Day 9. The alarm clock goes off at 0330, and I am amazed when everyone emerges reasonably promptly from their beds. Dads_Taxi has an early fare today – we’re going to try to watch the Shuttle Launch.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that the voice on my sat-nav is the late, great, Steve Irwin. So I ask Steve to take us to Titusville, as several people have recommended this place as a good vantage point for viewing Space Shuttle launches. Strewth, Steve’s enthusiasm can be a bit OTT at four in the morning mate! However, he seems to know where he’s going, so we cruise along until we’re about six miles from the Kennedy Space Centre, and then we hit a big queue of traffic. And then we switch Steve OFF! You can only take so much of Steve so early in the day.
A nice policeman suggests we take the US1 Northbound, and says we’ll get a good view from somewhere along there. So we give it a go. As we are entering Titusville, we see a hotel, I think it was a Clarion, offering overnight parking to those who want to watch the launch. It’s now 10 minutes until lift-off, so we park up outside someone’s house and walk over to the hotel. Crikey, there are about a hundred people behind the hotel, and they’re all looking at the launch pad! What a view, it was amazing. It’s still dark at this time, it was about 0615 now, but the launch pad was well lit up and quite obvious to the naked eye. It was very few minutes we waited and then bang on 0621 the world lit up.
I can’t put into written words how incredible it was, it was fantastic to watch, and then several seconds later hear and feel the power involved. My photo really doesn’t do it justice.
The sky was completely clear, so we could see the shuttle for miles, I wonder how many miles? At one point it seemed to be coming down, but a fellow observer explained to Lydia that this was an illusion caused by the curvature of the Earth and the fact that the craft was going into orbit. I think it was probably visible for about 5 minutes, but certainly after 6 minutes, as logged by my camera, the Sun began to rise, and as we were facing directly East, it looked spectacular:
The Sun, whilst still over the horizon, just picked out the one cloud in the sky.
Eventually the crowd began to leave, so we went back to the car, and I had the ridiculous idea of having a look at Titusville. Bong! Daft idea. What we SHOULD have done is pointed the car West and got back to Orlando. Instead we joined several thousand other cars in an almighty traffic jam. We did realise though, as we crawled along the US1, just how many fantastic spots there are along that stretch of road where you can safely park up and see the launch pad. There was even a McDonalds with the carpark overlooking the pad! Imagine a Sausage McMuffin and a Shuttle launch combined – could it get better than that?
Four tiring hours later we get back to Champions Gate, hit Subway for a load of footlong subs, then sprawl by our pool for a lazy lunch and a long-awaited snooze on a sunbed. Well, I snoozed, others had slept on the trip home:
I was woken by complaints that the pool was getting colder by the day, not warmer as expected. I wander round to the pool heater – it is stone cold. Check switches etc, hmm, I think it’s broke. I have a word with the property manager who calls in a pool heater engineer. In a very short time, a Hulk Hogan look-alike turns up and shows me a disintegrated ignition system. Luckily he has a replacement in his van. He fits this, and fires it up. Hmm, no luck. Well, he says to me, it still won’t light. Right on cue, the heater gives a cartoon-like WHOOOMPH, and a huge ball of flame erupts from the burners. It doesn’t quite match the ball of flame we’d seen earlier in the day, but it was quite impressive, especially at such close range. Hulk Hogan messes around a bit, and when he leaves the heater is roaring away nicely. (Sadly the next day it won’t light again, this is on-going as I write)
As I settle back into my poolside chair for maybe another forty winks, Mrs Dads_Taxi decides I haven’t driven enough today, and comes up with the great idea of a trip to Walmart to grab some Easter bargains as all the stuff will be reduced now Easter is over.
So Dads_Taxi picks up another fare! I’m such a good Dad.
(Day 14. As I sit writing this, it’s just after midnight, and we’re catching our flights home at 1445 today. We’ve packed all our bags, but I’m not ready to come home yet!)
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