Editing this post to put this at the very top, got the link from my brother...its holy shit scary!
Link to Corona virus info from physicians
Wow. Just wow. Its like a sci-fi movie right now. I cant recall seeing anything like this in my lifetime. The world is shutting down.
I'm still in Florida, its Sunday afternoon, and its a beautiful day out. Life here still appears completely normal except for the lack of total madness due to Spring Break (which isn't really happening), a bunch of cruise ships sitting at piers not going anywhere, and the inability to buy even a single roll of toilet paper at the stores. Oh, and the complete lack of any sports going on. Forgot about that.
Here in his area I heard today that Disney World is closed, along with pretty much all the touristy places. I did a self-guided tour of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and its conjoined twin Kennedy Space Center (KSC) today. It was a super quiet day driving around the ginormous tracts of land they both occupy. As I got close to the old Shuttle pads (39A and 39B) I started seeing the KSC Tour buses rolling by. That at least seemed normal. Then as I briefly exited KSC at its northern terminus the road crossing mine was backed up as far as I could see to the west. I U-turned back into KSC and asked the guard (you have to have an ID to get on either KSC or CCAFS) what was going on. He said it was people going to the beach. He mentioned that pretty much everything that was touristy was closed down, and likely the KSC tours will stop very soon too...seems people just want something to do and the beaches aren't yet closed to the public. Unbelievable. I guess I have had my head in the sand this last 6 weeks, barely getting any news.
Friday I had the day off with pay (my first day off in a while), and we were planning on loading our container into the aircraft on Saturday and then flying home on Sunday (an AWESOME PLAN), all of which was nixed Saturday morning when the back doors to our aircraft wouldn't open due to a hydraulic fitting failure). So with my unexpected day off I went into town (Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral) and rented a beach cruiser bike, and rode the crap out of it (32 miles, 4 hours). Yeah...turns out that isn't really a good idea...that tractor seat isn't really suitable for something like that..but I am kind of stubborn apparently, and also can somewhat ignore pain (something all cyclists can do) so I just kept going and going and going. It was a wonderful day, not too hot, not too cool, a light breeze blowing...so I just kept riding. I would have done it again today except that my thighs are still pretty sore where they interfaced with the enormous tractor seat for thousands of pedal strokes. I don't think there is any permanent damage, but yeah...it still hurts now 2 days later.
Here are a few shots from my epic cruiser bike masochistic ride on Friday. Here my rental steel-steed is looking down the Cocoa Beach pier.
This was a pretty cool little section of covered sandy-trail as I was at the north end of the City of Cape Canaveral.
Here my trusty steel beastie and I are back into Cocoa Beach (heading south).
This picture is at least 15 miles south of the last one, at the northern part of Patrick Air Force Base.
In this final shot of my 4 hour death-ride my steed and I are looking longingly at the beach.
And here are a few pics from today's tour of CCAS and KSC. It got me out of the room for a few hours, hooray!
The CCAFS Space and Missile museum, complex 26 (the launch site of the USAs first satellite).
A Redstone rocket that is part of the museum. I am standing at the blockhouse (about 300 yards away from the rocket). Back in those days they didn't understand the explosive power of a fueled rocket. Blockhouses (where all the launch controlers are) were moved much further back.
A tortise on the side of the road. They are protected here. His shell is well over a foot long (I didnt want to get too close and spook him getting my foot into the picture for a size reference). His mouth if full of grass and he seemed pretty calm.
Now I am way north and onto KSC property. This is the Space X pad (39B, which used to be one of the Space Shuttle pads). The Falcon 9 rocket is on the pad, kind of obscured by teh water tower. Its not supposed to be there, had planned on launching yesterday morning and then again this morning.
I haven't looked yet but its likely rescheduled to tomorrow morning and will affect our convoy to load our aircraft (just delays us a bit until after its gone so we can have the base security for our road convoy to the airfield).
