3...2...1...Liftoff!
Florida trip recap:
Wednesday after work I headed into Boston for the Halloween Preshow Pitch meeting. Got out of that and headed over to IHOP with Warren. Finally got home around...midnightish? Then I packed and planned.
Finally got to sleep around 3:30AM and then up at 6:30AM. Got the kids and myself ready and packed up and *raced* to get everyone dropped off including myself. I had to catch the 8:30AM bus from Needham. It's a 5-6 minute walk from the office and I got onto 495 around 7:50AM. At 8:24AM I was getting off 128 into Needham. I called my coworker and asked him to come get my car and I just left it at the train station and ran to the train. Quite literally the *second* I stepped onto the train it started moving.
Got to the Silver Line and then the airport with no problem after that and I checked in. Going through security was fine - once I found it. They're renovating that part of the airport and it was a bit confusing. But they didn't even open my bag full of camera gear so that was nice. I also didn't have a seat reserved yet because all they showed online were the "Even More Room" seats which cost $30 extra so they gave me a seat assignment at the gate - for one of those special seats but because I didn't specifically request it I didn't have to pay.
Let me tell you, they are nice. Now, I love JetBlue in general and their seats are some of the most comfortable in general, but these - wow. I could cross my legs without hitting anything. Plus, they're similar to First Class on other airlines in that I got to board first - even before the kids and people who "require special assistance". This meant no problems getting my large camera bag and tripod into an overhead bin. So all in all a great start.
Then we got to Florida and were stuck in a holding pattern for about 45 minutes due to weather. We finally landed and then just stopped. There was lightning out of the left side of the airplane so the airport pulled all ground personnel for safety which meant nobody could taxi to a gate. After another 45 minutes or so we finally go the clear to go to the gate and finally exited the plane.
We went straight to the rental car place before picking up my checked bag - figured it would be a while and we'd beat everyone else to the rental window. We were pretty much right - got right to an agent and by the time we were done there was a line 5-6 people deep. The rental agent was cool until we declined the insurance coverage - then he basically became a dick. Oh well - we upgraded to a VW for $10/day more and added Warren as a second driver for $13/day. Went upstairs and grabbed my bag which was one of about 5 just sitting there waiting for me. :)
Got in the car and headed to the hotel. No problems there, got checked right in and went up. Pretty much the same room as last time which makes sense since it's the same hotel. After settling in a bit we went out for dinner at TGIFridays which was underwhelming. Our server Dave was an asshole but fortunately I think he heard me say that because then we met a woman who was "training" with Dave and she helped us for the rest of the meal. She was lovely - especially compared to Dave.
After dinner we headed out to two different Walmarts to get stocked up for the shuttle launch. We got bugspray, suntan lotion, ponchos, raincoats, a cooler, water, and snacks. Warren also got boots. We were set! Headed back to the hotel to get ready - by now it was around 10PM I think. At about 11PM the power in our hotel went out - just our hotel. Fortunately we're geeks so without missing a beat I had my flashlight set up as a candle so we could see and we were still able to use our laptops on battery power along with my internet USB modem to get online.
At about 12AM (still no hotel power) we headed out - via the stairs since the elevator wasn't working. We ended up going to the hotel next door to fill our cooler with ice. Then we grabbed a quick bite at a Burger King and got to the mall around 12:50AM and it was already packed. Waited about 10 minutes to get into the parking lot and then met up with Trisha and her mother. Waited in line to get the tickets, then to get on the bus, finally we sat down for the ride to Kennedy Space Center.
I don't know how long the ride was but I finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there! It was pretty dark when we pulled up and I'm bummed I wasn't already filming because they had a mock shuttle out front that was lit up and looked very cool in the dark. Anyway, we got there, piled off the bus with all our crap, and headed in.
There was a metal detector and then a bag check and the guy who checked my bag (and Warren's) must have really loved Bud Light because he joked with *everybody* he searched about them having some Bud Lights. Odd.
