Florida 2010

Florida 2010

I have always been interested in Florida. I blame Randy Wayne White, Tim Dorsey, John D. MacDonald and, mostly, Carl Hiaasen. It's the most foreign state we have. I visited Pensacola once. I liked it there but there was a lot of truth about it really being Florabama. So, with much anticipation (my favorite part of travel), I finally got to visit a different part of Florida.

We arrived in Orlando on February 10^th. The airport was crazy busy and no fun at all. After reserving a car in advance, I got ripped off by the rental car agency but, after standing in line for over 45 minutes, I paid the extra charges. Welcome to Florida.

Our destination was Cedar Keys, but the first stop was Melbourne on the east coast, for the purpose of meeting up with an old friend of Steve’s. A nasty blizzard hit the east coast about this time. More than 5,700 flights were cancelled and Steve’s friend was stranded in Philadelphia for the duration.

We found a good restaurant in Melbourne’s old town. (A lot of the buildings were empty. Further evidence of the nation's bad economy) I wanted to try conch but had to settle for shrimp-conch fritters. Delicious. The news later that night showed a large, cold storm descending on Florida from the north.

Previously, we tried to coordinate our vacation so we could see a rocket go into space from the Kennedy Space Center, but hadn’t been able to get there by the launch date. But the streak of bad weather delayed the launch, giving us an opportunity to be present.  

Early in the morning on the 11th, I saw an announcement that read:

Launch Today!

Launch Vehicle: Atlas V

Mission: SDO

Launch Window: 10:23 am-11:23

The United Launch Allliance Atlas 5 rocket will

launch NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. SDO

will be the first mission for the space agency’s

Living With a Star Program. The rocket will fly in

the 401vehicle configuration with a four-meter

fairing, no solid rocket boosters and a single-

engine Centaur upper stage.

I'm not going to pretend I know what most of that means, but it sounds official. So we drove to Jetty Park, a place popular for viewing the launches, but we got there a couple of hours early. With the weather being so cold, we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. We parked on a jetty with a great view in the direction of the space center. No one else was there so we didn't believe we'd be lucky enough to catch sight of a rocket. The wind was still blowing hard as a massive cold front moved into Florida from the north.

I spent some time on the fishing pier, watching pelicans catch fish. They dive like feathery missiles, hit the water with a lot of force, then emerge victorious with a struggling shiny fish in their beaks. Gulp. Repeat. There were schools of fish leaping out of the water and lots of birds. Then Steve spotted a school of dolphins. I started falling in love with crazy weird Florida about that time. It wasn’t anything like I thought it would be.  Even in Melbourne, outside of the well-off neighborhoods along the water, the homes had a tackiness I hadn’t expected. So why was I warming up to Florida after such a short time? The beach and the ocean seemed endless. Birds everywhere and I love being by the water. (I love being on the water even more)

Still freezing, we walked around the park. The bait shop sold awful coffee that we were very grateful to find. After two and a half hours, the jetty parking area was packed. People had cameras of every sort and telescopes. It felt festive. Then we could hear the loudspeaker preparing for the launch. The countdown was so much fun. The entire crowd counted along. I would have shivered with excitement if I hadn’t already been shaking for hours.

The rocket strained its way through the atmosphere. Faster and faster. Steam. Noise. Birds flying around in a panic. People cheering. It was awesome. Then it was out of sight.