Kennedy and Kuklas

DAY SEVEN ~ 292.4 miles Jacksonville Kennedy and Kuklas

I made it! The Atlantic Ocean is at my feet!!!

It is absolutely wonderful to see the Kuklas! Caroline and I went to high school and played soccer together, and after high school her parents moved back East and our visits have been unfortunately few over the past years. But I am going to be staying here for two days and hopefully we’ll have a nice visit. Caroline has three adorable children, Warren, Elizabeth and baby Meredith. Warren was nice enough to let me sleep in his bunk bed but he was so funny this morning. It was about 7:30 and I guess he really wanted me to wake up so he came back into the room and opened the door and kept it open, when I opened my eyes he ran from the room. When I went out he and Elizabeth showed me all of their toys as he explained the finer points of Batman. I especially loved when he told me his grandma had gotten him VHS at a garage sale and that they were REALLY OLD!!!

Today I traveled down the coast to the oldest European settlement in the United States. The Spanish settled Saint Augustine in 1542, and it is an adorable small town with a Spanish architecture. My drive through tour of American continued, as I had to get myself down to Kennedy Space Center so I didn’t actually get out of the car.

I had first been to Kennedy Space Center in 1986 when I was nine years old. My grandparents had taken my entire family on a cruise of the Caribbean, after which we spent some time in Florida. On that day my cousins went to Disney World and I really wanted to go but my parents took me to Kennedy Space Center instead. As a result I remember being in a snit and nothing of the Space Center. Since then I have become a space nut – I know super shocking for a history geek.

Trusting my iPhone Google Maps I drove up to the gate…where the man popped out of the guard shack with his hand on his holster.
Guard: “You can’t be here!”
Me: “I’m sorry my Google Maps sent me here! LOOK!”
Guard: visibly relaxing “You know that is the second time this happened, I wonder how that can even be on Google?”
Me: “Sorry”
Guard: “It’s okay you need to go back about ten miles…”
Is anyone else concerned that Google Maps takes you to the secret entrance?

Kennedy Space Center was awesome! I took the three-hour tour – I did make it back to Jacksonville relatively on time. The main building that you see on the TV is ginormous in real life. From five miles away it looks huge. The tour takes you by about five times so you really get a chance to see it. The building is so large that you can take Yankee Stadium and put it inside and then still have room for parking. The stars on the side are eight feet long and six feet wide! We stopped at the site where the Apollo missions were sent off from, and we walked through the replica room with all of the original equipment so we could experience a launch. We went to the space station room and the Mercury missions.


A couple of thoughts…while I decided to forgo the experience a launch we did see several movies. I’m just saying that this is NASA…you’d think they would have better graphics than movies that look like they were made for 1982 betamax! But the Saturn Five rocket was amazing, the size of the Apollo capsules gave me hives, and I got to touch a moon rock. A very successful day!
That night the Kuklas took me for some authentic Southern BBQ- I don’t think out waitress knew what flour/gluten is…when I asked she just came back with the ingredient lists! ☺
I am so glad that I got to see the Kuklas!!!

Off to Georgia…

Miles Traveled So Far: 3139.4

Movies that have run through my mind: Space Camp, The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, From Earth to the Moon, the Mission (I was in Saint Augustine – built by the Spanish!)