{"id":24,"date":"2023-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota1.wpengine.com\/cotaforjenwarrior\/2023\/06\/07\/rehab-and-whirligigs\/"},"modified":"2023-06-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T00:00:00","slug":"rehab-and-whirligigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/2023\/06\/07\/rehab-and-whirligigs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehab and Whirligigs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As Jen continues to build up her strength, she has her sights set on returning home to Indianapolis.&nbsp; In the meantime, she&rsquo;s making the most of her time in Durham by checking out more local sights.&nbsp; She recently took a drive to Wilson, North Carolina (not far away) to visit the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. You may be wondering &ldquo;what is a whirligig park&rdquo;?&nbsp; It&rsquo;s an art park with 50-foot-tall sculptures made of recycled industrial materials that move in the wind, along with a nice walking path. &nbsp;The official Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park website describes the park as a &ldquo;one-of-a-kind art park that provides fascinating artistic, educational, and recreational opportunities at the intersection of art and science&rdquo;.&nbsp; You may also be wondering &ldquo;who was Vollis Simpson&rdquo;?&nbsp; Mr. Simpson was a farm machinery repairman who began making gigantic kinetic sculptures at his family farm in Wilson County when he was nearing retirement age.&nbsp; The <em>New York Times<\/em> described Simpson as &ldquo;a visionary artist of the junkyard&hellip;who made metal scraps into magnificent things that twirled and jangled and clattered when he set them out on his land.&rdquo; In 2013 the whirligigs were named North Carolina&rsquo;s official folk art.&nbsp; Jen found a real gem here&mdash;the perfect place to stretch her legs.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of legs and walking&hellip; Jen&rsquo;s walking stamina improves by the day, which means she is using the rollator a little less for short walks. She anticipates preparing to transition to Indy for further rehab and recovery very soon!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Continued thanks for supporting COTA in honor of Jen.&nbsp; The partnership with COTA has made Jen&rsquo;s entire transplant process so much easier. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Onward!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgFull\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/uploads\/2593\/images\/Jen-whirl.jpg\" alt=\"Jen at Vollis Simpson Park\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgFull\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/uploads\/2593\/images\/whirl2.jpg\" alt=\"Whirligig Park\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgFull\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/uploads\/2593\/images\/whirl1.jpg\" alt=\"Whirligig\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgFull\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/uploads\/2593\/images\/Jen-solo.jpg\" alt=\"Jen walking solo\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Jen continues to build up her strength, she has her sights set on returning home to Indianapolis.&nbsp; In the meantime, she&rsquo;s making the most of her time in Durham by checking out more local sights.&nbsp; She recently took a drive to Wilson, North Carolina (not far away) to visit the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjenwarrior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}