Spaced Out

It didn’t take us long, once we arrived on the east coast of Florida, to make the one hour road trip from our new park to the Kennedy Space Center.  We had heard so much about it, and it was definitely something we wanted to tick off our bucket list.

There was so much to see and do, we purchased an annual pass. We thought it would be smarter to come back several times while we were in the area, rather than trying to cram it all into one visit.

It was much smarter.  

Experiencing the building holding the shuttle Atlantis took more than one day by itself. 

You start out in video rooms that explain how the concept of the shuttle started, and then they pull back a curtain in a dramatic display to see the actual spaceship hanging from the ceiling. 

There are interactive posts where you can try to land the shuttle, or dock it on the International Space Station. 

Hubby even tried out the crawl space that demonstrated just how little room there is to manoeuvre inside the Space Station.  

And together we experienced being inside the shuttle during lift off. What a noisy and bumpy ride that is!

On one of our trips there, we took the bus tour to the Saturn V Center. It is a separate building on the same NASA property, but about 20 minutes away by road. 

The bus takes us past active launch pads, with their water towers and the deep trenches that direct the rocket flames before takeoff. 

Once inside the Saturn V building, we are taken back into the past, back to the days when space flight was new. 

We saw the rockets and crew modules of the 1960’s and 70’s, a piece of the moon to prove they had landed, and a blackened capsule that they had fished out of the ocean – astronauts and all. 

It’s amazing that anyone survived.

We went back again to hear an astronaut talk – and actually meet him, too. And later we sat through two IMAX films, and one presentation on NASA’s new goal – a manned space flight to Mars.

After all this information, what we really wanted was to see a real space launch. 

Unfortunately for us, there are no more shuttle launches planned. At this point in time, all they are doing are unmanned resupply missions to the International Space Station. 

We were excited to learn that there was one rocket launch scheduled for February 3^rd, while we were still on the coast. We started researching the best place to watch it, asking the Information booth at the Space Center for advice.  They suggested the beach areas, either at Port Canaveral or at Titusville. 

So we spent one day driving up Hwy A1A, checking out the coastal beaches for viewing possibilities. The problem was that the launch was scheduled for midnight. And all the public beaches that we saw had strict rules about closing at dusk. And anyway, parking was always on the other side of the trees from the beach. If I was going to be waiting out a rocket launch anytime after 9pm, it was going to be from the seat of the truck. Preferably with a blanket and a pillow.

Scratching the public beaches off our list, we came upon the popular fishing spots on the ends of the Port Canaveral Causeway. They seemed to have a nice clear view, with binoculars, anyway.

And then the launch was delayed.

It was rescheduled for Valentine’s Day, at the much more reasonable hour of 11am. So we planned on that. What’s more romantic than sitting on a beach waiting for something to blast off into space? 

Around the same time, we discovered the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It is a great birding and paddling area, and happens to sit right beside the Kennedy Space Complex property. 

We found a perfect viewing spot along a dirt road that leads to a lagoon.

And then the launch was delayed.

It was rescheduled for February 18^th, a Saturday morning at 10am. That was still okay, certainly doable for us. I was a little more concerned about having crowds come out to watch with us, but it just meant that we left the trailer at 7am in order to get a good parking spot. And we did. 

Our little dirt road had about 8 or 9 other cars parked alongside, but we got a really good visual – considering that we were a good 5 miles away from the launch pad. 

This is our actual view. The big square building is know as the Vehicle Assembly Building - it is where they assemble the rockets prior to putting them on the launch pad and it is over 50 stories high.

The smaller tower beside it is not the launch tower. That is located farther to the left, and just below the tree line. 

There was a nice mix of people waiting with us. A group of college kids, a European family, an older couple from New York.

And a fellow with a ladder propped up by his vehicle so that he could video tape the whole thing from the roof. 

We waited for the two hours before liftoff.

And then the launch was delayed.

Aborted, actually. At T minus 13 seconds. Something about a steering mechanism problem in the upper module. BUT, they were going to try again the next day. Half an hour earlier.

So again, we left at 7am, not so worried now that we knew our spot wasn’t likely to be filled with mobs of people. We did pass groups of rocket watchers parked at the bridge fishing areas on the way in. They were getting out their lawn chairs and setting up their seating areas. A food truck was smart enough to set up there, too. But we breezed past and found our same dirt road parking site.  In fact, there were fewer cars this time around. Guess some people get discouraged. Not us!

And this time, we had found the “Live Feed” from the NASA channel. 

We were able to watch the preparations and the countdown for a full 3 hours before liftoff.

To say that we were ready was an understatement. We sat in the bed of the back of the truck, simultaneously watching the live feed and the horizon ahead of us. We heard the great rumble of engines, prepared our cameras….

And almost missed the brief flare of the rocket before it disappeared into the cloud cover above us. Turns out, the “Live” feed was a full minute behind real life! Guess we should have figured that one out. 

