach. I was only there about 12 hours, and only at night, so I didn’t get any actual beach or ocean time. I mostly walked around the pier area, had some food, decompressed from my drive, and worked on my masters degree thesis.
Continue reading “One night in Panama City Beach”I recently bought a Samsung Gear 360 camera. Got it used off Amazon for under $150. It’s not waterproof like the GoPro’s and the picture quality isn’t as nice, but other than that it’s pretty amazing technology for the price.
To test it out I attached it to a selfie stick and then strapped the selfie stick on to the front of my handcycle. It gives a nice over the head view of everything around me, but it’s not very stable and looks kind of silly. I might try some sort of clamp-on system to improve the stability.
Here’s a short handcycle trip I took around my neighborhood recently. You should be able to pan around as you play the video to see all around me. I even tried it out using my Google Cardboard headset and it looks surprisingly nice even without being formatted for a headset.
Went fishing with my dad in the Indian River near the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. The area is gorgeous Florida at its finest. Manatees are everywhere you look and the ocean brings and endless variety of fish to catch. I’m not revealing our exact area because its relatively isolated and we’d like to keep it that way 🙂
Last weekend I visited Hollywood Beach, Florida. I rode my hand-cycle up and down the 3 mile (one direction) beach boardwalk on a gorgeous Saturday morning. I had never visited Hollywood Beach before, but it instantly reminded me of “The Strand” along the beaches of Los Angeles. There’s an endless parade of smoothie stands, beach shops, tiki bars, and smiling, happy people. Also Margarittaville!
There is lots of public parking at the parks that are on both ends of the boardwalk. Best of all, the beaches offer direct access from sidewalk to the sand, with no ramps, dunes or other obstacles to slow someone down. If you watch my video closely you’ll also notice a few blue colored wheelchair accessible mats going out into the sand. I didn’t get a chance to get on the beach as I was tired from my biking, but I will surely return soon.
Last weekend I took a trip down to Miami to see Radiohead live in concert at the American Airlines arena. The concert was amazing, it was my first time seeing Radiohead, and they put on a very OK Computer heavy setlist, which happily surprised me.
The arena itself was pretty good. Its a near clone to the new Amway Center in Orlando. Handicapped parking at the arena was NOT free like it was in Orlando, but I cannot complain about anything else. Except the traffic. Downtown Miami traffic is horrid.
On the way back from Miami I stopped by Dania Beach, specifically near the Dania Beach Pier, and I found it to be by far the most wheelchair friendly beach in Florida yet. Here is a video of me using my lever drive chair to go directly from the parking lot to near the water. Completely flat the entire way!
After resting for a few minutes, I continued down towards the water to watch the wind surfers in action. Next time I’ll bring my wetsuit and try out the water myself.
Handicapped parking is free near the pier, but has self service kiosks for everyone else. Entrance to the pier itself is not free, but is only a few dollars for both observers and fishing. There were tons of people fishing so it looks like a great spot.
This past weekend I took my lever-drive beach chair out on the beach at Avalon State Park, near Ft. Pierce, on the eastern Atlantic coast of Florida. I’ll post more details about my chair soon, it’s still in final testing mode, but I’m very impressed with its ability to let me push myself up and down even the softest sand beach.
The reason I went to Avalon State Park is that it seems to be the most northern Florida beach with a straight, direct pathway on to the beach from the parking lot. From my recent explorations of public beaches on the east coast, they all have a parking area that is elevated above the sand dunes, with a winding ramp down on to the sand (if there is a ramp at all). While these ramps are better than stairs, they can also be rather steep, sometimes too narrow to make a turn on, and are often covered with a layer of soft sand. The ramps are also usually about 500 feet away from the water, making it a major chore to access.
This is compared to beaches in South Florida where the roadway is often at the same level as the beach, with the water only about 100 feet away.
I didn’t get a chance to take pictures, but an image from Wikipedia shows how relatively direct the access is at Avalon State Park:
Parking is free with a disabled placard, but is otherwise handled by a self-serve walk-up machine in the parking lot. I believe it was only $2/hour. This compares to beaches closer to Cocoa Beach that are anywhere from $15-$20 per day and are hit or miss when it comes to being free for the disabled.
The beach at Avalon is beautiful, the sand is relatively coarse, the water is aqua, and best of all, the beach was nearly empty. Outside of a few people jogging, I was the only one there. According to Google Maps, its about 240 feet from the parking lot to the water’s edge. There is a sand dune to overcome as you approach the water’s edge (or rather, when you’re trying to get back up!), but it’s of medium grade and I was able to maneuver it with some effort.
I did some fishing with my dad today. We went to the pier at the far end of the bridge over the Indian River in Melbourne Beach, Florida. We did not get any bites, but it didn’t matter, because we saw wild dolphins for the very first time!
After 25 years in Florida, I can now confirm that they exist outside of Sea World!
It was also a great place to test out my newest GoPro camera attachment. This time I put it on my FreeWheel, a great little wheelchair toy that attaches to the front of your chair and lifts the front caster wheels off the ground. It turns any wheelchair into a three wheel stabilized offroad chair. The FreeWheel is awesome because it is very light weight, easy to travel with, and let’s me go in the grass, dirt roads, and even tightly packed sand.
https://www.gofreewheel.com/userFiles/images/black%20red%20blue%20vertical.jpg
It also makes a great camera location for stable filming. I’m planning some trips to Miami, Clearwater, and San Francisco (!) for later this year and I’m excited to throw my FreeWheel into my bag and take it with me.