The KSC was *mobbed*. We were some of the first people there and it was already mayhem. People going every which way, lines everywhere, people setting up chairs in the middle of the walkway, etc... We all headed into the gift shop to buy our chairs (got them there rather than Walmart since they say "Kennedy Space Center" on them and we're geeks like that) and other stuff. Then we sat down in what we thought was the right line - the first of many. :) I'll spare you the details but basically we were in a bunch of lines that turned out to be the wrong ones, then the right ones, wrong again, etc... It was honestly pretty comical but I think the humor was lost on most people because it was something like 4AM and everyone was pretty tired.
We finally re-boarded our bus and eventually they all headed out to the Causeway. We parked about halfway down it and everyone sprinted to get a good spot. I found us a spot with a perfect view of the launch pad and there was only 1 row of people in front of us. Once everybody got settled in and I set up my gear I headed up to the food tent - another madhouse with a big line. But the line was 5 times as long by the time I got my food so I'm glad I went when I did. I didn't know if anyone else wanted anything so I got a bunch of stuff. The two hotdogs went unclaimed but I saw a guy and his son get excited when they heard they were selling hot dogs but then looked pretty down when they saw the line so I offered them the two I had. They were very thankful which I filed away for a few hours later when I was going to ask them if I could set up my video camera on the grass in front of them. :)
Everyone else was reading or sleeping so I went off exploring. I walked the entire length of the Causeway (that we could get to at least) and took some crowd pictures while envying the huge lenses some folks were setting up. I saw a bunch of people lying down napping in the luggage holds of the busses too since they were pretty cool compared to the outside air. Even though it was very overcast and cloudy it was still really hot and muggy. Eventually we got to the T-minus-9 minute mark which is a built-in 45-minute hold in the countdown and people started to get excited. The launch status (which I heard over the loudspeakers) kept going from Go to No-Go based on the clouds. Finally right after I got back to out spot we came out of the hold and the countdown continued, in a Go status. The atmosphere was a cool mix of electricity and nerves. Everyone was super excited but also nervous that at any second it could all be scrubbed.
Finally we got to T-minus 1-minute and cheers went up. It was really happening! OMG OMG OMG!!! Then we hit 31 seconds - 1 second before control was switched over to the shuttle's launch computers and someone called for a hold due to "data loss". Thousands upon thousands of people on the Causeway and not a single person made a sound when this happened. Finally after a minute or so the countdown was able to continue (they confirmed via video feeds that something was working right even though the computer couldn't tell them). Cheers erupted a few times and finally, 30-seconds later, the shuttle launched.
I did my best to capture some good pictures while also not keeping my eyes behind a lens the whole time. I really wanted to enjoy it and I did. This was special. It was *very* different from the night launch last year for a number of reasons. The biggest difference though was how close we were and the fact that we were able to see it was a shuttle and not just a moving ball of fire and light.
After about 30-40 seconds the soundwave hit and more cheers went up in the crowd.
Eventually we lost sight of the shuttle and people started packing up. This took me a bit more time than most others simply because of all the gear I had but eventually we made it back to the bus - and sat there for about an hour. See, we had to wait until everyone else was on all their busses too. We finally left and this time I was able to sleep about half the way back.
I think we got back around 4PM. Rather than shower we washed ourselves off in the hotel pool which was *really* nice. It's a dinky little pool but the water was the perfect temperature, clear, and we had the place to ourselves. We totally acted like idiot teenagers set loose. We ended up putting all of the chairs *in* the pool and just got ridiculous in general.
After a couple hours or stupidity we went back up to our room and showered. Then we headed to Walmart to return a bunch of the crap we didn't end up needing or using. Warren managed to piss of the guy at the return counter simply because the guy didn't know how to do his job right. Me, being as helpful as always, just stood there laughing at them and then when another guy came to work the counter I returned my shit in 30 seconds without saying a thing. :) After walking away I realized we had left the bugspray and suntan lotion in the cooler we just returned but we decided it wasn't worth the hassle to go back yet again. Instead we bought a few more necessities and before leaving I headed over to the return counter and told the friendly guy who helped me (not the burly guy who Warren pissed off) that we left some stuff in the cooler. Turns out we also left 9 ponchos in there too! We just took the stuff and left. It's still in our car along with the receipt in case we get another chance to return it but for that night we were pretty well done with The Walmart Experience.
