Day 4768

It's been a very busy day. I made it to Florida and am looking forward to getting a little sleep before leaving early tomorrow morning to pick up my press credentials. The day started normally enough. We gave Dawn her sunrise walk and then I had my regular breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit. It didn't take me too long to finish packing, so I even had time to take a short walk in the park before leaving for the airport. Dawn is a smart dog and she knew something was different today. She seemed a little nervous when I left, but I talked to Janet later and she said Dawn was fine. Friday is grocery day, and when Janet got back to the house with groceries Dawn was a happy camper again. She'll probably be even happier when she grabs my spot on the bed tonight.

I can't say that Southwest Airlines is fine yet. They've still got some work to do to get back to normal. I wish they'd told me that they'd closed a big section of the parking garage. I didn't discover this until I was already inside the garage and couldn't get out again. It took me forever to find a parking place. I had to park in a completely different area and I'll probably have a hard time finding my car when I return.

Flights to Orlando are always completely full. It takes a long time for people to board and even longer for them to find a place for their luggage. There are usually tons of kids on the plane and I ended up sitting next to a very talkative teenager today. The kid seemed scared of flying and every time he heard a strange noise he kept asking me what the noise meant. His Mom gave him something to eat before going to her seat in the back of the plane and within ten minutes the kid had dropped his sandwich on the floor and managed to spill a big Diet Coke all over himself. Luckily the bottle wasn't pointed toward me or I would have been a sticky mess.

Even though we left Dallas late, we arrived in Orlando right on time. The pilots must have just flown a little faster while they were in the air. I always try to get a rental car with in-dash GPS but these things don't seems to exist anymore. I didn't feel like messing with CarPlay, so I just drove to my Airbnb by memory. I found the place just fine even though it was dark when I arrived. I've been to Titusville enough times now that it's beginning to seem more familiar to me than Dallas.

For some reason I've only got a one hour window to pick up my credentials early tomorrow morning. I need to be sure to set an alarm tonight because I'm tired and it would be easy to oversleep. After I pick up my badge, I will head over to the Press Site where a bus will take the launch photographers to the pad to set remote cameras and get some close up photos of the rocket before launch. These trips out to the launch pad are always my favorite part of a trip to Kennedy Space Center.

The Falcon Heavy launch itself is early tomorrow evening. It looks like it is going to be a clear day, but it will be very cold by Florida standards. The weather forecast says it will only be 36 degrees in the morning. That's colder than it is in Dallas right now. I brought some extra sweaters, but I'm beginning to think I didn't dress warmly enough. I went to a nearby grocery store after I arrived to pick up some food for my stay and it is already pretty chilly outside. This isn't like Florida at all.

I"d better post this and get some sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day