Scrubbed II

July 13, 2009





Scrubbed II



The rescheduled launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor was set for just after 7:00 PM on Sunday evening and so I headed over to the Space Coast to be in good position to snag a good viewing spot at Spaceview Park in Titusville, which is the closest and best non-NASA site to view launches.





I had some time to kill, so I spent the better part of the morning and afternoon at the Beach in nearby Cocoa Beach. The weather was beautiful and sunny, a perfect beach day. There was a great crowd at the beach, with many people taking advantage of the good conditions to do some surfing.





One of the prominent features at Cocoa Beach is the huge fishing pier that dominates the coastline and provides a platform for fishing as well as a variety of restaurants, bars and retail establishments. It is a pretty popular place and many people actually utilize the pier to watch shuttle launches. It also provides great views of the beach.





Around 3 PM, I drove the short distance over to Titusville, where I grabbed a quick lunch at Dixie Crossroads seafood restaurant and a drink at the Southern Room bar before heading over to see the small but very interesting U.S. Space Walk of Fame. The small museum is packed with all sorts of historical artifacts from the history of the space program.





The place is run by volunteers, many former NASA employees. The gentleman I spoke with was NASA employee #4 and he was a wealth of knowledge about the history of the program. He had actually collected many of the items in the museum personally. It is a great little exhibit, that is located just around the corner from Titusville’s Space Walk of Fame, which is a beautiful series of monuments that runs from the shore through spaceview park.





By the time, I headed over to get a spot in the park to watch the launch, the buzz was growing. Thousands of people lined the park and all along the water and down US1 through Titusville. I got a great spot, next to a nice couple who had flown over from Scotland to watch the launch. It was a great time enjoying the party-like atmosphere in the park, there were even crazy religious nuts preaching to the captive crowd, at least till they were shouted down.





Sadly, as time passed the sounds of thunder behind us sent a shiver through the crowd and it got darker and closer as the launch time approached. Finally about 10 minutes before the scheduled launch, the word came that the launch was scrubbed again. It was a terrible disappointment. But I could not stay over to wait and headed for the highway to head home.





After yet another scrubbing on Monday evening, the Shuttle finally did launch on Wednesday evening. Hopefully at some point, I will actually get a chance to witness a launch in person.


Space Walk of Fame

July 12, 2009

*Photo by Gene Blevins/ LA Daily News

City Walk

The Waiting

Disney West Side

With the latest scrubbing of the Space Shuttle launch, I was faced with a choice, to stay in Orlando an extra day, or travel over to the coast to find something entertaining to do. Having just waited out the previous scrubbing in Cocoa, I picked Orlando. There is a plethora of entertainment options there, mostly hyper-touristy bastions of commercialism and theme-parkery, but I actually enjoy a good Disneyish experience now and again.

Photo by Gene Blevins/ LA Daily News

I decided to check out the competing entertainment centers, Downtown Disney and Universal Studios CityWalk. Each is home to the mega-bars, stores and shows that provide a surreal experience of consumerism for the uninitiated. I have to say that you could never tell that there is a recession going on if you had to judge on the crowds out and about in Orlando. There were huge masses of people spending untold amounts of cash.





Downtown Disney is massive and is divided into three main areas, Disney West Side, Disney Marketplace and Pleasure Island. This trip I stayed mostly in the Westside area that is home to such fixtures as The House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, Wolfgang Puck, Bongo’s Cuban Café and a permanent location for the Cirque de Soleil show La Nouba. Sadly the huge Virgin megastore has gone under and has been replaced by a huge traveling exhibit honoring Princess Diana. There is also a huge megaplex movie theatre, where I went to see the new Sandra Bullock comedy, The Proposal, eh not so good.







Later it was over to the Universal Studios equivalent, City Walk where the anchors are huge bars and restaurants like, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, The Hard Rock Café, NBA Café, Catch A Rising Star, Pat O’Brien’s, etc. I didn’t spend as much time there as a huge thunderstorm came through while I was there and scattered the crowd, flooding much of the place with torrents of water. We will be back there next month anyway to see the Counting Crows with Michael Franti & Spearhead and Augustana at the Hard Rock.

Deluge





After a nice Orlando visit, I headed over to the coast to position myself for the rescheduled launch attempt. Once there I had some spare time, so I visited the small, but quite enjoyable Brevard Zoo in Melbourne. It was a nice little zoo and provided a fun way to kill a little time waiting for the launch. One of the cool things that the zoo offers is guided kayak trips to view the animals from an entirely different perspective. I will definitely be doing this if I return with Kathy.







Finally, I wanted to recognize and congratulate my friend Dr. Jeff Royal and his wife Jaynie on the birth of their 3rd child, a son Brax Octavius, who was born last week in Key West. Jeff is the RPM Nautical Foundation Archeologist and he is taking a break from field work in Sicily for the big event. Congrats.

Jeff & Brax

Space Shuttle Lightning Pix

Brevard Zoo

Downtown Disney

City Walk

Gatorland

July 11, 2009





Gatorland



Last month, the Space Shuttle Endeavor launch was scrubbed and I vowed to return to Titusville to see the rescheduled launch, scheduled for Saturday evening, July 12th. Kathy decided against going, opting to take the weekend to relax and be a homebody rather than hitting the road again so soon after returning from Massachusetts. So, after work on Friday, I was on the road again, driving to Orlando to spend the night before heading over to Titusville on Saturday.





I choose to go to Orlando because there was much more to do there, just in case the mission was scrubbed again. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, which is only 38 miles from Titusville and close to all the rest of the Orlando area attractions.



I have a fondness for roadside attractions and in my many trips to Orlando, had never visited the famous Gatorland, which is one of the old school Florida tourist attractions that have been in operation for more than 50 years. I thought this was the perfect opportunity and once inside, I was wishing that I’d come sooner.



Gatorland is home to literally thousands of Alligators, both in a huge variety of enclosures, in the huge breeding lake that dominates the property and in the beautiful swamp that makes up another large portion of the property.





The swamp was my favorite of many awesome features. There is something magical and primeval about a swamp and this place has a great one. There is a raised wooden walkway that passes through the swamp and it is simply beautiful. The sheer amount of biodiversity is incredible and the wonderful steamy elegance that is the swamp was a joy to experience.



The walk around the gator filled lake is amazing as well; the entire lake and the surrounding woods is also a huge bird rookery, with thousands of egrets, herons and other birds nesting along the shore. It is so cool, but somewhat scary for the birds, whose nests are in some cases, mere feet away from the gators.







Of course, Gatorland also has the famous touristy features, the Close Encounter show, the Gator Jumparoo where the creatures leap out of the water in amazing displays of agility and speed to grab chicken dangled over the water. Those are all entertaining, if somewhat cheesy, but to me the power of the place is in the areas left natural. You can really get close to the birds and gators and they don’t seem to mind at all, obviously acclimated to the close proximity of gawking tourists.







While at Gatorland, I received word that the shuttle launch had been scrubbed once again. Lightning strikes on the launch pad from a storm Friday night delayed the launch at least 24 hours so I ended up staying in Orlando the rest of the day.





Gatorland Website