St. Augustine

St. Augustine, FL (March 30, 2009) ..

Today we travelled to St. Augustine and set up camp not far from the ocean. Ellen's Easter bunny is keeping watch from the passenger side windshield as we get ready for a trip to the beach. The pink flamingo can be seen peeking out from behind the "Flynn's" sign.

Lunar Crescent

Daytona Beach, FL (March 29, 2009) ..

This is a view of the crescent moon last night. The 1/60th second exposure with flash illuminated the tree draped in spanish moss in the foreground and gave the effect of the branches encircling the moon. It was a beautiful night at our campsite just a mile from the speedway.

Victory Lane

Daytona International Speedway (March 30, 2009) ..

Today Ellen visited victory lane at the Daytona Speedway. Many NASCAR greats like Dale Ernhart, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty stood in this spot to receive the coveted Harley Earle trophy. The weather was great and we were able to tour the whole track. The 31 degree banked turns were quite impressive; an auto must be travelling at least 90 mph otherwise it will slide down the turn. At an average speed of 180 mph most NASCAR drivers don't worry about it; their concern is hitting the wall. Ellen mentioned that she would like to attend a few races this year. Here's hoping that they fit into our travel schedule. So far our motorbus has travelled 2600 miles at an average speed of 61 mph. Watch out for those steeply banked turns !!!




For more info about the racetrack go to ... http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/

Discovery Lands

NASA Photo

Cape Canaveral, FL (March 28, 2009)

Today Elly gave up her flea market and NASCAR track tour so that we could drive from our campsite at Daytona Beach to witness the landing of space shuttle Discovery. Ellen had the best view watching the orbiter through a pair of binoculars. Ed did some HD video of the final approach to runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center. We had a good spot along the entrance road about 300 yards east of the runway to witness the return of the crew of STS 119. We both heard the double sonic boom and about 2 minutes later saw the shuttle drop through the clouds making a very steep 220 mph approach to end a 5.3 million mile journey. For more information about the landing to go http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html?skipIntro=1

Harry Truman

Key West, Fl (March 22, 2009)

Pictured above is the Truman little White House located in Key West. Harry spent working vacations here throughout his presidency. The building is part of a small naval base so whenever he arrived he was a guest of the US Navy. In those days there was a presidential yacht and this ship served as the communications link between Harry and the real White House in Washington, DC. For more about his favorite sub-tropical haunt go to http://www.trumanlittlewhitehouse.com/

We visited it on Sunday and had a good time ... learned lots about Harry Truman. Ellen and I visited the Truman Library and home in Independence, MO about 10 years ago.

Oh, if you think Barak Obama is the first president to be photographed shirtless, think again ... Harry did it decades ago as seen in this Key West photo.

Influenza Outbreak

Homestead, Fl (March 24, 2009)

Just like the cruise ship industry the Rv has experienced a major flu outbreak. 50% of the passengers on board are suffering from the virus. Pictured above is one of them. I'm sure Elly will get better soon. Hopefully it is a 24 hour virus so we can tour the Everglades tomorrow.

Good Old Days

Key West, Fl March 21, 2009

It's been a long time since anyone has banged out a letter or a story on one of these. Remember what a pain it was to delete and correct text ? I'm surprised that white-out is still for sale. Those were the good old days, huh ?? Not really. Personal computers have turned typewriters into obsolete museum grade relics. However, this one doesn't sit in the Smithsonian it resides on an old table in Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West. The Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner composed many a story and novel on this ancient machine.

"By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death...and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next." (one of his favorite Shakespeare quotes). The year was 1961 when he paid his debt to God. For more about Hemingway go to ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway

Southern Most Point

Key West March 22, 2009

Today we visited the most southern point in the 48 United States (Hawaii is further south). Pictured above are Brian and Ed posing at the southernmost marker. So where's the boat to Cuba which is only 90 miles away ??? Guess we'll need to wait for a blog way in the future for that trip. For more information about Key West and the marker go to ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_West

Spring Equinox

Key West, FL March 20, 2009

Located just one degree north of the tropical zone is the city of Key West, Florida. The spring equinox occured today lining up the earth's terminator with all of it's lines of longitude. As a result the sun rose exactly due east and set due west as seen from Mallory Square a favorite spot for tourists celebrating the end of another sunlit day. Now that spring has begun we can expect better weather up north.

Key West

Key West, Fl March 18, 2009

We made it to Key West today. Ed's brother, Brian and his wife, Peggy joined us for the trip to the end of the Keys. We actually had rain today, the first time in weeks. The Keys are beautiful and as you can see the water is clear with an aquamarine color.

And The Answer Is ...

Cocoa Beach, Fl March 15, 2009

The beach creatures were waiting for the launch of space shuttle Discovery. Ed was there to witness the spectacular departure of STS-119 for the International Space Station. The shuttle leaped off pad 39A about 12 minutes after sunset into a clear Florida sky and made it to orbit at a 51 degree declination 8 1/2 minutes later. Pictured above is the trail left by the shuttle's solid rocket boosters (SRB's). As you can see part of the exhaust has a reddish hue because it's lit by the setting sun; the portion to the right is extremely bright because it is high enough to be lit by direct sunlight unobscured by the earth's atmosphere as seen below.

The view from Cocoa Beach was awesome. The shuttle was visible in Ed's binoculars until about one minute prior to orbital insertion. Clearly visible was the main engine cutoff and the fall away of the SRB's. For more information about the launch visit .. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/

Below is the official launch picture published by NASA.

Sunset Ceremony ??

Somewhere, Florida (March 15th) ..

