Adam and Loki See Last Space Shuttle Launch

[HokieLoki]

Well, we did it.

Thanks to Adam's mother's generosity, and Adam and I's ability to drive long distances with little to no sleep, we made it to Florida, watched the 47 seconds of shuttle launch and drove all the way back. 

And it was f*cking awesome.

I am sure Adam will post more on this, but see for yourself.  Here are some highlights of the trip...

The drive begins! Adam left his home in the Washington, D.C. area to head to Blacksburg, VA and pick up one of our passengers.



He then found some traffic...or actually lots, I hear.



The next day he drove to Myrtle Beach to pick me up!



Then we left from my house soon after picking me up.  I even drove all the way to Florida!  Look, no hands!



Adam was tired...he slept, I drove...





We drove through Charleston, SC



And saw a cool Independence Day cow...So patriotic!



We left SC



Drove through Georgia



And made it to Florida!



We got in around 11:30, checked in to our hotel room, and promptly went to sleep.  We were tired...Then we got up at 6:00 and were out for THE MAIN EVENT!

It was early....



And here is our view.  We arrived a bit after 7:00.  The shuttle launched around 11:26, so four hours of waiting.  We were across the inlet from the cape.  About 12 miles away from the actual launch pad, which is that black structure in the distance...



Adam and I waiting.  Alexandra is there too, in front of me.  The picture was shot by Daniel, Adam's younger brother.



The guy waiting next to us.  Pretty sure it was a full moon that night....



And here is what a total of nearly 40 hours of driving got us.  Again, as I said, I'd do it all over again just for that 47 seconds.  I have given the links to the full size images under their thumbnails. 

PLEASE, I highly encourage you to visit those links and then click the images that come up to zoom in some.  The thumbnails do NOT do justice to the view we had and to the unreal sight we were given. 


http://i.imgur.com/IreP5.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/TrSZ9.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/8ZLuH.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/TjYqe.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/qTDpF.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/ntgoI.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/bGlJt.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/0YTuJ.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/gjbN9.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/OZ5Of.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/nVxJH.jpg

Amazing.  Truly awe-inspiring.  Surely, we watched history being made.  The ending of a great era.

Then we had to deal with traffic.  Here is a shot of the GPS about 15 minutes before we finally got on the interstate which was about 10 miles from where we were.  And yes, you're reading that correctly.  It took us 1 hour, 31 minutes to go 2.6 miles, giving us an average spead of 1.7mph overall.  Pretty awesome....



Oh yeah, and it was hot.  Thanks Florida.



We made it back just fine.  More traffic on the interstate than I would like to discuss now.  Never have I driven with such anger and agression.  But safely still.

I can not put in to words or pictures how amazing an event this was though.  We stood around for a minute or so after and let the sound wave get to us.  The sound of just...raw and mighty, awesome power.  It was amazing.  I am so glad I made it out to this, the last shuttle launch. 

Hope you enjoyed it all! 

[snipa]

That's very cool! Sounds like it was worth all the long hours of driving/traffic/heat

[Eric]

Looks like you had some FUN