Mississippi to Texas

So we left Mississippi in the morning and we were soon being rained upon. This was a big theme for the whole state of Louisiana. We have been reading some books lately and watching some television shows based in Louisiana so it was kind of fun to see cities and city names related to the books and shows we have been watching, it gave us a little perspective. Although we drove through most of Louisiana, I didn't see Bon Temps (location of the Sookie Stackhouse series), so it must really be a small town!

Texas is a big state, it took us a long time to get through Texas, then again, isn't everything big in Texas? We stopped at a great rest area that had fresh smoked jerky and a fabulous bakery. They also had a statue of an armadillo wearing 6 shooters and a cowboy. I didn't have the camera or I would have shared the picture here.

The welcome center had this HUGE star and flags, it was a large and patriotic welcome to the state. I don't think I have seen so many state flags on homes and businesses as I have in Texas.

One of the rest areas had models of Oil Dereks. At least I think that's what you call these.

Then we saw these things, I wasn't sure what to make of these things, being in Texas I thought they might be HUGE spark plugs. Further discussion with Tony and we thought they had something to do with power lines, anyone know for sure?

I guess the Kirk's are everywhere!

This is our first view of Dallas. The city is amazing and beautiful. We got stuck in a lot of traffic. In the middle of Dallas rush hour is when Mica decided she was done being in the car. Thank god for the Carmel corn we had that I used to bribe her to stay calm and sit in the back seat instead of trying to lean over Tony's shoulder like a parrot.

We finished our day in Wichita falls. We pretty much stopped driving, unpacked and fell asleep.

Leaving Florida

Daytona does fireworks regularly on Saturday nights, so I figured they would probably make them a bit better. So for the fourth we went down to the beach and had a nice dinner on the dock at Crabby Joe's. Daytona set the fireworks off at 9:45 and we had a great view. We looked down the beach and saw Daytona's fireworks but also saw some from other places fireworks. It was beautiful to see them all set off on the background of the beach and the ocean. On Saturday night we saw fireworks from the neighborhood and set off our own fountains etc. Then we packed in preparation for our morning departure. 

 

Here is the car! Note how it dips in the rear a little bit. We are about to leave my Mom's house from Florida. Tony has packed and repacked a few times and we were sad to go. We will miss seeing my Mom. We look forward to having our own place soon though!

I know this shot is a little dark, but I had to get it though the window tint and it was starting to get cloudy. We were going through the panhandle of Florida when we cruised by the home of the Blue Angels! These guys are great pilots, I suggest seeing them if you get a chance!

Then we went through Alabama, which was a short trip as we went through the smallest section.

Mississippi seemed like it would be a short drive, but for some reason when we were there everyone drove slowly! We got stuck on a bridge for 2 hours! We saw someone go pee on the side of the bridge with towels around them because he/she just couldn't wait any more! The delay was all about going through a tunnel. Then we hit some road work and we basically gave up. We were so tired of sitting in traffic and travel that I am not even sure where we stopped, but it started with a P. We thought we might get close enough to our friends Mark, Amy, and Cody, to have breakfast or coffee or something in the morning, but it didn't work out. They are newly settled in Mississippi themselves, in fact I wonder if they have received their furniture yet.


So on this day we got off to a good start, but we had hoped to get further. We had planned to make it to Louisiana and stop in New Orleans, but that got taken off the schedule due to significant traffic delays. Guess we can come back and really enjoy New Orleans some day.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

So while we were in Florida we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and stayed at the Portofino Bay Hotel for our wedding anniversary.

We have been to Islands of Adventures many times so our main focus was Harry Potter. When we got there we waited in a very long line. It was probably over an hour of walking in a long line at a slow pace. We eventually got in and there were so many people in that part of the park that you couldn't hardly walk! No one was leaving because they had waited so long to get in. There were lines of an hour just to get into the shops let alone the rides. So we left.

This was one of the "open" areas. This is a shot of Olivander's wand shop, where you can select your wand. I hear that some wands will work for you while others will not, so it is important that you get help selecting the right one. The line for this was at least 2 hours at the shortest we heard.

This is us in front of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Later in the evening we went on a tour of the castle and did the ride. It was a good ride, but I think the tour of the castle was just as good. It was a very detailed representation.

We also got some frozen butter beers at the Hogshead Tavern. They seemed to be slushy cream soda with ice cream on top. Yumm! Also the Tavern had a large hogs head that would move and snort on occasion!

