21-7-12

Hi Folks!

Sorry we've been busy.

After an excellent evening at Cocoa we head back to Cape Canaveral. We arrive at about 11.00am only to find the Astronaught Hall of Fame doesn't open until noon. So we wondered over to the Police Hall of Fame...

This was an extraordinary museum, apart from pictures and artifacts from Al Capone, Dilinger, Bonny and Clyde there was Nixon's resignation letter and loads more - such as the police car from Blade Runner a great exhibit on forgery, terrific stuff. It was also sad to see how many men an women had lost their lives doing an honest days work.

Anyway, off to the other Hall of Fame. Hardly anyone there to see space capsuals up and close, spacesuits and other stuff that has been to the moon and back. There were also famous astronaughts. Some of the Space Shuttle crew members (Chan Diaz) have been into space 7 times - compared to Armstrong and Lovell twice and three times respectively. In total 17 lives have been lost - 3 for Apollo 1 and 14 for the two shuttles Columbia and Challenger.Remarkable when you think of the ground breaking science and technology being employed and the distances being travelled.


We set off south again on I95. This time we are headed for Miami.


We get to Fort Lauderdale and drive along the front but then it gets too confusing and as we were getting tired I bought a map of Miami - which my co-pilot informs me is useless. We continue south and find our next hotel in Bal Harbour. We had arrived a day late so our comfortable room becomes rather less comfortable and I get the roll out bed.


We stroll across to the beach and on up to the restaurant in One Bal Harbour appropriately named Mr Collins - Command Module Commander on Apollo 11. Dinner was fantastic made more so by watching the pelicans. Now if you've never seen a pelican fly it's a sight worth seeing. They are the first birds I have see that make no bones about the sheer effort required to get airborne. They literally haul themselves into the air and rapidly descend before hauling themselves up again. Only to repeat the whole process yet again..


The food was fantastic but not quite as magnificent as the cutlery which presented the unsuspecting diner with what can only be described as a Bowie knife with which to attack almost dead cow and fish - wonderful.


Then off to a contented nights snoring...