After a
couple of very nice days in beautiful St Augustine, we were ready to
move a little further down the coast and so we headed for Melbourne,
Florida that is, not Australia .. ha, ha.
We'd booked a site in Wickham Park, a large city park just a couple of miles from down-town Melbourne.
We ended up in a nice site, on the very outskirts of the
campground, which bordered the 'primitive' sites, so there was pretty much nothing
but nature behind us.
There
were several things we wanted to see while we we were here, but the
most exiting one had to be Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center!
We
both were only young kids when the Apollo 11 landed on the moon in
1969, but we still remember where we were and how exiting it all was, so
to go and see where the shuttle was launched was a real thrill.
We went early in an effort to beat the crowds (1.5 million/year) and we did pretty good.
After
parking ($10!) and admission ($50!!!), we were advised to immediately
head for the buses that bring you out to the launch pad and to the
building where the Apollo and anything astronaut and moon-landing is
exhibited.
James among the rockets in the open rocket park
The KSC is an immense complex with an area measuring 34 miles (55 km)
long and roughly 6 miles (10 km) wide, covering 219 square miles (570
km2).
Because much of the installation is a restricted area and only nine
percent of the land is developed, the site also serves as an important
wildlife sanctuary; Mosquito Lagoon Indian River, Merritt Island
National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore are other
features of the area.
One of its most notable and iconic attractions is the Vehicle Assembly
Building (VAB), which is the fourth-largest structure in the world by
volume!
You drive right by it during the bus tour:
You also drive all around Launch Complex 39, the now-legendary launch pad from where the Apollo 11 took off.
It has been the launch site for every U.S. manned space flight since 1968.
The
bus eventually takes you to the Saturn 5 building, where after arriving
you first get to see a movie presentation, and than you enter the
enormous hall where a real size Saturn V rocket is on display.
Walking underneath and all around this enormous rocket is nothing but awe-inspiring...
We
had some lunch in the cafe and continued walking through the building
which has lots of very interesting and often interactive exhibits .. I
even touched a moon-rock!
After
being herded into a small auditorium we were shown yet another
(interactive) movie about the launch of the Apollo and the landing on
the moon..
After
seeing almost everything there was to see, we boarded another bus that
brought us back to the main visitor area, where we lined up to enter the
building that contains the space shuttle 'Atlantis' in it.
Upon entering a small theater, another beautiful movie presentation sets the stage for the dramatic opening of the doors that than lead you into the hall where the Atlantis is on display
The
whole 'show' is so well done that it's hard not to gasp when the doors
open, and this huge space shuttle that's been to space and
back 33 times, appears right in front of you!
It just blew me away seeing it in person, and I felt rather emotional I have to say.
It is displayed at an angle, with its cargo bay doors open and robotic arm
outstretched, and it seems to be just barely out of reach.
Just for facts: Atlantis has orbited the Earth
a total of 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126,000,000 mi
(203,000,000 km) or more than 525 times the distance from the Earth to
the Moon.
Again,
you can walk all around and underneath it and there are lots of
interactive kiosks where you can have some hands-on experience, like
simulations for maneuvering the space controls for equipment fixes
on board the shuttle.. or even do your only little space walk ..
By now, we were pretty much overwhelmed with everything we'd seen, but the last thing we did was walking over to the IMAX theater for the 3D Journey to Space movie.
This
very nice movie, with some astonishing images from space, tells the
story of the past and current value of NASA, it's commercial space
program, and
the plans for the future of space exploration for the next couple of
decades, including landing astronauts on Mars.
All in all, it took us a whole day to see what we wanted to see, there was so much to see and do, but we had a great time and thought it was well worth the price of admission.
Another one crossed off the bucket-list!
Next on our list was, of course, to take a better look at the Florida beaches!
We already saw our first glimpse at St Augustine, but we wanted to see some more ..
It was a little bit of a gloomy day, still nice and comfortable though, but the sky was a little cloudy and hazy ..
Surfing
is the biggest thing to do here at Melbourne Beach, and there were lots
of surfers out trying to catch those elusive bigger waves ..
