Key West, Florida Roadtrip

[talisman]

Back on January 21st I was spending a typical day dicking around. Late last year I had planned to take another road trip, but after my dog passed away I decided to rescue another Border Collie pup and put things on hold until we got acclimated to each other.

I hadn't looked at NASA's launch schedule in awhile, and when it occurred to me to check it out, I found that I had barely 48 hours to get to Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the trip would be off for months again. I threw a vague plan together to tour the Southeastern US, packed sparsely, and dropped Ramona the Border Collie off at Craig and Leah's. I got on 360 south at 11am, January 22nd, with the launch of an Atlas V rocket scheduled for 9pm the next evening. This will be that story.

Teaser vid of driving the 5.0 through The Florida Keys:



Might as well ...and meet Ramona, the hiccuping Border Collie Wookie. At 30 seconds she decides to start talking shit to me.

[VaderTT]

Hahaha, nice dude!

[Mysticcobrakilla]

Lmao @ Ramona!

[Cooter]

awesome dog is awesome

[talisman]

So I head through East Texas and Northern Louisiana at a rather expeditious pace. Finally get to the Louisiana/Mississippi Border over the Mississippi River.









Guess this guy didn't get the memo the War Of Northern Aggression was over.



Then the tunnel through Downtown Mobile, Alabama.


Mobile Bayfront.



Finally get to Florida late, and it's in the mid 30's. Head to Pensacola for the night.

[talisman]

The next morning the push down I-10 to Jacksonville continues before hooking South.



Thank God this sign was here. I could have been killed.



This dude was tail gating this University cop for at least 30 minutes like this.

[talisman]

I made it to Cape Canaveral at about 5. Just enough time to see everything at Kennedy Space Center and get in the bus line out to the Atlas V launch viewing area.







Inside one of the museums was this mock up of a typical 60's living room where families would watch the Space Race. Mid Century Modern!!





One of the real Mission Control Rooms from back in the day.



One of the capsules that went into space.





Pretty cool.

[talisman]

Built to scale with Legos model of the Mars Rover. Had no idea it was this big.



After this stuff I went into the huge indoor display to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the first time I've seen one in person. As impressive as I expected it to be. I asked this lady to take a picture of me standing in front of it, and she kept saying my camera wasn't working. When I got it back from her she had inadvertently taken over 60 pictures..

[talisman]

They used to use both these to ferry the Astronauts out to the craft. Awesome!





Out at the launch viewing area, they do a simulation of what it was like launching them back in the day. These windows that are above you are wired to vibrate and rattle like damn crazy with the concussions from the sound, making it a really wild experience.

[talisman]

It was in the mid 40's when I sat on the bleachers, only a light jacket on with an hour to go. Then it go delayed for 30 minutes. I was freezing my balls off, but it was interesting listening to it all, and watching the crowd. Lots of people from out of the country.

It turned out that that crazy woman taking all those pics drained my battery, and my phone cut out about 50 seconds after the launch when the noise was just starting to hit. It was really badass. Turned night into day at 9:30pm, and lifted SO slow at first, then there was a ton of noise, and then it was gone.



After the launch was a fucking nightmare. Huge crowd crushing to make a line to get back on the buses, cold, people being dicks. Ended up being in line for almost two hours, outside, standing, with my back aching badly trying to get out of there. Luckily the hotel was just down the road a bit once I got back to the Mustang. I was wiped out. They really need to do some organizing to make that more efficient. At the time I was genuinely a bit pissed off(the hurting didn't help and made it worse), and that doesn't happen to me very often these days.

At any rate, I've wanted to see a Shuttle launch since I was a little kid, and since those are retired, an Atlas V is the top of the food chain, and I still got to see a Shuttle any way. Really good to mark that off the bucket list. I loaded up on medicine and crashed out, hoping the next leg would be easier since the one agenda item with a time problem was accomplished.

[talisman]

Woke up the next morning and headed down to Blockhouse Beach. Hadn't touched the Atlantic since I was 13.



Headed south. In Northen Miami, this 07-09 GT500 kept weaving in and out of traffic trying to get ahead of me in the fast lane, and failing. lol



South of Miami I came across a 11-12 GT with the 13-14 tail lights. Looked a bit odd with the different bumper cover and center section.



At long last I was headed through the Florida Keys on the Overseas Highway, something I've dreamed of driving since I saw True Lies in the early 90's.



Water as beautiful as the Mexican Riviera without the hassle.





Someone's in trouble!



The old Seven Mile Bridge.





Most of the bridge is abandoned, rusty, and even a tree or two..

[BP]

Do they still have the gator pit at KSC?

[talisman]

They turned part of it into a pedestrian bridge. There were a couple of people fishing off it, but it was largely abandoned. About a mile out one way.





This was bad ass.

[talisman]

Do they still have the gator pit at KSC?

Not sure. I did see a big stingray from the pedestrian Seven Mile Bridge though.

[Rick Modena]

That's fucking kick ass Eric, again thanks for sharing. Our friend has a Cobra just like that, I didn't know they made more than one POS like that, gay ass stripes and body kit. She thinks hers is a one off made. There still might be some pictures on DM's website with her in the photo shoot.
I plan on making that trip to the Keys too. Two parts of Florida I have not been too, Jacksonville and as far south as Stuart. I would love to go to KSC, especially after going to Houston SC.