American Locations: American Locations 40

The trip is from New River, West Virginia, to Stinking Creek, Tennessee, by way of Long Key, Florida.

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Back on the mainland we drove south on Hwy. 1 to Titusville. We found a county campground on the coast across from Cape Canaveral. The best waterfront sites were closed because of damage from the last hurricane, but we still secured a nice one. The campground host told us the place filled up whenever there was a rocket launch since this was a prime location to view them from.

We relaxed the rest of the day, then got up early the next morning and drove to Kennedy Space Center.

Outside there was a good collection of rockets to see.

The first exhibit we went inside to see was historical. Two full grown men squeezed into this Gemini capsule.

And an Apollo capsule.

A mock-up of the NASA control center used in the first launches.

The Right Stuff, the original seven astronauts of the Mercury Program.

Of course, there were more current displays. This model of a Mars rover wasn't built to scale. As you can see in the background, there is always a gift shop.

In another building were displays of craft designed by Space X and Boeing.

NASA partnering with GM? That's a scary thought. But this wasn't a real robot, just a vehicle with a man inside.

There were many other exhibits and presentations, too numerous to mention (fact check: that statement means I can't remember them all). But they were all fascinating. Then we hit the road on a bus tour. This was that huge building we could see from Canaveral National Seashore.

Space X uses NASA's launch facility, too. Note the water tower. This is one of their launch pads.

A crawler transport. These things are so huge.

We got off the bus to tour a large hanger that had been converted into a museum. This is not a mock-up. This is the actual equipment NASA used in their original control room.