Clinton’s V-day date for me was for us to ride our motorcycle down to Fort Lauderdale & eat at the restaurant where we had our first date – Rustic Inn Crabhouse. A great idea!

Until you factor in that I have bad hips & he has a bad knee. I will cover my hip issues one day on the blog, mostly because I think people think I’m joking when I talk about them (“these old, crippled hips”) or when I say I need a hip replacement but no, it’s true. One day & preferably soon, I’ll need to have my left hip replaced again. Yes, you read that right as well…AGAIN. However, I’m absolutely petrified of having the surgery so I plan to suffer for as long as humanly possible. And as for Clinton’s knee, well if you ever read the post about his accident you‘ll understand.

He does better than I do on the bike. I do not do well. Having to keep my legs apart for him to sit in between them makes my hips lock into place and when I’m finally able to close them it hurts so bad that I just cry. I can’t control it, it’s instant.  It feels like I’m being split apart when I have to flex them back into place after riding so long with them apart. They simply feel broken.

I love to ride the bike though – I really do. We have a gorgeous motorcycle. It’s a work of art. But since we’ve had it I have found out the hard way I just can’t ride the way we used to. Our old bike was far less comfortable and I could ride for hours on that thing! As my hips deteriorate, I can hardly tolerate a ride to Daytona and back.

By the time we made it to Port St Lucie, I was screaming in my helmet. When we stopped for gas, my thigh muscles were in spasm. When I got off the bike & took my helmet off I just started bawling. There was no fucking way I could finish this ride. The thought of having to continue made me miserable but I agreed because I really wanted some damn crab! Crab would make it all worthwhile. 

So we continued (after having to explain to a FedEx guy who saw me crying at the gas station that I’m okay, not to be alarmed, I’m just in pain from the bike! I think he thought Clinton was abusive towards me…I had to clarify!) and finally we caved & decided to stop and have an early lunch at Troy’s barbecue in Boynton Beach.

Troy’s is one of my favorite places ever & with the promise of “We can stay as long as we need to to relax & be comfortable!” by Clinton, I was ready. Those last few miles on Federal highway absolutely killed this ol’ girl though so once again, I bawled like a baby when we got to Troy’s. I threatened to rent a car & drive back. I looked at hotels. I just couldn’t see myself finishing off this day at all! We sat at Troy’s for what felt like forever & enjoyed a wonderful lunch – it shocked me as much as anyone to know there’s truly delicious barbecue in South Florida. I just couldn’t believe it! But Troy’s is legit. They even invited us out to the smoker to hang out for a while and talk!

We called our friend Kristen who lives in the area but she was unavailable at that point but called us later when we had made it to Fort Lauderdale.

The drive from Boynton to Laudy wasn’t that bad really & for the first time that day I didn’t cry. I actually didn’t cry anymore at all! AND SPOILER ALERT – I made the entire ride home! I didn’t get a rental or check into a hotel or steal Kristen’s car haha!!

Lauderdale was beautiful that night. We had our crab dinner & enjoyed reminiscing over our old Boca Raton apartment, my days in flight attendant training, & my time being based in FLL. We only stopped one time on the way home and honestly, we deserved that because we got stuck in wreck traffic on I-95 & it was stop and go for almost an hour & it was just awful! The side of the bike was getting hot and burning our legs through our jeans & Clint was having such a hard time with the stop and go aspect of it with his knee. When we stopped we only had 98 miles til home and he looked at me & said “We will not stop again until we’re home because if I stop then we’re staying wherever we are. I can’t do it anymore!” I gritted my teeth and sucked it up buttercup!

Yep. We’re definitely old. 35 & 37 and our best days are behind us. One day when I’m not such a wuss I’m gonna have this old hip worked on & get back to being a bad bitch. 

Not every one of our adventures turns out amazing. We loved actually being in SoFlo but the bike was a terrible idea. What wasn’t a terrible idea though was the next day when both of us plus Emma laid in bed all day & watched Hulu. I didn’t get out of my bed until 5 PM. It was brilliant! You can just call us MaMaw & PaPaw for now.

– Autumn