I am standing on the graveled crawler track that goes from the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) to pad 39B (you can see the Falcon 9 on the pad off in the distance). Before Space X and before them the Space Shuttles this was an Apollo pad. Yep...the enormous Saturn V rockets sitting on the huge launcg-crawlers drove right over this same gravel mission after mission (they added gravel each time as the crawler/rocket combo weight so much it pulverized a lot of it...still I think its pretty cool a bunch of Apollos and Shuttles drove over this...and I have a rock I picked up from the track in my pocket too).
Looking back east (towards the VAB which isnt visible in this picture as the track curves). I took this shot as you can still see the tracks from the last crawler to go here.
Here the crawler tracks to 39A and 39B converge and you can now see the VAB off in the distance.
Here is the VAB up close. They assembled Saturn Vs on both sides on top of the crawlers, and then all those gray doors slid up to the top and the entire thing rolled right out towards its pad for launch.
Here is one of the crawlers sitting outside. That thing is absolutely HUGE...the picture doesn't show any scale. Sitting on top of the crawler WOULD be a Mobile Launch Platform, and on top of that was the Apollo rocket or Shuttle.
Here is a picture I copied from Wikipedia showing a Shuttle rolling along the track from the VAB heading towards its launch pad. You can clearly see the Mobile Launch Platform the orbiter is sitting on, with the crawler below it. Also you can see the VAB doors still open where the entire assembly rolled out. You can also see the paved road just to the left of the gravel track (left side)..that road is still there and is what I followed going from the pads to the VAB on my journey today.
The more often seen side of the VAB with the NASA logo and the US Flag. A LONG time ago (my first trip to the Cape) back when shuttles were still launching I drove here and there was no fence around the building. I parked my rental and walked right up to a door, expecting at any moment someone to yell at me (or arrest me). No one did, and I just opened the door and walked in. The inside of that building is so big I cant even begin to describe it (they claim it creates its own atmosphere inside its so big). There were no shuttles inside at the time (why no one stopped me). They would come in horizontal, and then lifted vertical and attached to the External Tank inside this building, and finally attach the 2 huge solid rocket boosters to the tank, all sitting on top of the crawler/mobile launch platform to take the entire beast to its pad. I was parked somewhere close to here a few years later on another of my trips here where I got to finally see a shuttle launch (and landing just a few days later). The launch was fantastic, the landing not so much (didn't see it till the very end...but did get the twin sonic booms as it finally drops down under the speed of sound).
Here is a panorama of the VAB and way off in the distance are pads 39A and B (its tiny but if you look close you can see the Falcon 9 on pad 39B, which is to the left of 39A). I forget the distance but its a couple of miles.
Snapped a few shots out the window of my car as I was leaving CCAFS heading back into the city of Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach of the cruise ships sitting in port. Normally they are in for less than a day, disembarking their thousands of passengers, loading food and such and their new gaggle of passengers and heading back out. I think these 2 are Carnival ships...there are at least 2 Norwegian Cruise lines ships sitting too.
These would be the Norwegian Cruise lines ships.
This one is Royal Caribbean...so that makes FIVE ships sitting here in port. Crazy stuff!
Anyway, that's about all I have for today. I did the paid-KSC tour many years ago (when I was here for work and then Jeannie flew out for a long weekend). I would have done it again today, but the cost is now $60 per person! Wow...that is a bit pricey for stuff I have already seen. Had I never done the tour before then I would have certainly done it, as its really something (and now they have a space shuttle, when I did it we were still launching them). There is a Saturn V lying on its side at one place, so you can see how HUGE it was. All that, along with the movies, displays, guides and info you get throughout, and then taking you all over the KSC complex in the buses. If you are ever down here its a must-do item.
OK. Thats a wrap from KSC/Cape Canaveral. Have a great NO-CORONA-VIRUS day! And if you see any TP for sale, you'd best grab it! That stuff will be like gold in another week or 2!
