Since Saturday afternoon, we’ve been camped along the Indian River in Titusville, Florida – right off Highway US 1. We’ve been enjoying a completely awesome nomadic rendezvous with Sean Welsh and Louise Hornor of Our Odyssey as temporary neighbors (it’s our first in person meeting after years of cyber stalking each other around
the country.) We’ll post most later about our time with them.
What we’re here for was to watch the last planned night shuttle launch. And one of the last five shuttle launches, period.
I lived on the Space Coast of Florida for 12 years before going nomadic. Stepping outside to watch a launch is an amazing part of everyday life here, and an experience that never gets old. I feel very blessed to have serendipitiously ended up back on the Space Coast, in the perfect area to watch this last night launch.
Only on two other occasions had I made the effort to get a close up view and see the entire launch from engine ignition.
There’s been a temporary RV encampment here along US1 that has been fun to be part of, it’s been sort of a ‘Quartzite East’. The City of Titusville allows free overnight camping on their owned land during a 36 hour window surrounding launch time, something we greatly appreciate!
And we have had the most spectacular of views.
The first attempt of the launch was scrubbed Sunday morning due to low clouds in the area. However, we had an awesome time hanging out with Sean and Louise. Nomad-stalker, James Schipper and his partner Maria, also came over from the west coast of Florida for the launch and for our first in person meeting. The four of us huddled all night long in our little Oliver Travel Trailer until the last minute no-go call.
This morning however, at 4:14am EST – all systems were GO (or GEAUX for you Saints fans!), and we witnessed an amazing launch. We also had the nomadic Browski family stop by for a bit before they headed on to their shuttle view hotel room. The past couple days have been quie the nomadic tweetup!
We recorded video to share:
Direct link to the video for those on RSS/E-mail. By the way, this HD video was taken with my ultra compact Canon PowerShot SD780 – which I got back in July and am still totally loving.
I had a tear in my eye watching this magical moment of technological splendor, knowing that the shuttle program is soon coming to an end. And most likely, this will be the last shuttle launch I’ll ever get to witness in person. What a beauty!
I couldn’t help but notice in the credits on the video that the feline technomad was left out. The Kikinator must be feeling pretty miffed at you right now!
Ooops! I usually manually add her in when she makes an appearance. But I think she desires billing all the time. Added to my template for future videos.
Thanks again for all the hospitality in Orion. We had a great time and loved the tour of the trailer, all the talk of Burning Man, and life on the road. Maria was most excited to meet Kiki, and I’m glad the Greyhounds were inside when Kiki tried to bail!
We’ll be seeing you again, hopefully with our road vehicle too! 😀
.-= James Schipper´s last blog ..Career Outsourcing: Replaced by the Lowest Bidder =-.
Thanks for catching Kiki before she boarded the shuttle. We would have missed her 🙂
Amazing! I used to live just up the coast from this and I’m only sorry that this program’s days are numbered. Been listening to Larry Niven’s “Lucifer’s Hammer”; we need to go further!
.-= Matt Thyer´s last blog ..Don’t Breathe =-.
Wow! What a great video Cherie! I didn’t know the shuttle program was coming to an end. Why is that?
.-= JoAnna´s last blog ..Aboard a Catamaran in Huatulco, Mexico =-.
JoAnna – the shuttle fleet is getting too old to keep maintained and our commitments to the ISS coming to an end. It’s simply come time to retire them and launch the next generation of space flight and exploration.
We got up at 4 am and drug our feet a bit. We didn’t get a camera set up and were nowhere near as close as you, but we still caught a decent view of the shuttle until the boosters were dropped. Excellent footage, thanks!
Hopefully the Odyssey folks will be hanging out a bit longer and we can manage to get over there to meet up with everyone soon. 😉
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..The last of its kind — we witnessed it =-.
Thanks Jonathan.. Unfortunately, looks like Our Odyssey is bugging out northward today. But we’re definitely looking forward to meeting up on our way out of FL (sometime in the next 2-6 weeks 😀 ). Who knows, we may even end up caravaning to NuRVers?
GREAT video! Your camera is far superior to ours, and so are your mad editing skillz.
Cherie, you said, “Wow!” at exactly the same moment I did as the shuttle lifted. Another convergence. We had a wonderful time being your temporary neighbors. See you again on the road.
Can’t wait for our next rendezvous, Louise! This has been awesome beyond belief! (Well, isn’t that our lives in general?)
Thanks for the video view of the always magnificent sight ! We are on Padre Island. You guys have fun ! Larry & Betty