It's sunset at the beach. So what are all these people doing ? The view is to the north but no one seems to be watching the sun or toasting its' departure. They seem to be waiting for something. Other than a spectacular sunset what could cause such anticipation in so many this late in the day ?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Breech Birth

What could this be ??? Is this the motorhome giving breech birth feet first to Ed Flynn ??? Nope, it's Ed repairing the power cable reel which had become hopelessly tangled in the receiving drum. After a few hours the problem was resolved and the 50 amp power cable was back in business.

This should be a familiar problem to you boaters. See http://www.glendinningprods.com/rvcm.html

Napoli

Yesterday Ellen travelled to Naples (Florida, that is) to spend time with her sister, Mart who is on spring break and Barb, Mart's high school and college classmate living in Naples. Pictured above is Alice Sweetwater's Restaurant where the ladies had lunch. Ellen and Mart toured Barb's new home and were impressed with the spaciousness and decor.

Edison and Ford

Who is that ghost standing among the banyon trees? It's Thomas Edison at his Florida estate in Fort Myers. Edison spent his winters there around the turn of the 20th century and his good friend whom he mentored early in his career, Henry Ford built an estate house next to Edison's. Here's a little known historical tidbit ... Henry Ford was an employee of Edison's at the Edison Illuminating Company in the late 1800's before he went on to become an industrial titan.

For more information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_and_Ford_Winter_Estates#History

Mets v Orioles

That's Jon Switzer pitching for the NY Mets. He played for Durham last year and has been invited to spring training to tryout for the Show. We paid a visit to Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie to see the Mets take on the Orioles in a spring exhibition game on Monday. Great game. The Orioles were ahead 8 - 4 when Nick Evans hit a walk off grand slam for the Mets tying the game at 8 all in the 8th inning. Rene Rivera came through in the bottom of the ninth with a pinch hit homer to power the Mets to a 9 - 8 win over the Orioles. Nice slugfest with plenty of suspense !!!

Full Moon Over Fort Pierce

This is Tuesday's full moon over our campground at Ft. Pierce making it the third of our journey (Bradenton and Arcadia). Next week marks 3 months on the road. It has been an enjoyable trip so far because we escaped the clutches of old man winter and have seen some pretty interesting things in our travels. The next full moon is scheduled for South Carolina as we start to tour the East Coast during spring.

Johannes Kepler

We witnessed the historic launch of the Kepler space telescope from the Gulf Coast of Florida some 145 miles away !!! It lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 10:49 PM (3/6) and was visible from our location about 25 seconds later. Saw the main engine cutoff, castaway of the solid rocket boosters, second stage coast and then second stage burn (first two minutes). Half moon actually illuminated the rocket quite well. Pretty impressive even from such a great distance.



Now Kepler is positioning itself to orbit the sun and trail planet earth. Once in position it will look for earth like planets around other stars. For more information see ... http://kepler.nasa.gov/about/faq.html

For more information about Kepler, the father of orbital mechanics see ....

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/

Cousin Linda

Last Friday and Saturday we visited Linda and Renny in Northport, FL. We had a good time and had a chance to catch up on family news and new children. Linda and Renny are proud grandparents of Ethan and we got to see lots of pictures. Ethan is really cute and growing so fast !! Andrew skyped us from Denver and we were all able to see baby Lucille in real time video. Their house is beautifully decorated and huge especially since Elly and I have been living in the confines of the motorbus/home. It gave us some inspiration for decorating our future home in Arizona.

Thanks for a good time, Linda and Renny !!!

Fort Pierce

Today we travelled to Fort Pierce, FL and will stay until next Wednesday. The Mets train at Port St. Lucie and the Marlins and Cardinals train at Jupiter ... so this should be a big baseball week. Tomorrow we head over to Northport to visit with cousin Linda and her husband Renny.

Men In Blue

Spring training is for umpires, too. The men in blue spend February and March in Florida honing their skills for the upcoming season. Pictured above is the home plate umpire from today's game. Ellen snapped the photo and was surprised to see that he didn't have white hair. It takes the average umpire 9 years to make it to the majors if selected by the gods of MLB. The current staffing level is 70 so the chances of making it to the bigs is pretty small.

Spring Training

Every spring major league baseball teams gather in Florida to train for the upcoming season which starts in early April. This year is no exception as 16 teams ply their trade on both coasts of the Sunshine State. Today we attended a Washington Nationals game at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, FL. It was an exciting game which the Nationals won in the bottom of the ninth with a three run home run.

For more information about spring training go to http://floridaspringtraining.com/

Click on thumbnail for full size image.

KOA - Titusville, FL

We've been camping in the "overflow" area of the KOA campground since last Wednesday. The site does not have a concrete pad but it does have some nice shade trees as shown in the above photo. Of course, the electric palm is gracing the front of our motorhome. Titusville is a great location giving us access to the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island and the Atlantic Ocean. We'll be moving on to Ft. Pierce this Wednesday and then the City of Miami the following Wednesday. A drive up from Miami may be necessary in order to see the launch of the shuttle Discovery now scheduled for March 12th.

Astronaut Hall of Fame

Yesterday we visited the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center. They had lots of exhibits highlighting personal artifacts of many of the astronauts. Also on display were several Mercury, Gemini and Apollo crew capsules. The flight simulator and shuttle approach simulators were pretty cool too !!

Vehicle Assembly Building

We spent all day Friday at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL viewing the featured exhibits (Apollo V, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station). Pictured above is the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). This structure is 525 feet tall and encloses the third largest volume of any building in the world. Currently it is used to assemble the space shuttle orbiter, main fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. The finished assembly is rolled to the launch pad 39A at a breakneck speed of 1 mph !!!

For more information:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/vab.html

Click photo for full size rendition.