May 2018 - 3 weeks, one wedding and a villa, Day 10 - Kennedy Space Centre

[Goosey-Lucy]

Sunday 13/05/18

We woke up about 7:15 as we were off to Kennedy Space Centre today!
We were meeting mum and dad over there as they had moved from Indian Rocks to Cocoa Beach the Friday afternoon that we’d left them. The plan was to spend the day there with them and for us all to go back to Orlando as they were flying home tomorrow.
Had a quick breakfast and got the rucksack ready and we were in the car and on the way by 8am.
The road there is pretty straight. Actually, it’s dead straight ! You drive through a lot of what I presume is wildlife reservations and things like that until you get to the banana river. By the way, if you’ve never been over that way you could quite easily mistake the banana river for the sea, it is massive! You couldn’t even see the other side of it like our little piddly rivers!

We got to KSC about 9:15 and were soon parked up, as we got there quite early we weren’t too far away from the actual entrance. We managed to grab a coffee from the little van out front whilst waiting for mum and dad.

Mum and dad arrived about 9:30 and we headed into the park. We went straight into the Heroes & Legends building where you first watch a 3D video about the start of space exploration really, who the first astronauts were and what the first projects were and things like that. The video was insane though, for someone who suffers slightly with motion sickness I was feeling a bit bleh afterwards.
When you leave the video hall the corridor leads you down to the Hall of Fame that has literally all the astronauts in it, how many missions they’ve been on and all the badges they’ve earnt, it was really amazing to see actually.
Coming back out we had a brief walk round what they called the Rocket Garden, it's basically a load of real rockets that were built, but just never used, so they constructed a garden area using them.

Once we’d looked round there we thought we’d go on the bus tour next as it was still pretty early and the park wasn’t hugely busy just yet. We found the bus stop bit quite easily and there was a bus waiting that was nearly full so we managed to get straight on as they had room for 4 more people.
As we pulled off the bus driver introduced himself and told us a few ins and outs of KSC and then told us that everyone had to remain seated at all times when the bus was moving, he reassured us that on photo opportunities he would stop for us to take photos. So of course, there was that 1 bloke who kept standing up to take photos when the bus was moving and kept trying to lean over me as well
The bus tour was really interesting and it took you out to the launch pads and showed you the tracks they use to pull the rockets down.

We learnt that the gravel they use has to be sourced from Arizona as there’s something in it or not in it that means it can’t spark when rubbed, meaning no rockets are gonna take off on their travels to the launch pad.
We drove by the buildings they use to build the rockets and do other bits, I can’t quite remember now what else the buildings are used for but they obviously have their uses

On our way round we saw some alligators, a gofer, tortoises and a coyote! The guy who liked to stand up when the bus was moving was up and down like a yo-yo at this point !

Eventually the bus drops you off at the Saturn 5 building where you all file into a big room with a screen that shows a short film about the Saturn 5 launch and then you go through to a mock up of where the people back at Houston would of spoken to the astronauts. I think they said they were the actual consoles that were used!

You then file out of that room and into a big warehouse type space that has lots to look at. There’s a rocket hanging from the ceiling that is a real rocket, but was never used, a room on the evolution of space suits, things like re-entry pods and lots of other stuff I just completely failed to make a note of and can’t remember

After you’ve looked round the Saturn 5 building there’s another bus that comes and picks you up and takes you back to the main complex. Once back we all decided we were starving, we actually decided we were starving in the Saturn 5 building so our mission was food! I didn’t note what we had, but I’m pretty sure I had my first ever Reuben sandwich, yum!
After lunch we went to the Atlantis exhibit as the building was next door to the canteen.

There was another short film to start with and then the room sort of opens and the Atlantis shuttle is just there in front of you. It was slightly overwhelming as it’s just beautiful, but gigantic, it’s also hard to get your head round the fact that it’s THE Atlantis shuttle in front of you.

In the room there was little mock ups of the inside of the shuttle that you could go in and all sorts of information around the edge and once you’d done all that there was a big slide that took you downstairs, weeee! The funniest part was getting mum on it
In the bottom room there was more bits to look at, but we’d all spotted the Atlantis simulator and all 4 of us love a good simulator (even if I do wanna vom after)!
Queue was very short, so it didn’t take long until we were in the simulator. You sit in rows of 4 and the actual seats barely have any bottom bit to it, which we soon found out why when it started. Literally as soon as it starts you get tipped right back so you’re laid on your back and when it simulates take off you it feels like your brains rattling round in your head
Not surprisingly, I felt very sick after that
We decided to head round to the IMAX as there was a couple of films on. We picked the one about the mission to Mars with the rover and what the future plans are.
Mum said the film was very interesting. Yes me, Chris and dad fell asleep at one point I did wake up and look around and there were a lot of heads rolling around
We did think about watching the other film, but me and dad knew we’d just fall asleep again, so we decided to get ice cream! Mum and dad had coke floats, I had a hot fudge sundae. Man, I can see what the fuss is about with hot fudge sauce!
At this point it started raining quite heavily and as it was about 4pm and we were all feeling a bit sleepy we decided to head back to Orlando. Me and Chris both desperately needed some new sunglasses and mum and dad hadn’t experienced the outlets yet so we decided to meet back up at the Vineland outlets for a quick look around.
Drive back was pretty straight forward, we did see the bridge open so a little boat could come through and the afternoon Virgin flight come into land, so some interesting things to look at.

The outlets were rammed probably due to it being a Sunday and it was raining pretty bad at this point. We knew what we wanted so headed straight to the Oakley store where me and Chris both managed to get a new pair each.
Mine were $79 down from $120 and Chris’s were $113 down from $200, we were very happy bunnies considering how much more expensive they are in the UK
As our sunglasses were all we were really after at the moment and we were all getting a bit soggy we headed home, ordered pizza and watched one of Adam Sandler’s new Netflix films.
Don’t remember the name, but it was his newest Netflix film where his daughter is marrying Chris Rock’s son. Dad eventually dozed off and so did Chris, so once the film was done we all headed to bed.

Tomorrow – Saying bye to mum & dad & MK

[mick]

Another good day

Joan