May 15

The weather today at Kennedy Space Center was perfect; not too hot, not too humid. We arrived at KSC at about 10am. So did everyone else--it was packed! We made our way over to the tour departure location for our Discover KSC tour.

The tour was really well done, we got to see the Vehicle Assembly Building "The VAB" (as the employees say) up close. The building is B.I.G. It is actually larger than the great pyramids of Giza and almost as tall as our Washington Monument. The stars on the painted US flag are 6 feet wide each.

We also got close to both the 39A and B launch pads. Atlantis had just launched off of 39A less than 24 hours ago with astronauts heading to the space station, and the launch platform was still at the launch pad, as well as one of the two crawlers. The crawler moves 1mph (yes, one!) when taking the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad. It is something like 18 million pounds. We were bummed out that we missed a launch by a day, especially since the manned program is ending after two more launches.

We stopped at the "remote camera location". This location is too close for humans to observe unprotected during the launch. It is believed that the shockwave would kill anyone this close. Our tourguide eloquently said a person's organs would explode anywhere less than 800 feet away. Back in the Apollo era, this bunker was used to shelter a generator that operated a remote video camera.

Launch pad 39B has been modified for the next generation of launch vehicles. It has a very different lightning protection system--3 towers versus a single “candle stick”. Here you can see the 39B launch pad, water tower, and the liquid hydrogen tank.

We also got to see the other buildings and structures that are used for both the shuttle and space station operations. We saw the clean room area where they test and prepare items going to the space station. We could also walk through replicas of the space station modules, including the potty and laboratories. All very interesting.

We stopped by the Saturn V hanger to get a up close look at the giant Saturn V vehicle. The scale was impressive.

Back at the main center, we took in the rocket garden, watched a few videos and took a run in the shuttle launch simulator. Michele said the simulator about shook her to death. It goes through 8 minutes of liftoff into "orbit".

We left about 15 minutes before the center closed. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to give the “G force machine” a shot at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Maybe next time.

For today’s “picture of the day” we leave you with this question….what is it?

Tomorrow we depart the lovely Florida beaches and head north and inland to Augusta, GA, as we make our way to the Great Smokey National Park.

May 14

After a comfortable night's rest, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel. The buffet was very good and afterwards, we went for a little stroll on the beach. As usual, Michele had to "stick a toe" in the water to test it out.

We checked out and were on the road by 9:30am. Today’s “Florida Coast to Coast” run would make for a short day. Only about 150 miles, we expected to be in Melbourne by 1:00pm.

Heading through Kissimee we happend upon today's "picture of the day". Where else but in Florida would you come across.....Orange World?

The route was straight forward if you looked at a map. If you have a Goldwing navigation system with XM traffic, the route becomes a bit more interesting. Based on our charted route, the Navi let us know that we could expect up to a 45 minute delay. No problem, right? Recalculating……and so the Navi went as we made our way eastward. After being “rerouted” a few times and winding up back on the same road with no real advantage seen, we got rebellious when we saw a sign for Melbourne that said we had 45 miles to go yet the Navi was telling me we had nearly 70 miles until we reached our destination. Hmmm...

A quick zoom out of the map showed that the Navi was taking us in a less than direct route. Uh oh. It obviously thought there was a major traffic issue on a stretch of road. Given the nature of “traffic” we’ve seen in Florida, we disregarded the urgings of the Navi and continued straight along 192 towards Melbourne. Well, we got to the “traffic” jam that the Navi was trying to get us to avoid. The Navi showed us this menacing red route:

While we saw a road that looked like this:

Obviously the Wing Navi has gone native Floridian on us. Look at the horrible traffic. You can see another car!!!

We arrived in Melbourne at around 1:30pm. In the short 150 miles of riding, we found out that the love bugs of Florida have begun their annual death mating ritual. I’ve never had the bike this splattered with bug guts before. Just imagine the feeding you all would get without a windshield or full face helmet. (It is difficult to see but look at the top edge of the wind shield. That is representative of the entire front end of the bike)

So perhaps the Wing hadn’t gone Floridian native on us. Maybe the bike was just hungry. Hmmmmm.

We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach and playing in the surf. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Tomorrow we head to the Kennedy Space Center to look at some rockets.

May 13

Slow by day and fast by night. That’s how this train rolls…..and rocks. The engineer had the hammer down all night. The train was rocking back and forth so much, I’m not sure I could have gotten up if I had to. Given the train engineer’s “need for speed”, we think he could be related to Tweaker! Anyways, we slept relatively well and I survived without injury which is the important part. We grabbed breakfast at around 7pm and watched out the window as we passed through downtown Jacksonville, Florida.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room (Sallie had reconverted the room back into the seating configuration) where the mad blogger wrote up the previous day’s happenings.

By 11:30am we had de-trained, retrieved the Wing, and were on our way west to St. Petersburg. We proceeded west on I-4 and stopped for lunch on the western side of Orlando. You know you’re close to Disney World when the power line towers look like Mickey Mouse.

Ever wonder what you do with a bunch of airstream trailers you haven’t anymore use for? Fortunately for us, we found one option while traveling west on I-4.

A short 120 miles or so and we arrived at our hotel in St. Pete. Temps hit 90F and the clear blue water and white sandy beach never looked so inviting.

We met up with friends Ken and Lara at their place in St. Pete. Ken and Lara are former coworkers from Michele’s days at AMS. Ken and Lara picked up and moved down to St. Pete for a bit of a change several years ago for a more relaxed lifestyle. They have a lovely home not far from downtown. We also got to say hello to Kobe and Charlie, Ken and Lara’s border collies. After playing a little ball with Charlie and Kobe, we went to a new nearby restaurant. We dined outside in the fabulous evening weather and got caught up with Ken and Lara. It was great to see them after so many years--the beach town lifestyle suits them well and we are glad to see them so happy.

Tomorrow, we head for the east coast of Florida in Melbourne.

May 12

Mother Nature greeted us with sunny skies and warm temperatures for our first day of our trip. The rainy and cold weather from the day before now just a distant memory. The bike all packed up, Michele and I departed for the Lorton Amtrak station at around 11am.

After a little over an hour, we arrived at the station and proceeded to the motorcycle loading dock.
Two station workers guided me onto the trailer and when the bike was parked in the wheel chock, they strapped it down taking care to protect the painted surfaces from the straps with towels.

We checked in at the terminal and cooled our heels until the 2:30pm boarding time. Michele’s Mom dropped by to send us off. She kept us company for an hour or so and then needed to head out.

We boarded the train and watched as they loaded the motorcycles.

Our room was on the second floor of the sleep train car. The room was quite cozy with small people in mind. Perfect for us. The room facilities are also quite efficient with the toilet and shower co-located.

For the sign of the day, Michele spotted this one on one of the train cars.

We opted for the 5pm dinner seating. Michele had chicken marsala while I had a bean stew with green things in it (Michele says they were kale…I’ll take her word for it). The meal was actually quite good and after the cheesecake desert (Michele had the strawberry topping while I went with the chocolate) we managed to roll ourselves back to our room for an hour or so before heading to watch the movie “The Blind Side.”

When we returned to the room after the movie, the car steward, Sallie, had converted our room into its sleeping configuration. Now for the next challenge….will I survive the night in the “double” bed with Michele without getting kicked or kneed? Stay tuned to find out!