We also stopped in to Zonko's Joke shop, which had some cute things, but nothing as great as the books describe. Honeydukes was a good candy shop. We picked up a few things including a chocolate frog, waiting for my Mom to tell me how she liked it.

We also found Mr. Weasley's flying car! It appears to have landed itself by what used to be Dueling Dragons, that was after it got beat up by the Womping Willow. Well, its still pretty beat and honks at people as they go by. Dueling Dragons is still a great roller coaster, but now it is called Dragon Challenge, to reflect the dragons that the contestants faced in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.











We have quite a few more pictures of this section, it was just plain amazing so I only picked a few. I would be happy to share if anyone is interested. Next time I post I should have some shots from the road. We are currently in New Mexico, and plan to be at the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I can't wait to show you the pictured we will take there!

Kennedy Space Center

Tony, Mom and I went to Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Boy was it HOT, must have been 100+ in the sun, 95 in the shade.

KSC is very educational, I can see why schools come here and kids go to space camp. It was very cool! We thought it would be small, but they have 2 IMAX movie theaters and some very LARGE exhibits. They have a life size model of the space shuttle! My question about this was, why is the flag backwards, but I haven't found the answer yet.

 These stairs to the right of the shuttle make it so you can go inside.

I am in front of the flight deck and a real space suit, as you can see it is VERY small inside the space shuttle. To think I thought Submariners had tight quarters! There is one more deck this size below and I believe that is about it for living space. Most of the shuttle is just storage of stuff like science to be taken up to space.

This is the building where the shuttle, external fuel tank, and the solid rocket boosters stay before the roll on the crawler out to the launch pad. Which, you may be interested to know, there is currently only one active shuttle and it will retire next year. If you can see the dark grey part of the building on the left, that is the profile of the doors. There are 4 LARGE doors and they each have 7 huge sections. The doors are taller then the shuttle standing up so it rolls right out completely upright.

This engine is also HUGE. If you look closely you can see a persons arm behind the engine. This engine is ONE of the 3 engines from the bottom of the space shuttle that sends it into space. This engine uses 500,000 gallons of fuel in 8-9 minutes of use, but it does produce 375,000 lbs of thrust, whoa imagine filling that up at the gas station!

This is the launchpad for the shuttles they roll the whole thing out there, and attach it and there is a cap that goes over the top. I am sure you  have seen this on TV before a launch many times.

This is the new type of space craft launch pad. I am honestly not sure what will happen to this new type of space craft since our mission to the moon was canceled and President Obama wants us to head straight to Mars. I hope that it will still be used!

This is the length of a Saturn Rocket, behind Tony, who took the picture are the engines. You can see how large it is, the woman in the white hat is my mother, and you can see the top of my head for reference. This was the same type of rocket that took our first men to the moon!

This is the actual pod that splashed down in the Ocean full of very tired moon men!

This suit was worn on the moon and comes complete with REAL MOON DIRT!

So being at KSC, made me feel like a very small piece of a GINORMOUS Universe, just the craft that take us to the moon make me feel tiny and insignificant. We saw some great shots of outer space from the Hubble telescope, we are such a small piece of a huge universe. It is all very humbling. If you ever come down here to Florida, I highly recommend this experience! Tony says "It is AWESOME!" he also says that it is too much to do in one day and that he would go again. Speaking of that, if you do get tickets and go you are welcome to come back for a 2nd day within 7 days after your original visit. So when you see the price, think 2 day pass!

Pool Time!

So while we have been here in Florida it has been difficult to keep up with the blog as Mom doesn't have internet and we have been so busy doing other fun things! So Mica is our younger pup, who really doesn't like to swim or go in the pool. She would only go in the pool if Tony was willing to sit with her, then she would only stay on this top step. This is a HUGE improvement from last year where we had to literally drag her into the water. Also, notice Tony's new civilian style hair cut!

Then we had this great idea, maybe Mica would like to try the pool float. Maybe she didn't like the deeper step because she becomes boyant at that point. From this great idea, the SURF DOG was born!

Come to find out, she loves the pool float so much, that she has started to beg for it at the edge of the pool. We tried it with Koko, who wasn't thrilled in the slightest about the experience, and Mica excitedly waited her turn.

We are very thankful for the pool to cool us down on these HOT summer days!