We’ve started our slow journey north, having left south Florida. We decided to visit Joni’s friends from college again, Dean and Gayle McGibbon. They live in Lakeland – close to Orlando. Traveling around in our motor home has given us the opportunity to be able to renew old friendships.
Our first visit to Gayle and Dean’s was on our way to south Florida before Christmas and now we’re on our way back having spent the winter in south Florida.
Since we have been to Orlando before, we didn’t feel the need to see a lot of the attractions, although we decided to see Sea World and the Kennedy Space Center.
We enjoyed Sea World, but seeing Shamu, manatee, dolphins and alligators wasn’t as exciting as we thought it would be. Having seen these beautiful animals in their own environment this winter was much better than seeing them caged up and on display. Oh no! I guess I sound like an environmentalist………
But, spending the day with our friends, Gayle and Dean, made it special.
The next day we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We were hoping to see a launch or the preparation for a launch, but the next one isn’t scheduled until May. The bus tour around the center gave us a good general knowledge of how everything is put together. Pictured is Delton standing next to the Saturn V Rocket.
We saw the assembly bay and the crawler which transports the rockets to the launch pad. The crawler travels about 2-3 miles per hour, so it takes about 8 hours to get to the launch pad from the assembly bay.
Pictured is the assembly bay next to the crawler.
This picture shows the launch pad in the distance.
Gayle and Dean checked things out with the telescope – actually Gayle was looking for alligators!!!
Mission Control for the Apollo program was very interesting.
Wonder if any of those IBM shirts belong to Delton!!!!!!
We signed up to be astronauts for the next space program. Here we are in our space suits ready to go!!!!!!
We had a great time with Gayle and Dean, especially our conversations about religion and politics. Gayle will never get it right, but Dean has some hope…..
And now - On to our next stop – Jacksonville, Florida.
