TL (1) - Kennedy Space Center - 23-02-10

Travel Log #1 - 23-02-2009
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Gainesville - Orlando - Kennedy Space Center - Gainesville
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The last two weeks I have been working on my research project trying to get things finished up. Unfortunately I haven't been able to complete it fully and I have no idea about what the consequences of this will be. I'll just have to wait and see. For now I will focus on a more joyful happening.

The Grand Tour of the Eastcoast of the USA has started. From the 23rd of February until the 9th of March I will be driving around the Eastcoast trying to soak in as much of the country as possible before I have to head back home to the Netherlands. I expect to see beautiful nature, landscapes, environments, architecture, national heritage locations, scenic roads and whatever more comes in my way. I also hope to get a real feel of the country by spending time with a lot of Americans during my trip. I hope I can benefit from couchsurfing.com and meet some very interesting people along the way.

Back to the matter of the day, on this Tuesday my fellow student Wilco had his return trip back to the Netherlands so I decided I could rent my car a day earlier and bring him to Orlando Airport. However the car I had reserved online wasn't available so I received a different one. I instantly felt like a soccermom (or dad in my case) when i saw the minivan standing in the parking area. It was a VW Touran with 7 seats, since I would drive most of the road alone I decided that such a car was a bit too much. I figured I could get a new car in Orlando since the rental office near the airport is way bigger then the one in Gainesville.

So be it, after dropping off some of Wilco's stuff to the local charity we head to Orlando and had a nice trip. When I dropped him off I realized I had a lot of time spare in this day so I decided I would continue on the road and go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

This complex has some real-size replica's of the space shuttle and various rockets and boosters. It also has an amazing Imax Theater were I could watch the moonlanding and the ISS in 3D. It was quite a nice experience to be oooh'ing and aaah'ing with the rest of the crowd about the 3-D effects. I also felt very young during my stay in the park since most of the visitors seemed to be seniors enjoying their retirement, to be fair what else could you expect on a Tuesday afternoon.

I left the complex around 6pm and decided to check in at the airport to see if I could get a new car. Well fortunately they still had one available and it had the GPS inside which I asked for in the first place. The Hertz company was kind enough to supply the GPS for free and I am now the proud driver of a 2009 White Toyota Camry. It should be a lot easier to park in tight spots then that huge minivan. During my trip back to Gainesville I really started to appreciate this quite yet powerful car which seems to have quite a good mileage on highway cruise control. I can see myself driving around the coast in this car. I also noticed it had an mp3-player inside, so when I got home I immediately burned some MP3-data cd's to listen to on the long road.

My travel plan is extremely flexibel and the only date that is currently solid is the return flight at the 9th of March. I do have some things I would like to see. I'll just write those down for future reference.

- New York
- Washington D.C.
- Blue Ridge Parkway (One of the most beautiful scenic drivers of the US)
- Smokey Mountains National Park
- A racetrack (preferably with race)
- and a lot of surprise locations

I hope to write my log almost daily , but I of course have to have access to the internet to update it online.

As always any comments or reactions are more then welcome and greatly appreciated, and I'll even try to answer them once in a while.

Bouke