Not at 3am
this morning. No, we’re experienced
space shot watchers now. We KNOW the
Cape routines. We HAVE the answer to where and when to get to see ORION
blastoff. We woke up at 5:30, and arrived at 6:30 on the causeway for the
successful launch of ORION at 7:05am. 
Plenty of
time to park, relax, and view it all, including the donut-charged up Tiger Cub
Pack at rivers edge who were driving their parental units batty by the time
ORION flew.
The crowd
had gathered as before. The cruise ship upper decks were crowded, and the
newscaster from the local radio station was reporting all viewing spots
surrounding the Cape once more packed to capacity.
This, the
heaviest space craft to ever rise from the Earth was getting major press.
And then...
There was no
sound as we saw the ignition light off the three upside down candles of Orion’s
three engine first stage. Slowly. Agonizingly slowly she rose from her pad,
gathering speed as the miles of distance between us and it were consumed with
the growing roar of its millions of pounds of fiery thrust.
And just as
we all, especially those sugared up Tiger Scouts, began to cheer to beat all
she roared up through the clouds and only the faintest hint of grey smoke
against her white gantry building reminded us she had been there at all.
The roar
continued a long while after she was gone as she invisibly hit the sound
barrier, and beyond.
And within
four hours ORION had splashed down in the Pacific as cleanly as if she’d been
doing it for years. And moments later
the headlines read:
And we came
home. Me to the classic MAGNIFICENT SEVEN on DVD, and Mona to three hours of
catch-up sleep. But I only watched 30 minutes of the movie and went for a walk
on the beach. 
There are
nice community parks every quarter mile or so along A1A in Cocoa Beach that
have beach access parking and facilities for swimmers. Fisher Park, just south
of our church, was easy to walk to and I was able to catch a pic of the
Christmas dec/TIKI god out front, and a 1976 US bicentennial monument to the
first seven Mercury astronauts.
The morning
was grey but the clouds kept their moisture, mostly, as I looked for
interesting stuff to photo on the beach.
Like these Pipers, and this man-o-war jellyfish. No. I did not go in today.
When I
returned Mona and I shared lunch and walked the couple blocks up past the
Ron-Jon store to the DINOSAUR STORE.
This business has been here for 19 years but in an older building across
the street till just a couple years ago. 
Loaded with
castings and authentic fossils this is called the largest paleologic retail
store in the world. The top two floors are becoming a museum that opens this
summer.
Intererestingly,
Florida has no dinosaur fossils. Only
ice age and after mammals. When the
great lizards ruled the planet the Sunshine State was under water.
Then we hit
the library.
At about 3pm
the phone rang and it was Coastal RV telling us our new fresh water pump was in
so we packed her up and by 4:05 FROG was getting her new hardware. And we would
be taking full showers again!
So what do
traveling explorers do the day after they’ve seen the biggest space ship ever
go into orbit and the world’s biggest dinosaur retailer? They wake up late on Saturday
morning and go watch the Cocoa Beach Annual Christmas Parade which starts about
a half mile south of their camp site right on A1A.
Hey, the
librarian told us it’s a cute small town parade! And the library has a float.
-Ken
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