Disney 2010: Day 8 (Part 2)

What day is it again?  We’ve lost track of all time and space at this point.

We headed out for dinner around 7pm and wandered around some.  Finally settled on TGI Fridays before heading back to the hotel to kill time before we were supposed to meet up with Lee for the shuttle launch.  We watched the Bud Shootout, and then John surfed the internet while I started watching Runaway Jury.  Almost forgot, we saw this insane Lobstermobile, on the way back to our room, at the “Boston Lobster Feast” buffet.  The lobster must weigh as much as the car.

Lee called around 11:20pm, so we headed downstairs to meet him at the front of the hotel.  It took around an hour to get to Kennedy Space Center where we would be watching the launch of STS-130.  It was scheduled to go at 4:39am.  It was very chilly on the causeway where employees were assigned to park.  Not much wind, but my hands were freezing as I tried to hold on to my hot chocolate.  We were about 4.5 miles away from the launch pad and could see the shuttle.  Unfortunately my little P&S camera isn’t good enough to get decent shots so Lee told me he’d send me his once we’re all done.

I sent some commemorative envelopes to selected people at home.  They’re addressed and stamped, but won’t get postmarked and mailed until the launch has actually happened.  And then we waited, and waited, and waited some more.  As we were waiting, the clouds were starting to move in and the chance of a launch dropped from 80% to 30%.  Unfortunately the numbers just weren’t on our side — the launch was scrubbed at T-9 (4:30am) because the clouds just wouldn’t clear.  It’s been rescheduled for 4:14am Sunday night, so I think we’re going to try again while we’re here.

It took us over 3 hours to get back to our hotel because the traffic was so bad.  John is still sleeping, and I’ve been up for less than an hour.  I think we’re going to putz around Orlando some and then have dinner at Cafe Tu Tu Tango before heading out again tonight.  Since my camera won’t capture any of this, here are some photos from NASA’s photo gallery. (Photo credits and copyright as described on the NASA website.)

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