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Published: July 14th 2014
Merlin
This fellow was sitting above the cars when we came out after breakfast at Cracker BarrelsToday our destination was to a hotel near Titusville which is close to the Kennedy Space Centre which we intend to visit tomorrow. We left the motel at 0830hrs just grabbing a coffee and a little bit to eat as we are stopping at Cracker Barrels, just down the road, as Victor and Helen enjoy the breakfasts there.
This was true to form, with huge helpings, we being smart this time and sharing a plate of fried egg, bacon, ham & sausage, plus fried spuds, toast, grits and stewed apples plus unlimited coffee, all for $15 including a good tip. Enough protein to keep us going until this evening. But I think Judy enjoyed the attached shop which had all sorts of knick knacks as much as, if not more than, the food!
We continued down the coast, stopping at Flagler Beach to stretch our legs and to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, before continuing to Daytona Beach. We wanted to go here as both of us had heard of the town, renown for the Indy car racing they have here. Unfortunately there was nothing on at present and anyway,
we missed the turn-off to the course.
We did however go for a swim there as for the princely sum of $5 you are allowed to drive your car onto the beach (when you can find a road which lets you on as much of the coast is cut off from the public by houses and condos. The sand is very hard and we had no trouble driving several miles along it, stopping to enjoy a swim in the warm water. Even though it is not peak season, there were brown and in many cases, burnt, people and umbrellas all along the coast, as far as you could see.
We continued on alongside the ocean, rather than the freeway further inland, the scenery more interesting, until we came to the town of La Ponce de Leon. Just past this town is a lighthouse, at 175 feet tall, the tallest in Florida and the 3rd tallest in USA. We didn't climb this one, having climbed a lighthouse a few days ago, and in France 2 months ago. Plus it was too hot to climb the 203 steps to the top!
From here we made our way back towards
Daytona
Threatening clouds over the beach town, crossing a bridge to the mainland just before it. This took us to the inland freeway and we traversed this to our destination. Just before we reached Titusville, the town where we are staying in a Quality Inn, the heavens opened, the rain so heavy we had to slow right down from the 70mph (110kph) we had been travelling at.
Dry roads greeted us in Titusville, after we had passed through heavy rain in sections, interspersed with dry sections for the previous 20 miles.
We hadn't booked the hotel beforehand, but used one of the walk in coupons you get in a book at various stops. This gave us a queensize room with 2 queensize beds, breakfast included for $55. The identical room through Bookings.com costs $74 plus a 11% state tax. As it isn't peak season we think we will make more use of these coupons this trip.
For dinner, Victor drove about 24 kms to Merrit Beach where we went to the Long Horn Steakhouse. Here, each couple shared a Long Horn Ribeye steak, with a roast potato, a side of beans and a side of salad. This was easily enough to feed us
Kennedy Space Centre
The sight that greets you as you enter - these rockets range from the earliest to the large one lying on its side. all but we splurged out by sharing a chocolate and icecream dish and an apple crumble. Very tasty, Judy and Victor both also commented on how large and good the Margaritas were.
We returned to the hotel to find that our sink was blocked and on seeing the night manager we were upgraded to a quieter room at no extra cost. This should extend to tomorrow night too as we intend staying.
Wednesday 9th July 2014 Today we visited the Kennedy Space Centre, this had an excellently organised and presented exhibition of the USA's contribution to space travel. The KSC is a working spaceflight facility with launch pads, a Vehicle Assembly Area, control centre all part of the vast area set in a national park.
When we first entered the Visitor Complex the first things that capture your eye are the rockets set in the Rocket garden, historical rockets that tell the development of Man's quest to the stars, the huge building housing the space shuttle, Atlantis, as well as the Imax theatre and various other buildings.
Hearing that there were bus trips to view the launch pads and other buildings
VAB- Vehicle Assembly Area
The assembly area. This huge hangar is where the rockets are assembled away from the visitor complex in a short while, we just looked in on an exhibit showing the early days of space exploration and rocket design. This building highlighted the Mercury and Gemini space programs, and included artifacts from the first manned space flights and housed the original Mercury mission control consoles.
The bus tour took us past launching ramps, the assembly area with its huge mobile pads which transport the rockets along specially reinforced tracks to the launch areas, as well as some of the historical launching sites. The bus driver explained how this was now very much a commercial enterprise with private companies there developing, testing and selling their products there. US Govt projects are not expected to start for another few years now that the Apollo project is complete. The bus dropped us at the Apollo/Saturn V Center. This was an awesome experience where we saw the enormity of an Apollo Rocket. We were also able to touch rock which had been brought back from the moon. Here we all felt a bit peckish so grabbed a bit of fast food - hamburgers (with no salad) and hotdogs for Helen and Victor.
While we were
Launch gantry
The rockets are attached until just prior to lift-off there Victor talked at length with one of the original engineers of the project, this man (James Jones) employed now to tell of his experiences. He was very knowledgeable and obviously proud of what had been accomplished.
On our return we entered the Atlantis Shuttle building, this housing the last shuttle by that name. Here was the history of the Apollo project started by President Kennedy, to get a man on the moon before the USSR. It showed the development of rockets, the progression of the project, Apollo 11 success at getting to the moon, as well as an excellent, close-up look of the Atlantis shuttle. Add to this the displays of the original Mission Control Centres, the memorials to the 12 astronauts who died, a launch simulation plus an Imax experience of what it would be like in a space station and the time soon flew.
We arrived at the complex at the 0900 opening time, not leaving until 1800 and feeling we could easily spend another day there to make the tour more complete as we had missed some parts.
Dinner was at Brano's Italian Grill in Coco Beach, we drove there directly from the
Launch pad
The rocket sits on this in the VAB and is moved on this pad along the pebbled tracks to the gantry Space Centre as all of us were hungry. Once again the food was quite good and the prices reasonable. By the time we returned to our hotel we were quite content to go to our respective rooms and take it easy for the rest of the evening.
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vera Stanley
non-member comment
Okay stop rubbing it in nice warm weather lovely swimming weather while Im here freezing cold this Thursday morning to be 4 degree's love Vera