Will it... Will it Not...??

We were so excited when we realized that the space shuttle Endeavor was rescheduled for launch the first night we planned to stay in Orlando, Florida. It's only an hour away from Cape Canaveral, so we thought we'd make sure we got to Florida in time to drive out to Kennedy Space Center and see what we could see. And in our planning, our neighbor offered to hook us up with her NASA connection (her sister) and see if we could see even more. So, we ended up needing to be at the space center a day earlier than we'd originally planned. (Thus, the reason we opted for the LONG all day drive to the east coast.) The launch was set for Saturday evening, so we arrived at Kennedy Space Center Friday morning to pick up our launch tickets and get the scoop on everything. While waiting for the guest service office to open, we sat by these beautiful flowers in the SHADE. Oh, my goodness, it was HOT!

I don't know what flower this is, but this particular cluster is shaped like a heart. Too cool!

NASA, Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center... so many names for one place. It so confusing when I'm reading "Lord of the Rings", but it makes perfect sense in real life...

We got VERY familiar with the Kennedy Space Center. We spent most of the day on Friday there checking the place out. We spent several hours there on Saturday when we were expecting the launch. We spent most of Sunday there when we were there for the launch.

The KSC has a LOT of great activities and experiences there with the IMAX theatre and the Shuttle Launch Experience. Both of which I HIGHLY recommend. We had to get past Tom Cruise narrating the IMAX movie, but it was so educational and informative and we were SO glad we got to see it. The Shuttle Experience was like a simulator ride and we had to do it two different days because the kids enjoyed it so much. During the simulator, they told us that if you were within so many yards of the shuttle launch, the explosion would kill you. Just beyond that, the sound would kill you. And just beyond that the gators might kill you because all that rumbling really stirs them up! How crazy is it to be sitting in that shuttle with all those explosives strapped to you back?? However, during the IMAX I was a bit teary just thinking about how awesome this whole space travel stuff is. I mean, it's so incredible - all the study and scientific research that goes into and comes out of these missions!

I really wanted to take a picture of the shuttle from the front side, but no such luck. Well, at least it's a better shot from the Gantry here than the Saturn V Center. But, I don't think it would be good to be at the Gantry during the launch. I do believe it's a BIT too close for comfort...

The kids and the shuttle, Endeavor on July 10, 2009.

Bit shows off her special "Launch Guest" button on the bus that took us from the Visitor Center out to the Saturn V Center. There were several different color buttons, but I never figured out what that meant. I'm sure there was some special color for one section since it was roped off.

We gave up a half day at Disney on Sunday to go back to see the shuttle launch. It took us about an hour to drive from Orlando to Kennedy Space Center on Sunday. At about 1:30, they let us start parking at KSC. It was closed to the general public and you had to have a special parking permit that they had mailed to us to get through the security stop. The buses were going to start boarding at 4pm, so we hung around the visitor's center looking for things we hadn't done or seen yet waiting for the bus loading time... Once we got on the bus and got out to the Saturn V Center we got something to eat and walked around. We hadn't been to that spot because we had been planning to do that while we waited for the launch.

We rode the bus out with a couple from Mississippi. He had taught the pilot of the shuttle on this mission to fly when he was a teenager! She was even familiar with our neck of the woods as she works with hospital admins in our area.

They took our picture for us so we could all be in it together.

We got out to the metal bleachers to find a seat about an hour and half before launch time. And we waited. And we watched a big cloud off to the west. And Dad kept an eye on the radar on his iPhone. And Pawpaw called with updates from the NASA channel. And my sister sent me texts as she and my dad watched the NASA channel. They had the NASA channel audio feed over loud speakers, but it wasn't always easy to understand what they were saying.

THIS is unheard of. Not ONLY is Little Buddy taking a NAP, but he's napping in the middle of us waiting for a shuttle launch! He was TIRED! Seriously, he's out! Drool and all!

We got to the 9 minute hold. And we held. For about 45 minutes we held. Then we held some more. (It's a "built-in" hold, so you're supposed to wait...) BUT, just before the 9 minutes were set to start counting down, it got scrubbed. What a disappointment! Imagine 500 people waiting for a concert to start only to find out 10 minutes before that it is cancelled. I mean, we knew it was possible, but the disappointment when they actually announced it was HUGE.

We climbed back on the buses to start our short ride back to the Visitor Center. Our bus was the 2nd one in line, so we were right up by the back of the bleachers. There was a boy sitting up in the top corner with his head in the hands. Probably about Little Buddy's age - 10 or so. He wouldn't come down. He was in tears. THAT may have been sadder than knowing WE didn't get to watch the launch that night. Oh, the heartbreak!

Well, being 2nd in line was GREAT for getting out there, but it STANK for getting back. First in, last out! WHAT?! The launch was supposed to go about 7:16pm. We were on the bus and ready to go by about 7:20. It was almost 8pm before we got back to the Visitor Center, less than a mile away. And THAT pretty much set the stage for the drive "home"... We had EXCELLENT parking right up in front of the Visitor Center. And we had to drive THE ENTIRE PERIMETER of the parking lot to get out on the road. With about a million other cars. All driving back to Orlando. (so it seemed...) Thanks to our handy little GPS (that Dad INSISTED we needed for our road trip, thank you!), we found a couple of back roads that cut some time for us, but it was still almost midnight when we FINALLY got to our long awaited Treehouse at Saratogo Springs Resort at Disney.

And we knew at that point that we would not be going back.

They ended up setting a 6:51 launch time for the next night. We had already paid so much for our Disney vacation, so we knew we couldn't spend another day driving back and forth to Cape Canaveral with such a huge chance of it getting scrubbed again.

So, we ran out of the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom at about 6:35 on Monday evening (we had already made arrangements with our waitress - food on the table and everything) and were SO glad to get to go back to that food when they scrubbed it once again just before the 9 minute hold started up again. It was a good feeling to know we were headed to Downtown Disney after a Volcano at the Rainforest and not on a 4+ hour drive...

However, two nights later, Dad and Little Buddy squinted into a very cloudy sky at Hollywood Studios to see a speck of a shuttle visible for a second or two as it finally launched into orbit on its way to meet up with the International Space Station carrying it's load of a "porch" for use in "outdoor" experiments at the ISS. We could imagine what it might have been like at the Saturn V Center that evening. And we wondered how many people had gone back each time. Bless their hearts...