Thursday, May 14, 2009

Paul in space

Yeah, he didn't fit. At all.

The launch, as I tweeted a couple of days ago, was awesome. It's hard to clarify in 140 characters, but when I said I was bored, my boredom stemmed from getting to the Astronaut Hall of Fame at 9:30 a.m. for a 2 p.m. launch. We were told to get there between 7 and 10 a.m. to get a parking space. We did get a parking space -- and a good one at that -- but the hall of fame was less than enthralling, so we left to camp out for the viewing. (Note to hall of fame curators: A few things have happened in the space program since 1968. ... Challenger, for example. And Columbia. And the first woman in space. I could go on.)

Anyway, we sat on a beach blanket under a smallish umbrella for about four hours. My butt got tired enough that I went to the visitor's center and bought a chair. Bought a chair. And despite the umbrella, I developed a nice, golden-brown farmer's tan on my arms and ankles. (Seriously, that's about the extent of my tan.)

One of the perks of living in Memphis was being within a reasonable drive time of St. Louis (5 hours), Nashville (3), Dallas (6.5), and so on. Charleston has its own day-trippable drives, including Jacksonville (4), Orlando (6), Washington (7.5) ... etc. And with Orlando in reach, we can go to Disney World and Downtown Disney whenever we want, as well as every shuttle launch that isn't pre-empted by Paul's teaching sched.

I probably won't blog again until I'm in Memphis this weekend. Lots of packing still to do. Wish us luck on our drive!

1 Comments:

Anonymous Paul said...

Yeaaaaaaah, about me fitting. There was a spot where someones head would fit. My shoulders are at the mythical astronauts head.

In fact, some dude got in before me, he was about 5'8" and he fit great. When he got out and I saw how tall he was i had a proverbial craaaaaaaap thought go through my head that i knew i wasn't gonna fit. But by god, i was gonna try anyway.

I reaaaaally want to go visit Kennedy Space Center, because it has got to be better than the Astronaut Hall of fame. Also, it would be super cool to see the Vehicle Assembly Building. It was easily large enough for us to see from our vantage point.

In short, NASA is awesome and so is the space shuttle. Getting to see 500 million dollars go into space is pretty cool.

10:44 PM  

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