Catch up time: Our Jonathan Dickinson/Space Coast adventure - Day 5

Jonathan Dickinson Day 5

Today’s trek was out of this world.

Ever since we were rushed through the Kennedy Space Center on our cruise tour back in November we have been looking forward to returning to the KSC to finish the tour.

Up early, we headed back to Titusville and the KSC about 8 a.m. for the two hour drive. Crowds were light and this time we were able to see the IMAX movie we missed the first time and enjoyed an “Astronaut Encounter” with John Fabian, who flew on Shuttle Missions 7 and 51.

His talk was entertaining and light and the pictures he showed were unbelievable.

Astronaut Fabian was a Vietnam combat pilot and I got to speak to him ever so briefly after the talk and Joan and I had our photos taken with him. That one thing was worth the drive.

The orange gantry photo is the same one used by Apollo 11 astronauts (Neil Armstrong, etc.) to climb aboard the Apollo spacecraft for the historic journey to the moon.

We took the KSC bus back out to the Apollo exhibit and caught a couple of displays we missed the first time through. We visited the “Rocket Garden” which included the catwalk that was used by Neil Armstrong on his historic flight to the moon. Kind of cool to walk where Neil and the other astronauts walked just seconds before they were strapped into the Apollo space capsule and launched into space.

Following the tour of KSC we headed over to the Astronaut Hall of Fame (admission included) and spent about an hour looking at the many artifacts there. I am particularly interested in those involving Alan Shepherd, America’s first man in space, as early in his Naval career he served about the USS Cogswell, DD-651, which I also served on a decade later. It’s a tenuous bond, but a bond nonetheless.

After that tour we headed back to Uncle Pete and Aunt Judi’s house in Stuart. Joan went to a Bingo dinner, which obviously was a dinner that included Bingo. I know, I know, pretty self explanatory. Pete and I stayed home and enjoyed watching tennis on his big screen television and Pete made some wonderful steaks for dinner. If I haven’t said it enough before, Uncle Pete is a five-star chef.

After the ladies returned home, only Pete’s sister Jean came home a winner, we returned to our campsite for some sleep.