Tripometer – 16,021 mi
Gas Gauge – 1257.666 gal
Location – Long Point Park and Campground, Melbourne Beach, FL
Lodging – $35
Cans of OFF – 4
As soon as Kelly finished a bit of social media writing this morning, we jumped in the car and drove towards Cape Canaveral. The launch was on schedule. We had breakfast at a little café about an hour north of our campground and found the sign and flags above, right next to the parking lot. We were both a bit stunned that this is actually a thing and wonder what must have happened to make someone think this was the best course of action to take. What happens when all of the flags end up on one side of the road?
We pulled off the road at a parking lot just on the east side of the A. Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville. Taking position along the bridge rails with hundreds of other spectators we watched with glee as the rocket launched with a somewhat muted roar. Sadly, we didn’t do our research early enough to take advantage of VIP tickets that Kelly can get through work friends and were several miles away from the launch zone. If we HAD been on the ball, we could have secured seats in what is called the gantry viewing area located at the neighboring launch pad which would have been well less than a mile away. Next time!
Probably more spectacular than the launch was watching and listening as the rocket’s spent second stage thundered back to earth at well over the speed of sound, it blasted a sonic boom which was much louder than the launch and landed in the water on the ocean side of the cape. It was intended to land back at the cape on a landing zone, but a malfunction on the rocket forced the command center to send it into the ocean. It’s still a new technology, returning the spent rockets to earth in a controlled manner, and it sometimes malfunctions but in this case it was retrieved by boat and will be used again in the future. So very cool.
Leaving the Cape we travelled back down the coast doing a few errands along the way. We stopped in a little pizzeria for dinner and then retired to the trailer for another quiet evening.