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
10th. 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.