Week 1: Miami Florida

By Todd Kimball

Monday:

I want to thank Alaska Airlines for their hospitality yesterday. They did a fantastic job. They brought the chair to me quickly when I landed in Miami and it was working perfectly. One thing that I did wrong that others probably already know about. It's best if you bring the on your chair battery. Airlines are subject to more regulations on that than they used to be. I did not have the paperwork so boarding took a few minutes longer. I met a gentleman named Saxton who is a TSA employee. He was the friendliest TSA worker that I had ever met. He had a distinguished Military career prior  to being a TSA agent. He and his wife had been to 49 of the 50 states between them. The only state he hadn't been to is Rhode Island. I

asked him what he wanted me to do for him once I got to Rhode Island and he said he wanted me to time.How long it took to get from one end of the state to the other on the freeway. I also would like to thank Michelle and Allison from Alaska Airlines. They were incredibly friendly and professional when boarding me. On the flight I met a gentleman named Nick who worked for a large pharmaceutical logistics company that helped pharmacies be more accurate and efficient. He travels two hundred days a year and showed me pictures of his three beautiful girls.

The para transit service In Miami is called CTS. It picked me up And delivered me from the Airport to the Spring Hill suites Marriott right.

On time and without a hitch.

Tuesday

Tuesday we slept in a little bit as we were tired from the cross country flight. It felt very good to take a shower and the rolling shower at the Spring Hill Suites was very easy to use. We also enjoyed.The breakfast served. Eggs sausage and potatoes. It wasn't quite as good as the typical Tuesday breakfast that I am treated to at Living Room Reality but it was a close substitute. I knew that I wanted to get an extensive workout at Planet Fitness, which is in walking/rolling distance of our motel. You will see more pictures of the equipment that they have for people with disabilithas as our stay

in Miami continues.

This is an incredibly large mall called River Landing. It is eight stories and as you can see people can pull their boats right up to them all. I met some incredible people here. I wanted to stay close to the home base of Planet Ftness.So I just talk to people at various establishments in the mall. A major grocery store chain is called Publix and I loved talking to Delfin. He is the customer service manager there and he really loves his job. They are currently supporting the special Olympics.And we told one story a young girl who came in and was very excited about the Special Olympics balloon.  They gave her a balloon making her and her mom's day. You will soon find out that I need many people in the course of a day and One of the questions that I like to ask part of this journey Yes what state would they most like to visit? DJ's take music requests. I take trouble requests. I asked people where they would like me to visit, Who they would like me to say hello, to or what taskI should accomplish in that particular city. Delfin  would like me To go to Fort Smith Arkansas where his partner's  family is. As far as what I should do in Fort Smith Arkansas, He needed.

to think about that and get back to me.

I also met Mariana who is a hostess for an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant called Elia. She is from Columbia. She has only lived in  NY and FL. Cont

Wednesday

This was a great day of variety. We focused on doing a few things and taking our time with them vs quickly moving from one thing to another.

After an invigorating workout at Planet fitness, We walked over to Loan Depot Park Home of major league baseball's FL Marlns. We met with Luis Dorante The marlin's director of alumni player relations. Louise is an energetic guy is with great baseball stories I can intersperse some of these in a future post But I am such a big baseball fan that I don't want to scare you away. 😊  Luis has been to all thirty baseball parks. His travel request for us is that we take pictures for him of the nature escapes in Arizona and New Mexico.

We also went.

to Greynolds Park, a beautiful accessible park in North Miami beach. This park has

a very tropical feel. We also saw giant lizards and birds   that we had never seen before. Here is a picture of the jungle like look.

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting with Marsha Freedman. Marsha is a long time South florida business leader and professional speaker. She has a training course that I believe is absolutely necessary in today's society. It helps people of all ages control and channel their emotions.  She developed a training course called the S.E.T Principle. Set stands for: Stop, Emotions Down, Thinking Up. Marsha is a dynamic woman who is a wealth of information. She gave us so many resources.  I am still processing all of the information that she gave us. I will say more about her in a post tomorrow. She is revolutionary in creating a less angry, happier society.  Her website is setprinciple.com

Thursday-Sunday

Beautiful Lake Oceola on the University of Miami campus.

Carrot Express with its moss wall and community values would fit right into Portland.  😊

Miami's Metrorail wss efficient... not quite as good as Portland:'s Max but still very efficient. Is there video boards on Metrorail stood out nicely. Maybe something Portland's Trimet should consider for extra revenue.

I kept some of the students and facility of Miami's architecture department entertained as they were waiting for their professional photographer.

The Miami project is a world renowned research center dedicated to curing paralysis.

I haven't seen any alligators but I have seen some very unusual lizards.