Kennedy Space Center, the State Fair & the Gulf

One of our bucket list items for Florida was to go to the Kennedy Space Center. We accomplished that on Valentine's Day. While a lot of the displays were similar to the Huntsville location, you can't beat the history of NASA's space program that has occurred here. After checking in we boarded a bus that took us out to a launch pad and the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). Midway we stopped to see the Apollo Saturn V display.

At the end of the tour bus drops you off at the Atlantis building where the space ship is displayed hanging from the ceiling. 

Outside of building

Part of the inside of the cargo bay

Another view

The pictures don't do it justice-it is a very large space craft. We enjoyed seeing it up close. Some other displays: 

Vehicular Suit - deemed not necessary by NASA although they worked fine

Mock up of the Hubble Space telescope

There was a lot to see and and take in and we didn't do everything on our list. The Sunday after we were there was the launch of the SpaceX spaceship taking supplies to the International Space Station. That would have been fun to see. While we weren't there in person, we did watch the launch on TV.

We were heading towards Jacksonville to see the Spyder Control crew when we ran into another glitch. After staying overnight at a Cracker Barrel, we were unable to pull in one of our slides. That necessitated a call to a mobile RV repair guy to help us push in the slide so we could travel again. We did make it to Jacksonville and then headed to Tampa (despite warnings we shouldn't travel far because of the slide) to General RV where we can get repairs done on the slide. Our frustration level is at an all time high with this latest set back! 

We found a campground in the Tampa area that had room, and we've been here for almost a week. Parts should be here tomorrow (we hope!). While here we were able to take in the Florida State Fair. Of course, we had to compare it to the Great MN Get Together! While smaller, they had a large midway and the requisite fair food stands. We happened upon a performance by Matt's Family Jam. This is a family band that we had already seen in Bushnell, so we stopped by for their 1/2 hour show. 

It rained that day so the temps were cool and the crowds less than they would have been. For the grandkids: here are two bouncy houses that they had at the fair.

Yesterday we drove to Anna Maria Island to see the gulf beaches. Ahhh, it's nice to dip your toes in the Gulf of Mexico. 

We've got about a month left here in Florida. We're enjoying the warmth and sunshine!