At least we did get a "screen shot" of the live feed, which was much better than any picture we could have taken from that distance.

But we did see it, and we celebrated our first ever rocket launch, however few nanoseconds that it took.

Enough of space. Time for us to come back down to earth.

W

Tidy Melbourne

We relocated to Melbourne on a gorgeous warm Sunday, driving through the empty rural roads up the middle of Florida. It was a nice break before we hit the traffic of the congested east coast.

Our new park is lovely and neat, and is symmetrically laid out.

It looks very pretty. 

The park management works very hard to keep it looking that way, too, keeping it well maintained and cutting precise borders along the grass. 

The people that live here seem to like it that way, and happily adhere to the strict rules imposed to reflect that perfection. There are no dogs allowed, and guests under 50 are discouraged. 

The space outside your trailer is supposed to be tidy and limited to patio furniture and accessories, certainly not the “stuff” that we regularly store outside.

Of course, that means that we have to keep all that junk inside, reducing our interior space and making the inside look much less tidy than the outside!

It was even suggested that we keep our canoe on top of the truck while we were here, instead of alongside the trailer where we usually keep it. This turned out to be not such a bad idea, however, as we have ended up using the canoe much more in this location than normal.

As we are along the eastern coast, we have been out paddling all the rivers, creeks, and lagoons in the area. And since most of them are salt water, we saw some interesting things. 

Manatees are profuse in the creeks and rivers here. One river was very muddy, so it was hard to actually see these mammals. All we could see was the mud being stirred up from the bottom. But at one point we must have gotten too close to them, because they flipped and splashed around beside our boat, startling us quite badly. Considering that these animals can weigh thousands of pounds, and are almost as long as our puny canoe, we were careful to give them a wide berth from then on!

Outside of the muddy rivers, the coastal waters are very clear. We paddled shallow lagoons and counted the stingrays we could see buried in the sandy bottoms below. 

We saw dolphins darting in and out of the creeks chasing the silvery fish (mullets) that were to be their midday meal.

Our park neighbors, while extremely tidy and neat on the outside, are also very friendly. I have often been caught using the tell-tale “eh” at the end of my sentences, whereupon I always receive a smile and a comment, “Oh, you must be Canadian!”  

For sure, eh?

Hubby has taken up playing games of pool in the hall inside the park. He spends most evenings there, giving me some time alone, which is a precious commodity when we live in such a small space.

Between the surf fishing and bird watching activities, it’s been a great place to keep us busy.

But it’s way too tidy for our tastes.

W

Repairs

One could be excused for thinking that our life is a series of adventures, interspersed with days of relaxation in the sunshine.

And many times, one would be right. However, this year our trailer turned 22 years old, and gave us a few more challenges than usual.

We certainly didn’t expect this solid bar of aluminum that holds up our steps to break. It is quite a step up into the trailer when our camping site is level, so we really can’t go without these stairs. But we didn’t know that it was going to be so much of a procedure to actually get this part. 

First, one has to identify to the company just which bar, of the many bars that it could be, that they should order for us. The week before Christmas, of course, because that is when complicated things tend to break. But, Santa Claus was smiling at us, and two weeks later it was re-attached and is good as new.

Every house needs a little TLC.  Sometimes it even needs a good whack with a hammer in places. Or in one case, a spot of glue.

Old things often sag. This is our vinyl ceiling, which in the heat tends to separate from the glue on the aluminum above. This is not to say that we don’t want to be in the heat. Trust me. We like it here.  

And anyway, a comment to dear hubby gets it glued back up lickity split.

He also did a wonderful job of revamping the electrical inlet on the outside of the trailer. The old original set up was rusting and difficult to work with, so hubby simplified the arrangement and replaced the plug in box.

I remember when we retired. Dear hubby was a little concerned that he would run out of things to do and get bored. Well, he’s not bored yet.

He even updated our reading lights over our living room couch. Where there used to be fixtures with flat profiles and dull lights, we now have fancy LED lights that can turn a real pretty blue or become a warm glow to read by.

And then this January, hubby had to fix our toilet. While the problem wasn’t dire, it was something that would have gotten worse in time. The valve at the bottom of the bowl just wasn’t holding the water anymore.  If the valve stays dry, it cracks and becomes useless. Since replacing the valve mechanism would have required completely removing the toilet anyway, the decision was made to get a new one. 

The decision was also made simpler by the fact that a new toilet cost as much as the required part. 

And that could have been put in far faster if dear wife (me) hadn’t messed around with the installation. 

I never have been mechanically minded.

Hubby, however, is very good at all kinds of repairs. Here he is fixing the sputter in our propane water heater.

So far, the only help I’ve given my hubby in fixing things around here has been a hand with sewing the tear in the awning.

It’s usually better if I keep my fingers out of things. I do much better with the relaxing in the sunshine part. 

With my wine, cell phone and book in hand (not in any particular order), of course.

W