The Last Discovery space shuttle launch

My husband is a huge fan of all things space related! Ever since I've known him, he has wanted me to see a space shuttle launch, something I've never seen before. For the past 8 years, I've resisted every time he suggests we spontaneously drive down to watch a launch. I can come up with a slew of excuses as to why I can't or we shouldn't go, but as the space shuttle program is coming to a rapid halt I knew it was inevitable and I was going to have to give in. I don't really know what my problem is, I'm not too good at spontaneous for one thing. :) So last week when he proposed the idea of us going to the Discovery's last launch this past Thursday, I relented and said yes. So down to Titusville we drove on Thursday with plans to come right back here that night (it's a four hour drive each way). We got to Titusville with about 2 hours to spare prior to launch time. It took us a while to find a parking spot and walk down to the water where we could get a good view. There were people EVERYWHERE, it was like a HUGE tailgate party! Daniel made friends with an old dog while Mike scoped out the best spot for us to park our stuff.



It was pretty windy where we stood, behind a huge high rise assisted living building right on the water, with a view across the Mosiquito Lagoon part of the Indian River to the 3 launch pads and the vehicle assembly building (read HUGE building!). Daniel was having a blast running around in the parking lot after being cooped up in the car for 4 hours! He is a very good traveler, ate lunch and napped in his car seat!



I could tell everyone around me's excitement was mounting as the clock ticked closer to launch time, and then there was a scare that it may be delayed or canceled due to a computer malfunction but the smart people at NASA must have gotten that taken care of just in the nick of time! And before I knew it, I saw a huge billow of smoke and then next thing I saw was the shuttle off the ground!



I must admit, tears welled up in my eyes as I watched the shuttle climb higher and higher and people all around us were cheering. I was holding Daniel and Mike had the camera. At one point when everyone was cheering, Daniel was clapping and smiling and he said, "We did it!" Love that boy!! In this last picture of the shuttle, you can kind of see the rocket boosters falling away from the shuttle.

I was surprised how quickly it was all over! So we made our way back to the car along with thousands of other people. This is when the fun went in a not so fun direction. :( Our plan was to drive to Orlando for Mike to attend a viewing for one of his donor's wife. But, it took us an hour to go 2.5 miles and we sadly watched the GPS add time to our ETA to Orlando meaning Mike would miss the viewing completely. At this point, it is getting to be dinner time and with a 2 year old, we decided maybe we should turn around and try to go find something to eat. As we drove in the opposite direction, I think both our hearts sunk as we saw the enormous amounts of cars we were passing. I was starting to get huffy and I had to pee, so we pulled ever so slowly into a Walgreens. While I had a moment by myself, I figured, there's no reason to get huffy about being stuck in traffic with 200,000 other people, we're all in the same boat! With a new attitude and on our way again, we came to a carry out Pizza Hut. So we ordered our pizza and played in the parking lot until it was ready. Then we had a little picnic on the steps of the Love Covenant Word church next to a Gun store in a strip shopping center. FUN MEMORIES! Ha ha! It really was fun. 3 hours after the launch, the traffic had finally thinned enough we got back on the road.


We got home at 12:30am, it was a fun, spontaneous trip and I'm glad I got to see the space shuttle launch! Thank you Mike for wanting me to have this experience and see new things! Daniel loved it too!