Me and my big mouth....

NASA have decided to put Discovery back in the VAB until mid-January, if they can fix the levelling problem on the crawler, so we won't get to see it on the pad. Maybe we'll get delayed by bad weather and have to stay in Florida until February.

No launch this time. Nothing new there!

Discovery's STS133 launch is now targetted for February 3rd so our hope they would re-schedule for January was a forlorn one. The theory that things go wrong on flights with a double number obviously also applies to Shuttles, as it was STS122 we went to see last time. At least we'll be able to see it on the pad when we go to KSC to have lunch with Shuttle astronaut John Blaha.

Booked it, Packed it........

Flights booked, Villa booked, Minibus and car booked, Taxi to and from the airport booked, NASA tickets booked and Lunch with an Astronaut booked. I think that is everything, or did someone mention Disney tickets?

Home again (Wednesday 20th)

An uneventful transatlantic flight, other than a 157mph tailwind and an indicated airspeed of 705mph at one point! After 20 minutes in the stack at Gatwick an extremley smooth landing was carried in zero visibility and was attributed to by the captain to Mr. Boeing as it was a completely hands-off automatic landing. Better than the ones at Heathrow then!

Bit of a mix up with the hand baggage allowance, which is still being investigated, then the short flight to Manchester. Tom departed by train for Sheffield having completed his "I-Spy America" exercise and we found the YRV at the hotel and headed home.

Oh yeah, thanks to Dave and Edward for the Oracle phone calls at Gatwick!

Police Hall of Fame (Tuesday 19th)

As we didn't have to be at the airport until 15:00 we said goodbye to Linda at the Casa and headed to the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum, also in Titusville. This turned out to be a gem of a place with much more to see than we had time for. There are displays of guns from many infamous people including the one that killed JFK, and police vehicles through the ages. There is also a 9/11 memorial with debris from the Twin Towers and the aircraft and a list of all the officers who gave their lives that day. For a few dollars more, one could go onto the shooting range and have a go with live ammunition. Our instructor, Chuck, made sure we could hold a weapon and point it in the right direction and then we had to literally sign our lives away and don ear and eye protection. Tom and I got through 50 rounds of 9mm ammo while Anne shot 100 rounds of .22, much enjoyed by all three of us. There is also the option to fly in the police helicopter but we didn't have enough time so that will have to wait for the next trip.

So then it was the 40 minute drive to Orlando Airport and give back the big 300, check-in, eat, loose sun-glasses and board the BA 777 home.

Manatees. (Monday 18th)

The Shuttle should have been landing today but the mission has been extended so it's off sightseeing instead. When we were here in December, Mike and Becky were very enthusiastic about seeing the Manatees so we are going to try and find them.

A pleasant drive into the nature reserve was interupted by another tropical storm, and we think it rains in the UK! The sky just turned black and down came the rain for about 10 minutes, then out came the sun and everything was dry again. Found the viewing platform at The Haulover Canal and spent a while watching the Manatees lazing about in the water.

Then back to Titusville to pack everything up and dinner one last time at Dogs-R-Us, now one of Anne's favorite places.

Back to Titusville. (Sunday 17th)

[The computer at the Casa "blew up" on Sunday so I've had to finish the blog from home.]

Another beautiful day in Florida so we packed up and headed for the coast, via Walmart, along the 192 to Melbourne. We found a great spot at Paradise Beach and stopped for lunch, a walk on the sands and a paddle in the Atlantic. We continued up the coast through Cocoa Beach and past Patrick Airforce Base and took the little used back roads to the Space Center and from there to Titusville and the Casa.