After leaving Walmart Warren introduced me to the wonderful world of shopping cart car pushing and then we went to the Affle House for some food (the W in the sign was broken). Turns out we were at the one Ted went to with us last year with the creepy waitress but this time we got a really nice one which was a relief.
After eating we headed out and went to a few different hotels looking for more pools to abuse. We finally found one that was locked but we were able to get a chair out of over the fence and then threw it into the pool. Yes, we're idiots. After the toss we fast-walked over to the car and drove across the street to a mini golf place and played a round of golf surrounded by gators. For my last shot I hit the ball stupid hard and it bounced off a piece of wood and flew right by Warren's head - and landed in a pool of gators which then tried to eat it.
After making sure I didn't actually kill anything we went back to see if the chair was still in the pool and it was - perfectly set up as if someone was sitting on it under water. Then we went back to our own hotel for some much-needed sleep. At the time it felt like we had just finished 3 days without sleep and now that I wrote it all out, yeah - we pretty much did.
We woke up around 11AM on Saturday, grabbed a quick lunch at the Wendy's drive through where Warren enjoyed a Plump and Juicy Chicken Sandwich and then we went to Epcot, courtesy of Trisha who rocks. We started off on Spaceship Earth which we listened to in German because we're idiots. Then we waited in line for about 2 hours to go on Soarin' for 5 minutes. Next was Captain Eo which I'm sure was great back in the 80's... After that we went on Test Track and before we left we all got some ice cold decapitated Mickey heads on sticks. After eating about half of mine I took a picture of it and literally 2 seconds later it fell onto the ground. I hammed it up looking sad and an employee came over and gave me a voucher for a new one so I won!
We left Epcot and went over to Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM). I had never been to the Star Tours thing so we went to that which was pretty cool and had a very short wait of only about 5-10 minutes. Then we went over to the Aerosmith roller coaster which was a 30-minute wait. We witnessed a very slap-happy family in front of us and almost got into a fight with the folks behind us but instead found out they were from Massachusetts too and we bonded and had a swell old time chatting with them. The roller coaster was one of the most fun I've ever been on but very very short. Unfortunately Trisha and he mother left because she wasn't feeling very good - I blame Warren.
Next we went to the Tower of Terror which was wicked cool. I'm always amazed by how well Disney designs their rides. Warren got over himself and enjoyed it too.
After that the park was about to close and we headed to the 50's style diner they have there. It's very cool. There are old black and white TV's all over the place, they yell at you if you put your elbows on the table or wear a hat indoors, they quiz you about the color of the bathroom soap to make sure you used it, and they give you crap if you pull out your "walkie talkie" (ie- cell phone). The food was delicious as well.
After that we were pretty pooped and just went back to our hotel and crashed.
Today (Sunday) we got up around noon, had breakfast at another Waffle House, and went back to the hotel room for most of the day so Warren could work and I could edit some photos and video. Then we headed over to T-Rex for dinner and as usual ate waaayyyyy too much including their "Chocolate Extinction" which could easily feed a family of 6. We then headed over to the gokart place but ended up spending about a half our giving back the dinner and then decided to go back to the hotel because gokarts was way too crowded and our tummies hate us.
After a while spent packing and messing around on our laptops it's now about 3AM and it's time for sleep. The plan for tomorrow is probably going back to the Kennedy Space Center, eat at Dixie Crossroads on Jonathan's recommendation, maybe time for gokarts, and then flying back home. It'll suck leaving here because it always sucks when a vacation ends but it will be nice to see the family again.
Goodnight!
