3:01 am: I woke up feeling somewhat rested but still quite groggy. After all, I'd only went to bed around 11:00 pm so that meant I'd gotten just under four hours of sleep. I was having some rather disturbing nightmares anyway so it was just as well I was getting up.
3:25 am: I'd showered and made a pot of coffee enjoying a cup of brew with a splash of Coffee-Mate Belgian Chocolate Toffee creamer. A lifelong black coffee drinker, I've lately been getting into adding flavored creamer to my previously calorie-free beverages. Just what I need, more fat and calories. Yay.
4:38 am: Alright, enough dicking around! I gotta get going. All the websites I visited looking for recommendations said to get there about 2 to 3 hours early. Surely though they meant if it was scheduled during the middle of the day or something right? Not the pre-dawn hours of the morning on a weekday, right?
4:45 am: I went by way of the major interstates rather than country roads only because I've had a fear of rather thin one lane each way roads that cut through the heavily forested and undulating countryside ever since that accident two summers ago. Turns out my fears also extend now to interstates. Especially in the middle of night with fast moving 18-wheelers whizzing by. I white knuckled it all the way, surely pissing other drivers off with my consistent speed at 5 miles per hour slower than the speed limit.
5:25 am: Man! This sure was the long way. Still on the interstate, though at least it was now Rt. 95, not I-4. Yes I had consulted Google Maps before leaving and saw that my intended route took me well out of the way for some 15 miles before I would be able to catch 95 South heading in the correct direction. But I just couldn't face that Rt. 46 again, even though it was almost an "as the bird flies" shot from my house to my destination.
5:45 am: What a site to behold! A massive traffic jam at this hour as I made my way down an off ramp in this sleepy coastal town. As the caravan of hundreds of cars I was suddenly a part of inched its way slowly towards the east from the highway interchange to the small town center I could see locals gassing up their cars and grabbing their morning coffees at the gas station. No doubt they looked at us as an inconvenience at best. Descending like vultures on their quaint, picturesque seaside village. At least they'll only need to put up with hassles like this for about 4 more times this year. Then, perhaps, never again.
6:05 am: Oh it's getting very close now and I could only inch my car ever so slowly through what were now waves of pedestrians, some running, kids in tow or being carried. All with cameras and camcorders. I too had my camera and even my laptop with me, hoping to have found a convenient and safe parking spot and to hopefully have found a free wifi hotspot. With every available millimeter of parking space filled though, my hopes were quickly fading.
6:09 am: Here's a spot! Hooray! I squeeze my car into this parallel parking spot some 6 blocks away from the waterside park I'd intended to be. I can still dash there and make it, I hope. But NO! There's a guy here informing me I couldn't park here. He lives in the house across the street and needs this 3 feet of curb space to be empty so he can back his car out. Oh brother!
6:12 am: I turn down this dead end, thinking there might be spaces here. Nope. Disturbingly, as I'm making a 23-point turn to get back out (well, not that bad but still an inelegant reversal for sure) I see that the trunk of an unoccupied parked car is wide open, its contents appearing to have been rummaged through. Oh my, I don't think it's very safe here Nugget!
6:14 am: Someone exiting a parking space at a just opened up bakery hails me to indicate a soon-to-be-free spot. Yay! But just as I slide Nugget into the spot, the radio, which has been providing regular updates for the past hour, suddenly breaks off the music and I hear a clear but staticy voice: "3 - 2 - 1, and liftoff! It's an early sunrise at the Cape as the Space Shuttle Discovery lights up the sky..."
Damn it! I'd known for sometime that Nugget's clock was off, but I forgot to calibrate it! It was actually 6:21 and unlike the numerous times before that I've gotten up early to watch the launch on TV, there wasn't a second's delay.
So I got out of my car, and two workers from the bakery joined me and we stood in the small parking lot facing east. Much of our line of sight was obsured by buildings and trees but nevertheless the dark pre-dawn sky glowed an eerie orange and we watched silently as the bright flames shooting out of the rocket blazed upward and left a puffy trail of smoke in its wake. A minute or two later, we could hear the growling rumble and then we heard (and felt!) a double sonic boom.
The bakery folks, being locals, had seen it all so many times before, no doubt, so they retreated back inside while I continued to watch. But after a few more minutes, other than a tall arching column of smoke that stained the cloudless sky, there really wasn't much more to see.
The title of this post suggests I was not impressed, but that's not it precisely. It just seemed like a lot of trouble to drive out to Titusville and end up with a view not much better than if I'd stayed home. Oh sure, I was some 35 miles closer, but I was still 10 miles away.
What did I expect? Well, frankly, I wanted to have the fillings rattling about in my teeth as the clearly rotating massive boosters lifted the Space Shuttle majestically right in front of me. I wanted to see the thing rise up from the tower and fill the sky with such brilliance as to need to shield your eyes. I wanted to smell the aroma of burning rocket fuel and see flecks of cinders rain down around me.
I wanted to be able to say "I was there!" with pride and glee whenever someone in the future mentions the last launch of a Space Shuttle in the dark. The last one.
