Just a big fizzle....

Yesterday had to be one of the nicest days yet down here in Florida, the weather was perfect!. We decided (well, not everyone in the group may agree with the "we"...) that it would be great to head over to Cape Canaveral for the day, and take in the SpaceX Launch of it's new Falcon 9 Rocket with a weather satelite securly strapped to the top of it!

 

Cape Canaveral is a great spot, and is about a 2 hour drive from Frostproof. NASA owns quite a chunk of land here, and have been firing off Rockets for decades now from here.

Above is a file picture of the Falcon 9, which is a new rocket designed by SpaceX to help NASA and other people willing to pay, get their payloads into space, or up to the ISS.

I had company for the day, as Judy, Tom and Cheryl joined me on the Cruze to the Cape. We had a great spot to watch the launch, with a direct view of the Rocket, and if you look above, Judy and Cheryl are pointing right at it!

As you can see, we were in a very nice finished off viewing area. There are actual viewing bleachers you can see in the background of the pic above.

The picture above is what all the excitement was about! Believe it or not, I took this picture from my chair, holding the lens of the iPhone 5 up the the eyepiece of my Bushnell Binoculars! I thought it turned out not too bad for a first attempt. The two high white towers you see on each end are lightening rods, which protect the Falcon 9 Rocket in the centre of the picture. We got here a couple hours early to stake out a good seat, as a lot of people show up for the launches... on problem was, with one minute to go before launch at 6:12 p.m. last evening, SpaceX scrubbed the flight! RATS! We were so looking forward to seeing the launch as there was not a cloud in the sky. They had some technical problem they could not overcome before the launch, and they only had about a 1 minute window to fire the thing off to obtain the orbit they needed. Too bad... next time!

Before we headed over to the viewing area, we stopped to visit good friends Eleanor and Paul, who are staying for a month at Cocoa Beach. What a great spot, and only about 4 miles or so from the launch site at Cape Canaveral. We took a walk with them down to the Beach on the Atlantic.

That is Tom off to the right, getting his feet wet with some ocean water... We enjoyed a great visit with Paul and Eleanor before heading over to the Cape.

Check out the picture above. It was taken from my launch chair, looking directly behind me. They have built a big Cruise Boat Dock at Port Canaveral. There were 4 of these monsters parked, and they all took off before 4:00 p.m. probably heading to the Caribean Islands, or other places unknown to me... (Bermuda triangle maybe???) Disney runs their big boats out of here, as it is only about a 1 hour drive due west and you are in Disney World, Orlando! What a business they do!

Now many of you people who read this Blog may be aware that I am pretty much a die hard Toronto Maple Leaf Fan, and yes, I have seen them play at the ACC in Toronto, and I have followed them to London, Ont. to watch them play, as well as L.A. in California, and Phoenix in AZ. Larry and Cathy, friends from Ontario, who are currently enjoying great weather in their RV out in Texas could not resist sending me the link below to a Youtube Video. I must admit that I laughed when I checked it out... and might even agree with some of the song...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0iZDSsUTU34

I also received an email this morning from my good Friend, Gerard, who along with Deb, is enjoying life out in Arizona currently. I must admit I laughed when I read his email, saying he was in Manilla, in the Phillipines, and was mugged, and lost his luggage, and needed me to send him some money to help him get home, and he promised to pay be back even for any money I might send... yikes! Of course it turns out that his email account was hacked, and it was a very lame attempt to get money, but such is life. Hey Gerard, I would have sent you all the money I had, plus my shirt if I thought you were in any sort of need! Have fun in AZ!

Till tomorrow...

 

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