Day 4 — We woke up today, after a night of re-dubbing korean soap operas and got our stuff together before saying goodbye to Stacey and checking out of the hotel.
Today’s adventure was to the Kennedy Space Centre. First though, we went with the MacAgy sisters to Cracker Barrel. I had some pancakes and syrup, our server, Chara, said my accent was sexy. So, I was happy.
Chara was in her 30s, but that’s not the point.
From there, we were off. We took out the Sat-Nav and told it where we wanted to go, then proceeded to ignore it pretty much the entire way. When we got there, we were impressed by the free parking (especially after, at Universal, we paid $3 a locker. When we just wanted to go on the ride and have our stuff be safe), we went in and again, commented at how reasonably priced it was.
From the main centre, we got on a bus which took us to the “Observation Gantry”, which was a bit of a letdown, it gave some cool views, but that was about it. The next stop though, was awesome, the bus took us to the “Apollo/Saturn V centre” which featured a 363ft moon* rocket, hanging from the ceiling, as well as a bunch of other cool apollo related stuff. The two films they showed us were also really interesting, for people who like history and space.
We left the Apollo/Saturn V centre on a high, ready to go to the next stop. Something that added to the excitement for the next stop was the fact that we’d been told on the bus that they were no longer going to the third stop after this weekend.
The bus was leaving at 4:30, so we stopped to have something to eat in the cafe before heading out. As we walked towards the bus, just before 4:30, the bus left.
There’ll be another one along, I hear you saying to yourself (not really, you’re not next to me, unless you are, but still, I can’t hear your thoughts) — Nope.
We asked the employee at the front of the line, she said No.
“You’re kidding right?”
“Yeah, I’m lying.” … “No, I’m not, you can’t go.”
Her name was Ashley and she was a bitch. Stacey would never treat a tourist like that, Stacey, if she had to, would have driven us there herself, hell… She would have carried us, if it meant we got to see it!
We got back on the bus, sad and deflated, our dreams crushed by the bitch named Ashley. Bitter towards all things NASA.
We boarded the Shuttle Launch Experience, which would have been cool, I guess, if they didn’t make it sound like it was the most real thing ever and just called it the simulator that it was. After returning to earth — something they didn’t actually have the simulator simulate, it left us in orbit. Lame. We went to look at the Astronaut Memorial and Rocket Garden and then headed out of the centre. Still bitter.
We stopped off at the Astronaut Hall of Fame on the way out. Figuring, if it was included in admission, which it was, we may as well get the most out of our money.
Heading inside, it actually ended up being pretty cool. It was a lot more hands on than the other site and seemingly more purpose built for tourists.
Overall, the Space Centre was pretty cool and, I’d say, worth the money if you don’t go expecting too much. The only thing that let it down was Ashley and her bitch face.
We left the Hall of Fame and drove back to Clearwater.
*rocket didn’t actually go to moon, or, in fact, leave earth. Gutted.