Well, in retrospect, I guess I am proudly and happily able to say that!
3:25 am: I'd showered and made a pot of coffee enjoying a cup of brew with a splash of Coffee-Mate Belgian Chocolate Toffee creamer. A lifelong black coffee drinker, I've lately been getting into adding flavored creamer to my previously calorie-free beverages. Just what I need, more fat and calories. Yay.
4:38 am: Alright, enough dicking around! I gotta get going. All the websites I visited looking for recommendations said to get there about 2 to 3 hours early. Surely though they meant if it was scheduled during the middle of the day or something right? Not the pre-dawn hours of the morning on a weekday, right?
4:45 am: I went by way of the major interstates rather than country roads only because I've had a fear of rather thin one lane each way roads that cut through the heavily forested and undulating countryside ever since that accident two summers ago. Turns out my fears also extend now to interstates. Especially in the middle of night with fast moving 18-wheelers whizzing by. I white knuckled it all the way, surely pissing other drivers off with my consistent speed at 5 miles per hour slower than the speed limit.
5:25 am: Man! This sure was the long way. Still on the interstate, though at least it was now Rt. 95, not I-4. Yes I had consulted Google Maps before leaving and saw that my intended route took me well out of the way for some 15 miles before I would be able to catch 95 South heading in the correct direction. But I just couldn't face that Rt. 46 again, even though it was almost an "as the bird flies" shot from my house to my destination.
5:45 am: What a site to behold! A massive traffic jam at this hour as I made my way down an off ramp in this sleepy coastal town. As the caravan of hundreds of cars I was suddenly a part of inched its way slowly towards the east from the highway interchange to the small town center I could see locals gassing up their cars and grabbing their morning coffees at the gas station. No doubt they looked at us as an inconvenience at best. Descending like vultures on their quaint, picturesque seaside village. At least they'll only need to put up with hassles like this for about 4 more times this year. Then, perhaps, never again.
6:05 am: Oh it's getting very close now and I could only inch my car ever so slowly through what were now waves of pedestrians, some running, kids in tow or being carried. All with cameras and camcorders. I too had my camera and even my laptop with me, hoping to have found a convenient and safe parking spot and to hopefully have found a free wifi hotspot. With every available millimeter of parking space filled though, my hopes were quickly fading.
6:09 am: Here's a spot! Hooray! I squeeze my car into this parallel parking spot some 6 blocks away from the waterside park I'd intended to be. I can still dash there and make it, I hope. But NO! There's a guy here informing me I couldn't park here. He lives in the house across the street and needs this 3 feet of curb space to be empty so he can back his car out. Oh brother!
6:12 am: I turn down this dead end, thinking there might be spaces here. Nope. Disturbingly, as I'm making a 23-point turn to get back out (well, not that bad but still an inelegant reversal for sure) I see that the trunk of an unoccupied parked car is wide open, its contents appearing to have been rummaged through. Oh my, I don't think it's very safe here Nugget!
6:14 am: Someone exiting a parking space at a just opened up bakery hails me to indicate a soon-to-be-free spot. Yay! But just as I slide Nugget into the spot, the radio, which has been providing regular updates for the past hour, suddenly breaks off the music and I hear a clear but staticy voice: "3 - 2 - 1, and liftoff! It's an early sunrise at the Cape as the Space Shuttle Discovery lights up the sky..."
Damn it! I'd known for sometime that Nugget's clock was off, but I forgot to calibrate it! It was actually 6:21 and unlike the numerous times before that I've gotten up early to watch the launch on TV, there wasn't a second's delay.
So I got out of my car, and two workers from the bakery joined me and we stood in the small parking lot facing east. Much of our line of sight was obsured by buildings and trees but nevertheless the dark pre-dawn sky glowed an eerie orange and we watched silently as the bright flames shooting out of the rocket blazed upward and left a puffy trail of smoke in its wake. A minute or two later, we could hear the growling rumble and then we heard (and felt!) a double sonic boom.
The bakery folks, being locals, had seen it all so many times before, no doubt, so they retreated back inside while I continued to watch. But after a few more minutes, other than a tall arching column of smoke that stained the cloudless sky, there really wasn't much more to see.
The title of this post suggests I was not impressed, but that's not it precisely. It just seemed like a lot of trouble to drive out to Titusville and end up with a view not much better than if I'd stayed home. Oh sure, I was some 35 miles closer, but I was still 10 miles away.
What did I expect? Well, frankly, I wanted to have the fillings rattling about in my teeth as the clearly rotating massive boosters lifted the Space Shuttle majestically right in front of me. I wanted to see the thing rise up from the tower and fill the sky with such brilliance as to need to shield your eyes. I wanted to smell the aroma of burning rocket fuel and see flecks of cinders rain down around me.
I wanted to be able to say "I was there!" with pride and glee whenever someone in the future mentions the last launch of a Space Shuttle in the dark. The last one.
Well, in retrospect, I guess I am proudly and happily able to say that!