::Edit::
Another photographer wrote a great story on The Register about his experiencing shooting the launch:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/11/last_space_shuttle_launch/
Wednesday after work I headed into Boston for the Halloween Preshow Pitch meeting. Got out of that and headed over to IHOP with Warren. Finally got home around...midnightish? Then I packed and planned.
Finally got to sleep around 3:30AM and then up at 6:30AM. Got the kids and myself ready and packed up and *raced* to get everyone dropped off including myself. I had to catch the 8:30AM bus from Needham. It's a 5-6 minute walk from the office and I got onto 495 around 7:50AM. At 8:24AM I was getting off 128 into Needham. I called my coworker and asked him to come get my car and I just left it at the train station and ran to the train. Quite literally the *second* I stepped onto the train it started moving.
Got to the Silver Line and then the airport with no problem after that and I checked in. Going through security was fine - once I found it. They're renovating that part of the airport and it was a bit confusing. But they didn't even open my bag full of camera gear so that was nice. I also didn't have a seat reserved yet because all they showed online were the "Even More Room" seats which cost $30 extra so they gave me a seat assignment at the gate - for one of those special seats but because I didn't specifically request it I didn't have to pay.
Let me tell you, they are nice. Now, I love JetBlue in general and their seats are some of the most comfortable in general, but these - wow. I could cross my legs without hitting anything. Plus, they're similar to First Class on other airlines in that I got to board first - even before the kids and people who "require special assistance". This meant no problems getting my large camera bag and tripod into an overhead bin. So all in all a great start.
Then we got to Florida and were stuck in a holding pattern for about 45 minutes due to weather. We finally landed and then just stopped. There was lightning out of the left side of the airplane so the airport pulled all ground personnel for safety which meant nobody could taxi to a gate. After another 45 minutes or so we finally go the clear to go to the gate and finally exited the plane.
We went straight to the rental car place before picking up my checked bag - figured it would be a while and we'd beat everyone else to the rental window. We were pretty much right - got right to an agent and by the time we were done there was a line 5-6 people deep. The rental agent was cool until we declined the insurance coverage - then he basically became a dick. Oh well - we upgraded to a VW for $10/day more and added Warren as a second driver for $13/day. Went upstairs and grabbed my bag which was one of about 5 just sitting there waiting for me. :)
Got in the car and headed to the hotel. No problems there, got checked right in and went up. Pretty much the same room as last time which makes sense since it's the same hotel. After settling in a bit we went out for dinner at TGIFridays which was underwhelming. Our server Dave was an asshole but fortunately I think he heard me say that because then we met a woman who was "training" with Dave and she helped us for the rest of the meal. She was lovely - especially compared to Dave.
After dinner we headed out to two different Walmarts to get stocked up for the shuttle launch. We got bugspray, suntan lotion, ponchos, raincoats, a cooler, water, and snacks. Warren also got boots. We were set! Headed back to the hotel to get ready - by now it was around 10PM I think. At about 11PM the power in our hotel went out - just our hotel. Fortunately we're geeks so without missing a beat I had my flashlight set up as a candle so we could see and we were still able to use our laptops on battery power along with my internet USB modem to get online.
At about 12AM (still no hotel power) we headed out - via the stairs since the elevator wasn't working. We ended up going to the hotel next door to fill our cooler with ice. Then we grabbed a quick bite at a Burger King and got to the mall around 12:50AM and it was already packed. Waited about 10 minutes to get into the parking lot and then met up with Trisha and her mother. Waited in line to get the tickets, then to get on the bus, finally we sat down for the ride to Kennedy Space Center.
I don't know how long the ride was but I finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there! It was pretty dark when we pulled up and I'm bummed I wasn't already filming because they had a mock shuttle out front that was lit up and looked very cool in the dark. Anyway, we got there, piled off the bus with all our crap, and headed in.
There was a metal detector and then a bag check and the guy who checked my bag (and Warren's) must have really loved Bud Light because he joked with *everybody* he searched about them having some Bud Lights. Odd.
