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Published: February 9th 2008
The 'Stang...
...as I like to call it.This week has been a lucky one for me. It started off when I went to pick up my rental car. I was happy with the budget option which the website said would be a Ford Focus (Americans don't do small cars) but when I went along to pick it up they didn't have any available - all they had was a Ford Mustang! Nice. I won't slag off the Focus as most of my family reading this own them but it was certainly easier to 'light up' the Mustang which of course I did at every given opportunity.
Then when I got to Orlando (or Manchester as it should be known on account of it being jam packed with Mancunians) the day before the launch there was only a 30% chance of it going ahead as they were expecting storms. I went along anyways and it turned out to be a gloriously sunny day. I was amazed at how much interest the launches still generate. It was all over the news channels and when I got as close as you could to Kennedy Space Center (about 6 miles away) the highway was lined with cars for miles. Apparently when the
Screw the rocket
I know this is what you all really want to see countdown starts all the highways in the area come to a grinding halt while everybody pulls up to watch it. The launch itself was fascinating - it's another one of these things that you've seen all your life on TV (well, part of your life for the older readers) but seeing it in real life is something else all together. It's over pretty quickly once it takes off and you don't actually hear much other than a slight rumble approaching from a distance but the scale of the operation is fascinating. Obviously all the locals start whooping and clapping. I was personally applauding to a job well done in a typically British manner, then I turned my applause to the locals for managing to refrain themselves from giving each other high fives.
When I finally got back to Orlando through the traffic jams (yes, even me and the 'Stang have to wait for traffic) I went to Downtown Disney which is just really a small part of Disney which is free to get into and has shops and bars and stuff. I was on my way out when I bumped into a guy a few of you will know -
The crowd
This is actually a highway (U.S. Highway 1). The cars don't really stand a chance Liam Nicholls. We don't really know each other but we were in the same year at school, both worked at Storys and I also bumped into him at the Leeds festival a few years back. It's a small world. He was on his honeymoon with his wife and kid.
The final bit of luck was when I got my room upgraded but as it was only a cheapo motel I was staying in it was still bog standard.
On my last full day I went to Universal Studios which was loads of fun. There's a few fast rides there and quite a few 3-D type rides which are all really funny - you see people actually reaching out with their hands to try and touch things they think are coming right out of the screen! That's Americans for you (okay, I'll admit to leaning back at some points to avoid stuff coming out the screens - those films are very realistic). The fast rides were wasted on me because, as most of you will be well aware, I am utterly fearless - apart from when I lifted my hands on The Mummy's Revenge ride and nearly fell out. I must
Don't cross that yellow rope
Even though we were 6 miles away, about 5 miles of that being water. have lifted at least 1 inch out of the seat before the barrier luckily stopped me from falling to my certain death.
Anyho, I'm heading back in about a week and a half. I'm not expecting much to happen so unless you want to hear about me eating chicken wings and drinking this could be my last update. I may publish one more really dull one explaining my days in a disturbing amount of detail just to see if anybody reads it.
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mike
non-member comment
rocket
Was that a toy rocket cos it looks really small in the picture where it is in the sky? I know all about scale and that and the smoke ploom is extremely narrow and unlikely to be that of a rocket. I would estimate the actual 'rocket' to have been 6 inches tall, about the size of the average dick - although nowhere near the size of mine, which is massive. With this in mind, I can only presume that you are prevented from being any closer than six miles from the 'launch' because the rockets are tiny and man has never actually been to the moon.