We had brought our thermoses with coffee and enjoyed watching the 'beach-scene' for a while ..
I snapped some pictures of the wildlife, although there weren't too many around, just a few Sand pipers and the sporadic
Driving
south on the A1a, which is located on the long Barrier Island that
stretches in front of part of the Atlantic coast, we came across the
Barrier Island Conservation Center which houses the Sea Turtle
Conservancy.
We went for a short (free) visit and learned a little more about sea turtles, and other creatures, that call the Atlantic home.
On
November the 12th (And why do I know it was that exact day? Well, Read
and weep) we drove to the Turkey Creek Sanctuary, about 10 miles south
of Melbourne.
Established in 1981, this small nature reserve offers a 1.85 mile boardwalk passing
through hydric (wet) hammock, mesic (moist) hammock, and sand pine scrub
communities.
Much of it overlooks
Turkey Creek where the giant Live Oak trees have Spanish moss swaying softly in the breeze. It is
like an enchanted forest.
Observation points overlooking the creek allow
you to observe wildlife of all kinds and a boardwalk let's you enjoy the swamp beneath without getting wet ..
Soft shell turtle
There were lots of Florida cooters (turtles)
in the creek, also some large Soft shells and several Gar fish.
Fishing from his perch of a dead palm-tree leaf was this Green Heron ...
What a pretty little sanctuary!
And now I'll be getting to that part of the story where I'm telling you why I know so well what date this was ...
Back at the parking lot we tried to start the truck and ... nothing! Well, just some sort of thud, and than nothing ..
We
only tried two times because James felt right away this was not good at
all, so he stopped before he might do any further damage.
Great! Well ... not, of course!
Some
googling on the phone showed no medium truck repair shops in the
neighborhood, so we decided to have ourselves towed to the campground to
do further research. Fortunately we had road side assistance who found
us a heavy tow truck service and fortunately it didn't cost us anything.
The
tow truck showed up pretty fast and towing it back to the campground
went very smoothly. Thank goodness we were only 10 miles away!
The
guys who were towing us gave us the number of the shop where they had
their trucks in maintenance, and after a call they agreed to take a look
at it.
This time the towing was of course out of our own pocket ...
To make a long story short, it was quickly established that the engine was 'water-locked' and therefore completely ruined!
"This usually requires replacement of the engine or a substantial rebuild of its major components."
And so there was nothing else to do than starting to look for a new, or refurbished, engine ... and so we did.
We
went on-line, and after a day of searching we found a company
'US-Engines Productions', that had one for sale for $4200. Yeah ...
yikes, but they were the cheapest!
Next
followed a mad scramble to get some finances lined up, and 'with a
little help' from Doug and my Mom, who once again came to our rescue, we
were able to place the order.
It's
going to take a week or so and since it's Thanksgiving next week we're
probably looking at the last week of November for it to arrive ... oh,
well .. nothing to do but wait ..
Now, for a
bit of good news, or luck, or a small miracle maybe, it turns out that
one of our close-by neighbors in the park has a truck he's not using,
and upon hearing of our 'plight' he offered to lend it to us for as long
as we need it.
Wow,
how nice is that? James has offered to help him in return to do a
little work on another truck of his, that needs some welding and other
repairs done. Cool!
Also,
even more good luck, since we'd only booked for a couple of nights we
had to extend our stay at the campground and, although they were full,
we were able to snatch up their 'emergency' site that they keep for
situations like this!
So, we had to move to another site, which was a problem since we didn't have a truck.
But, as luck would have it (again .. ha!), we'd spotted people with a large truck a little further
down the loop, and when we asked they were totally fine to help us out
and tow us over!
A couple of days later we were moved and it didn't take us long to set up camp again.
Actually, this spot is even nicer than the previous one, it's huge!
And,
believe it or not, but our luck still had not run out because our
next-door neighbor at the previous spot, Shaun, offered James a job as a
painter at his (house)painting business!
Doesn't that just take the cake? A truck, a place to stay and a job!
I guess it's really hard to call us un-lucky when we're also so very lucky at the same time, can we?
So, now we wait ...