The KSC was *mobbed*. We were some of the first people there and it was already mayhem. People going every which way, lines everywhere, people setting up chairs in the middle of the walkway, etc... We all headed into the gift shop to buy our chairs (got them there rather than Walmart since they say "Kennedy Space Center" on them and we're geeks like that) and other stuff. Then we sat down in what we thought was the right line - the first of many. :) I'll spare you the details but basically we were in a bunch of lines that turned out to be the wrong ones, then the right ones, wrong again, etc... It was honestly pretty comical but I think the humor was lost on most people because it was something like 4AM and everyone was pretty tired.
We finally re-boarded our bus and eventually they all headed out to the Causeway. We parked about halfway down it and everyone sprinted to get a good spot. I found us a spot with a perfect view of the launch pad and there was only 1 row of people in front of us. Once everybody got settled in and I set up my gear I headed up to the food tent - another madhouse with a big line. But the line was 5 times as long by the time I got my food so I'm glad I went when I did. I didn't know if anyone else wanted anything so I got a bunch of stuff. The two hotdogs went unclaimed but I saw a guy and his son get excited when they heard they were selling hot dogs but then looked pretty down when they saw the line so I offered them the two I had. They were very thankful which I filed away for a few hours later when I was going to ask them if I could set up my video camera on the grass in front of them. :)
Everyone else was reading or sleeping so I went off exploring. I walked the entire length of the Causeway (that we could get to at least) and took some crowd pictures while envying the huge lenses some folks were setting up. I saw a bunch of people lying down napping in the luggage holds of the busses too since they were pretty cool compared to the outside air. Even though it was very overcast and cloudy it was still really hot and muggy. Eventually we got to the T-minus-9 minute mark which is a built-in 45-minute hold in the countdown and people started to get excited. The launch status (which I heard over the loudspeakers) kept going from Go to No-Go based on the clouds. Finally right after I got back to out spot we came out of the hold and the countdown continued, in a Go status. The atmosphere was a cool mix of electricity and nerves. Everyone was super excited but also nervous that at any second it could all be scrubbed.
Finally we got to T-minus 1-minute and cheers went up. It was really happening! OMG OMG OMG!!! Then we hit 31 seconds - 1 second before control was switched over to the shuttle's launch computers and someone called for a hold due to "data loss". Thousands upon thousands of people on the Causeway and not a single person made a sound when this happened. Finally after a minute or so the countdown was able to continue (they confirmed via video feeds that something was working right even though the computer couldn't tell them). Cheers erupted a few times and finally, 30-seconds later, the shuttle launched.
I did my best to capture some good pictures while also not keeping my eyes behind a lens the whole time. I really wanted to enjoy it and I did. This was special. It was *very* different from the night launch last year for a number of reasons. The biggest difference though was how close we were and the fact that we were able to see it was a shuttle and not just a moving ball of fire and light.
After about 30-40 seconds the soundwave hit and more cheers went up in the crowd.
Eventually we lost sight of the shuttle and people started packing up. This took me a bit more time than most others simply because of all the gear I had but eventually we made it back to the bus - and sat there for about an hour. See, we had to wait until everyone else was on all their busses too. We finally left and this time I was able to sleep about half the way back.
I think we got back around 4PM. Rather than shower we washed ourselves off in the hotel pool which was *really* nice. It's a dinky little pool but the water was the perfect temperature, clear, and we had the place to ourselves. We totally acted like idiot teenagers set loose. We ended up putting all of the chairs *in* the pool and just got ridiculous in general.
After a couple hours or stupidity we went back up to our room and showered. Then we headed to Walmart to return a bunch of the crap we didn't end up needing or using. Warren managed to piss of the guy at the return counter simply because the guy didn't know how to do his job right. Me, being as helpful as always, just stood there laughing at them and then when another guy came to work the counter I returned my shit in 30 seconds without saying a thing. :) After walking away I realized we had left the bugspray and suntan lotion in the cooler we just returned but we decided it wasn't worth the hassle to go back yet again. Instead we bought a few more necessities and before leaving I headed over to the return counter and told the friendly guy who helped me (not the burly guy who Warren pissed off) that we left some stuff in the cooler. Turns out we also left 9 ponchos in there too! We just took the stuff and left. It's still in our car along with the receipt in case we get another chance to return it but for that night we were pretty well done with The Walmart Experience.
