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Monday, July 4, 2011

Turnerloose At NASA...

Self portraits are an art that needs to be lost 
I took a very thorough and extensive shower this morning. But before you go hollerin’ “T-M-I, Lewis,” just wait a few sentences.
I was going to NASA, and knew the clearance procedure would be equally thorough/extensive. Surprisingly I was wrong… but we’ll talk about that later.
Today I took my first ever trip into Kennedy Space Center. I drove down I-95 from Jacksonville most of the way. But decided I had seen enough depressing concrete and turned off at Exit 220 – Titusville.

I figured I’d take Highway 1 down to the KSC media gate to get my pass, that way I could see the guts of some of the towns , including Titusville itself, but some of the “Port” towns as well.
You ever drove through a place and feel like you went back in time?
Every time I drive through my beloved Florida Keys (the upper ones especially) I feel like I’m going through towns that the 1990s and 2000s forgot about. I mean that in a good way.
I almost feel like driving the Space Coast on Highway 1, I was traveling through some towns that the 1980s forgot about as well.
Old motel after old motel for the 15 or so miles from Titusville to Cocoa.
One was called the Apollo Inn, and it was most definitely built between 1963-1972 (years of the Apollo space program).

The Apollo Inn as I'm driving down U.S. 1

I mention this mainly because it’s a part of the country that exploded in the early 60s, with the manned space-flight program. People flooded into these towns, paid top dollar to eat fried seafood, buy cheesy t-shirts, and spend the night at what was then top notch lodging.
An old seafood shack was gutted. I saw only one open t-shirt store.
What happened? Did the space program lose its shebang, its tourist-attracting luster?
“Awwww, there will always be another rocket, or shuttle going up,” someone may say.
With the reality that there in fact will not be another shuttle launch, at least not how we know it, a million people are expected to flood into these towns. The Apollo Inn has NO VACANCY this week, as does every hotel/motel/condo from here to Epcot.
One last hurrah guys… then what? Then what’s going to happen to these towns that are already quite sleepy?
I’m not trying to take a political stand on the fiscal sense the shuttle program makes, I’m just going to miss it. And after a trip down U.S. Highway 1 from Titusville to Cocoa Beach, I’d say every town in between will miss it too. I’ll be interested to see if the 2010s take Exit 220, stop by, look around and then hop right back on I-95.


 


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