R&R up the A1A

Susan had a conference in Orlando last week. I joined up with her mid week as her conference was ending and we spent a few days travelling up the Florida A1 inter costal. We had no definite plans other than traveling north and stopping when something looked interesting.

We drove South from Orlando late into the first night down to the coast so that we would have more of the cost to travel up and explore. We stayed in a dive of a city in a dive of a hotel the first night, and as the sign would tip us off, there was no longer a Seafood Restaurant or Happy Hour at our poor hotel, it had clearly seen better days..

The first day we made it all of 50 miles up the coast before reaching the Kennedy Space Center. Here you can see the the Space Center with the the two Space Shuttle launch sites and a five mile long runway for the Shuttle.

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I took way too many photos of Rockets.

The Rocket Garden. A collection of historically significant rockets.

A Space Shuttle motor. This thing had a nozzle about the size of a shower head.

Space tourists. Hanger used in the '70's for Atlas Rockets, and for the next generation of space vehicles currently being built/tested, which are really big rockets (RBR's). Next generation space mission is to send people back to the moon. This hangar can hold the Empire State Building four times over, each star on the flag is over 8' wide. Look close and you can see buzzards thermaling over the roof.

This is the facility where they are assembling the Not So International Space Station (NSISS). You can visibly see the space station at night when it tracks over your house.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

The two remaining shuttles have a total of 10 missions remaining between now and 2010 when they are retired. I'm speculating this is the biggest and fastest glider ever to fly.

From Wikipedia: The orbiter's maximum glide ratio/lift-to-drag ratio varies considerably with speed, ranging from 1:1 at hypersonic speeds, 2:1 at supersonic speeds and reaching 4.5:1 at subsonic speeds during approach and landing.

I couldn't resist.

Susan standing at the business end of an 'un fired' Atlas Rocket, the most powerful vehicle ever built.

Visiting the Space Center was absolutely fascinating, the only operational space center in the world that allows visitors, highly recommended.

The next few days we traveled further up the coast stopping in the cities of New Smyrna, Daytona and St Augustine. We found the drive up the coast to be very beautiful, but all somewhat the same, with lots of hotels, high rise apartments and condos, and a general sense of deterioration all along the coast. We were amazed by the number of multi million dollar homes along the coast, and even more amazed by the number of those homes up for sale. We reached the conclusion that the lack of, or extremely expensive home insurance may be the reason.

We both could not get over the idea that the entire stretch of coast we drove was so exposed and venerable to a hurricane. Perhaps our consciousness has been raised over the events of the past several years, but when you travel a place such as this, you come to appreciate how damaging a storm could be, and how devastating it would be for the people in its path.

Daytona Lighthouse.

NOAA weather Reporting Station.

Air Force Beach just south of Kennedy Space Center.

Daytona.

The last day we toured St Augustine, which is the oldest city in the United States, founded in 1565 by the Spanish. There were several areas of the city that were several hundred years old, with a fort that protected the city from pirates and other conquering civilizations like the British.














The Peacekeeper.


Flags which have occupied the fort.





A great trip overall, we had some very nice accommodations on the beach and some terrific meals. The Dynamic nature of the trip served us well. Susan has another conference in Miami in December and we'll probably do it again this time going south.