After leaving Walmart Warren introduced me to the wonderful world of shopping cart car pushing and then we went to the Affle House for some food (the W in the sign was broken). Turns out we were at the one Ted went to with us last year with the creepy waitress but this time we got a really nice one which was a relief.
After eating we headed out and went to a few different hotels looking for more pools to abuse. We finally found one that was locked but we were able to get a chair out of over the fence and then threw it into the pool. Yes, we're idiots. After the toss we fast-walked over to the car and drove across the street to a mini golf place and played a round of golf surrounded by gators. For my last shot I hit the ball stupid hard and it bounced off a piece of wood and flew right by Warren's head - and landed in a pool of gators which then tried to eat it.
After making sure I didn't actually kill anything we went back to see if the chair was still in the pool and it was - perfectly set up as if someone was sitting on it under water. Then we went back to our own hotel for some much-needed sleep. At the time it felt like we had just finished 3 days without sleep and now that I wrote it all out, yeah - we pretty much did.
We woke up around 11AM on Saturday, grabbed a quick lunch at the Wendy's drive through where Warren enjoyed a Plump and Juicy Chicken Sandwich and then we went to Epcot, courtesy of Trisha who rocks. We started off on Spaceship Earth which we listened to in German because we're idiots. Then we waited in line for about 2 hours to go on Soarin' for 5 minutes. Next was Captain Eo which I'm sure was great back in the 80's... After that we went on Test Track and before we left we all got some ice cold decapitated Mickey heads on sticks. After eating about half of mine I took a picture of it and literally 2 seconds later it fell onto the ground. I hammed it up looking sad and an employee came over and gave me a voucher for a new one so I won!
We left Epcot and went over to Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM). I had never been to the Star Tours thing so we went to that which was pretty cool and had a very short wait of only about 5-10 minutes. Then we went over to the Aerosmith roller coaster which was a 30-minute wait. We witnessed a very slap-happy family in front of us and almost got into a fight with the folks behind us but instead found out they were from Massachusetts too and we bonded and had a swell old time chatting with them. The roller coaster was one of the most fun I've ever been on but very very short. Unfortunately Trisha and he mother left because she wasn't feeling very good - I blame Warren.
Next we went to the Tower of Terror which was wicked cool. I'm always amazed by how well Disney designs their rides. Warren got over himself and enjoyed it too.
After that the park was about to close and we headed to the 50's style diner they have there. It's very cool. There are old black and white TV's all over the place, they yell at you if you put your elbows on the table or wear a hat indoors, they quiz you about the color of the bathroom soap to make sure you used it, and they give you crap if you pull out your "walkie talkie" (ie- cell phone). The food was delicious as well.
After that we were pretty pooped and just went back to our hotel and crashed.
Today (Sunday) we got up around noon, had breakfast at another Waffle House, and went back to the hotel room for most of the day so Warren could work and I could edit some photos and video. Then we headed over to T-Rex for dinner and as usual ate waaayyyyy too much including their "Chocolate Extinction" which could easily feed a family of 6. We then headed over to the gokart place but ended up spending about a half our giving back the dinner and then decided to go back to the hotel because gokarts was way too crowded and our tummies hate us.
After a while spent packing and messing around on our laptops it's now about 3AM and it's time for sleep. The plan for tomorrow is probably going back to the Kennedy Space Center, eat at Dixie Crossroads on Jonathan's recommendation, maybe time for gokarts, and then flying back home. It'll suck leaving here because it always sucks when a vacation ends but it will be nice to see the family again.
Goodnight!
::Edit::
Another photographer wrote a great story on The Register about his experiencing shooting the launch:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/11/last_space_shuttle_launch/