Shuttle Launch Week

Last Tuesday we moved to Crystal Lake RV Park in Mims, FL. Our site was nice as it faced the lake which had at least one alligator in it. I named him Gator Boy. Not sure why, just felt like it fit. He was active and I got many pictures of him.

Our first night at this park was not a pleasant experience. Our power level dropped way low. Dean went out with a meter to check the receptacle and I guess the owner saw him and came over and demanded to know what he was doing. Dean looked at him and said "looking for some power". "We have next to none." The owner said he would look into it and walked away. A little while later he was back and replaced the circuit breaker. After that the power was just OK but not great.

Our first whole day we went to Titusville to do laundry. We had 7 loads since it had been almost two weeks. I hate having that much. While there I started feeling really bad again and as soon as we got home, I took some Tylenol and rested.

I guess we both were still not totally over these dang colds and because of that and the weather we didn't really do much the rest of the week.

Saturday night at 11pm we drove about 45 min to Merritt Island to catch the bus to take us to the shuttle launch. We were fortunate enough to get VIP tickets from our Senator Jeff Sessions. When we arrived at the parking lot we saw that the line to check in was really long. Oh well, out in the cold wind we went and stood in line about 30 min. We finally got on a bus and had about a hour to relax. We arrived at the space center around 1:45 am Sunday morning. The launch was scheduled for 4:36 so we went in the Saturn Missile display building so we would be out of the cold. We walked around some and then found some chairs where we waited till about 30 min before launch time to go outside to the bleachers. By then the launch was at only a 30% chance of launch because of the weather which was low level and thick cloud cover. As I'm sure ya'll know, it was scrubbed. Long story short - we arrived back home around 6:30 am and crashed. We both didn't wake up till about 1 pm Sunday afternoon. After awhile we talked about going back for the launch and decided that neither of us wanted to do two all nighters in a row, we are just getting to old for that! The owner had told us about a city park about 3 miles from the campground where we could watch the launch and we opted to go for that. We went to bed that evening with the alarm set for 3am. I got up and checked the launch schedule on-line. Seeing it was a go, we drove to the park and at 4:14 am Monday morning we witnessed the most amazing, awesome sight of the shuttle launch. Words do not describe what we saw and I (I blame being so tired) forgot my camera! I don't think the pictures would have been any good anyway. I'll just say seeing it in person is 100 times better than watching on TV! After it (the shuttle) became like a star in the sky, we drove back home and were back in bed by 4:30am. That was a much better night!

Monday afternoon we met Sandy & Ken and rode with them to Daytona Beach for lunch with Helen & Bill, and Bill & Diane. We had a great time, sitting outdoors in the warmth of the sun, enjoying good food, good friends and good stories. After a couple of hours Sand & Ken drove us to New Smyrna Beach - actually on the beach, so I could see the Atlantic. Funny, we've been in Florida almost a month and I hadn't seen either the Gulf or the Atlantic till then. Sandy and I got out to get some good pictures of some surfers and some birds. The surf was really pretty. On the way back to our car, they drove us past a lot of seaside housing that was really pretty. It reminded me of how it used to look in Biloxi, MS before Katrina!

Today we left Crystal Lake and drove about 30 miles to Port Canaveral and Jetty Park Campground. We will be here for four nights. Unfortunately, we can't get a site for longer than that so won't get to see the bigger cruise ships.

At this time we are seriously thinking about going back to Wilderness RV Park in Silver Springs. Our time there was basically a bust since Dean and I both got sick and couldn't do anything. I really want to go to Silver Springs and ride the glass bottom boats. We got to looking at our "schedule" and saw where we were going to be on the move every 3 to 6 days until the beginning of March and really don't like moving that much. If we go to Wilderness RV Park we can just stay there until our move to Orlando 1000 Trails park the beginning of March. The big up to this decision is that we can spend some time with Helen & Bill, like we were supposed to the first time around! Maybe some time with Anne & Henry if they are still there.

This about brings me up to date. There is another missile launch tomorrow morning that we are going to try to catch. It's supposed to be clear and cold - highs in the high 50's. So much for Global Warming, huh?

I'll be posting some pictures soon at Picasa. Till next time - Safe Travels....