Juno Rocket Launch
Up early at 6.30am to start packing, got some breakfast and on the road at 7.15am. Expecting a 4 hour drive up to Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral – made fantastic time on a very straight road up North.
Stopped at McDonalds to get McFlurry and Shakes and the bloody machine wasn’t working…typical! When will we be able to get a proper US McDonald’s?!?!
Got to hotel, chucked bags out and made our way to Kennedy Space Centre to visit but also because of timing there was a rocket launch due. All along the road were people sat out watching across the bay to where it would take place, having picnics and that.
Driving up from the hotel we also saw a 5 police cars outside a motel with guns trained on it, coming back at 6.00pm the road was still blocked off with yellow tape and checking on the local news the next morning on the internet was confirmation that a 71 year old was brandishing a gun and had been shot dead – all 400 yards from where we were staying…er..little bit nervous…
Got to the Space Centre and it was packed solid, time to launch was 10 minutes and we found somewhere to stand, it was delayed by about 45 minutes so we didn’t need to stay in the car-park and got inside where the atmosphere was very exciting. There was a tannoy system as you’d expect which kept relaying conversations in the Control Centre and video screen, but we didn’t need the screen. Finally you heard the chap say launch in T minus 2 minutes and expectation started around the crowd.
10, 9, 8..countdown started, video on and then across the way the rocket started up into the sky, it looked incredible and was all over quite quickly but the fact we were there to see it was really pleasing. The rocket was unmanned and was called Juno and it on a 5 year mission to Jupiter – so we need to keep an eye on that.
We then toured round the centre, viewing the history, went on a rocket launch simulation (or ‘stimulation’ as Charlotte kept referring to it), went across to the launch place that the Space Shuttle would use – all really interesting. But incredibly hot, just sweating buckets!
Got back to Cocoa Beach Pier where we were staying, and went to the beach for an hour, Lewis and I went in and did some body surfing as the waves were good and then I had a couple of beers at the bar before we showered and went back to the same place for dinner. Huge burgers each – nice!
We also visited Ron Jon’s surf shop – huge great place that was excellent, whatever you needed for surfing/beach wear was there – a bit like our Fat Willy’s Surf Shack but as you’d expect, a much, much bigger level! Got to see lots more of these shops throughout the time of the holiday, but this was the biggest and best.
Went for a walk on the wooden pier, Charlotte scared silly by the rickety nature of it so we didn’t stay on there for long but we still got to see some fireworks on the beach and a thunderstorm taking place in the direction of Orlando that was lighting up the sky.
I quite liked Cocoa Beach, it didn’t feel quite as commercial as the other places along the coast and was relaxed and ‘surfy’ – definitely a chill-out type of town.
It feels like we’ve been here for ages already, not a bad thing that’s for certain. Tomorrow we hit Orlando and the theme parks…
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