After leaving Saint Augustine and stopping off at the fort our goal for today is to get to Daytona beach which is enroute to Key Largo which signifies the third and final stage of our adventure.
Enroute we pass a pretty pier which is deserves a venture and a picture. We only stopped for 30-40mins to take a walk down the long pier. Near to Daytona we see a English style pub and head in for lunch, going classic with dishes of bangers and mash and liver, bacon & onion. Interestingly the owner came over hearing our voices, he was a Londoner, broad cockney and he seemed to like the fact we were British, the food was okay….
In Daytona we know not much of this place other than it’s known for a very long beach and the home of NASCAR, not that we are interested in racing. We have booked in a hotel on the beach front hoping for an afternoon on the beach or pool depending on weather. We check into our sea view room which is actually located on the side of building and you can see the sea if you put your head out of the window, good job is was only $60 a night!
That afternoon we did as planned, hitting the beach and pool, building a sandcastle but the sea was very rough and no one but me was in it, I took the hint and settled for the calm pool. The beach was very long, as far as you could see in both directions, cars could also drive on it which we thought was odd. At the side of the pool it had a type of dry curling without the scrubbing. We played this for a good hour or so as it was great fun, we were both pretty average.
That evening we went for a pizza, getting one each which turns out to be a mistake. The pizza was very tasty but we ended up going home with nearly a full pizza in a doggy bag. That night we did some more planning and booked somewhere to stay after visiting NASA, the last place we go before hitting the Keys.
Following our breakfast of re-heated pizza we checkout and hit the road. Our goal is West Palm beach but first we head to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre. We arrive about 11ish, got in and started exploring. I visited this place when I was a kid, some things brought back memories like the massive Apollo spacecraft laying on its side but a lot had changed and had been americanised and mare tourist friendly which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After a brief tour we jumped on a bus and headed of around the huge site. The site itself is impressive but our tour guide we had was mediocre tbh. We get off to see the Saturn V rocket and after a interesting video we get to see it. It's massive, the largest rocket ever made at 360ft! We explore, get some good photos and head back on the bus back to the main visitors centre.
At the visitors centre we head for Atlantis which flew its last mission in 2011, cost 196 bn dollars in 2011 and could fly nearly 17600 mph, impressive!. Again we explore this, the hubble aircraft and other attractions on mars and the moon landings. We have already been 4+ hours just seeing 4-5 attractions so we head off to find the last one which sounds good, a launch simulator.
After only a 5-10 min queue we get in the simulator, strap ourselves in and prepare for take off. The countdown begins and the simulator kicks into action. Its shakes, it screams, goes at what feels like a 180 degree angle, feeling like you're actually moving however this is just tricks of the mind with huge screens, loud noises and well timed shaking and jerking! After leaving we check and the floor inclines by 7 degrees and the seat declines 62.5 degrees which is nearly close to being laid on your back. Eventually we reach out of space, which is hard to simulate I guess, and the simulator ends. We have had our fill of space, Izzi obviously had and we set of the West Palm beach. The goal is to drive 2-3 hours further south before crashing for the night to then do the same the next day until we hit Key Largo!
No comments:
Post a Comment