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Published: February 14th 2022
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Man, what an eventful week in such a weird place!!!
Sunday: I heard rumor that there is an actual waterfall nearby and in fact it is Florida's tallest waterfall. Florida actually has enough elevation for a waterfall you ask? yes, if there is a sinkhole!!! I will say this waterfall was nothing compared to the ones in the Smoky Mountains but it is Florida so I'll give it a break. I do miss elevation and mountains. In addition to the waterfall there was a nice lake and some hiking trails- very flat and only about 4 miles total in the entire park. Still a nice time out in nature. After a trip down to the state park I did some exploring around town and Dothan is well, what you would expect for Alabama. Pretty blah. It is known for it's peanut production and there are big peanuts in front of most businesses (I somehow haven't seen one while I'm not driving though yet)- reminds me of the peanuts characters all around Santa Rosa 😊 They also have the national peanut festival which has a GIANT peanut lol! Also of interest is the world's smallest city block. Super happening place Dothan
is...
Side note: Why am I in Dothan? Well I was supposed to go to the western/nature coast of Florida but my airbnb host went and sold their place! So I only had a few weeks notice since this fell under the hosts "extenuating circumstances" to cancel on me. Sooo since I already had places booked before and after I had to find somewhere within driving distance of both which was in my budget, had the amenities I need and most importantly was available very specific dates. So here I am in Dothan Alabama. Not somewhere I thought I wanted to visit but trying to make the best of it.
Monday: Rain, rain go away. Come back another day. It did finally stop pouring rain for a bit-down to a drizzle so we took a quick walk and have decided between Sunday and today that Dothan is pretty ugly and the people even uglier- and I don't mean in appearance. Not impressed by any interactions I've had casually with the people here, nor the signs in peoples yards such as "To the low life scum who burned my trump flag. If you don't like my 1st amendment rights
you're going to hate my 2nd amendment rights". How about the t-shirt someone was wearing at the grocery store "Everything I want to do to women is illegal" So um yeah.... I haven't met anyone here yet I want to talk to a second time (actually my airbnb host was really nice but no one else). I'm also going to say already I don't think I'll ever want to come back to Alabama. It's definitely a culture shock and not my type of place to live. Time to watch some netflix on the weeknights and explore places not in Dothan on the weekends 😊
Wednesday: Unfortunately Copper managed to eat something he shouldn't have. What exactly? We'll never know... So we managed to get in to see a vet in Dothan and some medication to make him better.
Thursday: After about 48 hours of a very low energy dog Copper started bouncing off the walls rebounding with energy (modern medicine is amazing isn't it?) so we decided it was finally time to explore downtown dothan (only 2 blocks away). Considering it's Alabama... and my first impressions were that this town is a dump and gross the downtown area
does have some charm and cute restaurants. Lots of murals on the sides of buildings representing the history of the town. After the evening walk I'm still not impressed by Dothan and will be spending my weekends elsewhere but it's not as bad as I initially thought.
Friday: The plan was to go to an astronomy program at a local park with telescopes and such. But the weather ended up being overcast and the event was going to be "significantly altered" and indoors in the planetarium instead of outdoors on the lawn... so now what to do with Copper and ew covid in Alabama. Quite a bummer since it had been sunny all day and it was a great temperature to be outside in the evening. It's just that we wouldn't have actually seen anything! lol! So instead I went on a hunt through the clothing stores in Dothan for some new hiking pants! lol. This did end up with me being locked inside the fitting room because the lady went to lunch and didn't realize I was in there... so that was interesting! but all is well and I'm liking my new pants.
Saturday: Day trip to
Marianna FL and the Florida Caverns State park. Yes in addition to a waterfall there is also a tiny cave in Florida! All of the state park was severely impacted by hurricane (Michael I think?) in 2018 which hit the pan handle really bad. You can still see devastation in the park but it is also clearly slowly recovering. I didn't actually go in the cavern- just hiked above the surface and did the virtual tour in the visitor center. (Copper wasn't allowed in and no where for him to be safely while I went in alone). I've noticed a trend in all the state parks in Florida and Georgia so far- they are all tiny and flat! At most there is 5-6 miles of hiking trail and then you will have hiked every bit of trail in the entire park. I really do miss mountains.
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