Day 17 -- Orlando, Florida
Saturday 7/14/2001
Excursion: Kennedy Space Center
Today we wanted to relax a little bit from all the walking yesterday. We did not rush up, exactly. Ate breakfast outside of the trailer. We'd had the air conditioning on over night and you could definitely feel it was muggy the moment you walked outside of the trailer. Today's weather is supposed to be a bit mixed, with overcast and rain. We did some laundry. Once again, much more expensive than at Myrtle Beach. A washing machine, for example, costs $2.00 here while the same thing was $1.25 back in Myrtle Beach. Better do a load of laundry before you get to Fort Wilderness! Karl got an ant into his ear and took a shower to try to get it out...
To save our legs from walking, we thought, we would drive out to the Kennedy Space Center which is by the Atlantic ocean, about one hour from the campground. This is a NASA visitors center. We also planned to visit Cocoa beach and, in a split second decision, decided to visit the Space Center first (in retrospect: the Space Center is a full day event and you do not have room for going to be beach as well).
Last time we went out to Cape Canaveral we recall that we came upon a set of chain-link gates blocking the entrance and we ended up visiting another look-alike center just by the entrance. We recall how it felt somewhat less than genuine. But this time, the gates were open and we got to visit the real thing. We ate lunch by the truck before going into the center. Tickets are not cheap, but they offer a lot of value. We tried to purchase tickets for the in-depth tour, which is a complementary $20/person. But those tickets were sold out (in retrospect it was probably a good idea we did not buy them because the regular tours are plenty interesting and time consuming). Signs point out that none of this comes from taxpayer money and that it is completely sponsored from ticket, souvenir and food sales. Click here for a map.
We jumped on the bus tour almost immediately after we got inside the arrival area. The bus leaves every 10 minutes and you just line up to get onto the next one. The buses stop at three different places: Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry, The Apollo/Saturn V terminal and the International Space Station Center.
Along the ride out to the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry we got to see the huge crawlers used to bring the shuttle out to the actual launch pad. Fully loaded, they weigh 6 million pounds and move at a speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6km/h). The gravel roads they crawl on, the size of 8-lane highways, are specially built and contain 70ft (21m) of assorted layers to stabilize the ground underneath. Quite amazing. At the Gantry you get to see a film and then walk around and climb a multi-story viewing tower.
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From the tower you get a feel for the fine nature around the launch complexes. There are many spieces out here, including bald eagles. In the tower they have mounted a rocket engine. Looking up close, you get a feel for how complex they are. We were even told about some 5,000 aligators that roam around the area. We could see the eyes and backs of a few from the bus, swimming around the ditches by the road. Must be quite a sensation to drive over one of those at night!!
A real rocket engine is mounted in gantry tower. Wonder if they've installed a Banks Powerpak on that one?
The tour bus continues after that to the Saturn V/Apollo complex. This is where you can view an Apollo rocket restored to Smithsonian standards. You get to view a film and then a simulated Apollo lauch. The simulated launch takes place in the actual control room where the real launches took place. As a spectator you stand, looking down at the control room, as three large screens above project images relating to the preparation events. They also use a three minute count down clock. Impressive.
Simulated Apollo launch as you watch the real control room
But when you get to see the actual Apollo rocket, complete with all its booster stages, it makes all other things pale. Those rockets are huge as in very huge. All the pices of the Apollo rocket are on display in this large museum hall and you can walk around and underneath. They have separated the stages so that you can see the rocket engines associated with each stage. Even the second and third stage engines are huge.
After this the bus tour takes you to the International Space Station building, where parts for the real International Space station are being assembled and checked out. They have a mock up area with full scale units you can walk through to get a feel for the dimensions of some of the modules. Only some modules were present as all modules connected would take up the size of two football fields. You also get to walk by the building where some of the real modules are being prepared. Only three days prior to our arrival the space shuttle Atlantis had gone up from Cape Canaveral to deliver parts to the space station.
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Click on pictures above to enlarge
When we were wrapping up our visit there, it started to rain. First lightly, then it turned very heavy. One of the nice things about visiting the Kennedy Space Center is that you are less sensitive to bad weather. In other words, it is a good destination for one of those shitty days when you do not want to go to a theme park. But did the rain come down. It was incredibly intense. We huddled over in the gift shop, along with others, near the entrance for about 1/2 hour. That gift shop is very nice. We bought a few T-shirts and a kit with little moon astronauts for Erik and Karl. We eventually felt oblilged to get out to the truck. It rained cats and dogs outside. I took off all my clothes except my shorts and ran over to the truck which was quite away out on the parking lot. It poured down and there were areas with several inches deep water.
When we got home we decided to go out for dinner and Trails End which is near the Marina here on the Fort Wilderness Campground. They have a buffet type dinner which is actually quite good. It includes the full range from salad, pizza and deserts. The salmon curry was especially good. After that we took the bus back home. It was packed full and many had to stand. We got to bed. Isabella and Erik kept fighting in their beds despite being told not to.