We have been in Central Florida for four months now. It's been busy every weekend. The kids have been getting surfing lessons, we've done some nature walks, watched some rockets launch, and even experienced our first hurricane. I'll have a whole post about Hurricane Ian later.
Below are some of our adventures. We have done more, but those will have their own post. These are the trips that didn't earn their own post.
Oakland Preserve
About two months ago on a Sunday afternoon we decided to go to the Oakland Preserve about 15 minutes away. It was a nice little walk and the first place we've seen a gator in the wild since moving here.
Common Gallinule
Citrus Showcase
About 5 weeks ago we went to Gatorland. Another trip that will get its own post. The day after we decided to stay local so we went to the Citrus Showcase. They had swamp truck rides at Gatorland but we didn't do them so I decided to go to the Citrus Showcase so we could do a swamp buggy through the old citrus groves.
A few weeks ago Natalie had to go to Miami. I was left with the kids while on call. We took a couple hours that afternoon and did the Apopka Wildlife Drive, in my Honda. It's off-road but the ground is compacted and it was actually pretty smooth considering I was in my sedan. Lots of gators and birds but no otters that day. The drive is about 15 miles so it was a little like the 15 mile bike ride we used to do at Shark Valley in the Everglades.
Artemis from 9.5 ish miles away.
Before Falcon 9 we found a Dominican restaurant for dinner.
No not a fireball. This is a Falcon 9. We parked at the bleachers at Space Force. The launch was about the same distance as watching Artemis, about 9-10 miles away. Even though this rocket is only half the size of Artemis it was very cool to watch. It was cloudy so we only saw the rocket for about 30 seconds before it was in the clouds. By this time the kids were asking why they can't hear it (even though beforehand I told them to expect a 45 - 55 second delay). Well shortly after they heard it, they felt it, and Dean said "I feel it in my belly". Then we got the coolest surprise a minute later when the first stage returned and we saw the "Falcon 9 Jellyfish" punch through the clouds.
Sunday the waves were trash and I wasn't even going to attempt to surf. Started my morning off with a cocktail.
Gator taking a swim by the shore.
At the old pumping station.
This guy decided to swim towards us.
No belts, no problem. We were driving on a one way dirt road really slow.
Artemis
In August the disappointment known as Artemis started. Artemis will be the biggest rocket ever launched, until Starship launches shortly after. When we lived in Coral Springs we drove up to see the last Space Shuttle launch and it was scrubbed when we were halfway there. I got to see it a week later in the middle of the day from work in Miami.
Well this wasn't the biggest surprise. We drove out to see the 08:00AM launch, leaving the house around 01:00AM to beat the crowds. Estimates were anywhere from 100,00 - 200,000+ people would be showing up. We got there before 03:00 and sat in a parking lot for a couple hours. Eventually we moved over to the bridge where we could see the Artemis, about 9.5 miles or so away across the river.
A couple hours before launch we started hearing reports about a leak in the tank. It was looking like they weren't going to launch. About 30 minutes before launch they decided to scrub. This was now my second NASA launch that I've been to and both scrubbed. At this point I had been to one Spacex launch and it went off.
A week later we went back for another attempt. This time we off-roaded it and parked under the bridge. We got out the truck, opened up our Pub-Subs and then within a couple minutes another scrub for another leak. They decided to keep this thing on the launch pad for a few weeks and try to fix it there but eventually had to move it due to Hurricane Ian. Next attempt is allegedly in November.
I did a lot of reading about this Artemis project and it's a friggin joke. NASA engineers recommended that we don't use hydrogen in the future but NASA secretary, who was then Senator at the time, Bill Nelson pushed to use hydrogen. Those non scientist in congress decided if they were going to fund it they were going to use hydrogen and old space shuttle parts, because the space shuttle program wasn't plagued with issues... I did a lot of reading about NASA's bespoke project model vs SpaceX and it's no wonder SpaceX is kicking their asses and doing things at 1/10th the cost. FYI Bill Nelson said NASA needs to be the ones putting people into space because no one can do it better than them. He's eating his words now and has realized contractors can do it better.
Watching Bill Nelson on tv was a joke. He's standing there comparing this to the Apollo missions trying to say that the first Artemis mission is trying to do what Apollo did in three missions. This is not a pioneering missing though. We already have that knowledge so he's comparing apples and oranges. Sadly some people eat this crap up. I'm not impressed by his words.
I think the first sentence of their mission explains part of why NASA, under our government is failing. What a mission statement. More identity politics! Who the F*** cares what gender and race is involved. Just get it done.
About a month ago we decided to watch a Falcon 9 launch from our house. The first 4 or 5 attempts were scrubbed. Not because of SpaceX but because of weather and federal regulations. Finally we go to see our launch one night. We watched on our phones and then 10 seconds later the clouds turned pink before we saw the fireball in the sky.
Cocoa Beach
A little over a week before Hurricane Ian we had a massive Cat4 Hurricane Fiona a couple hundred miles off our coast. It brought in 6-8 foot swells on the Space Coast that were supposed to last until Sunday. The peak was Friday and we showed up Saturday. Sadly the forecast was wrong and by Saturday it was already pretty washed out. We stayed at the Hilton in Cocoa Beach and decided to watch a Falcon 9 launch that night. It was amazing.
Crooked River Preserve
I'm out of order here. This is back when Natalie left for Miami. I took Dean for a walk at the preserve.
At home
I decided I'm not waiting until we buy our house to grow things. I bought a bunch of fabric pots and started a veggie garden. I also go some passionfruit, dragon fruit, dwarf mulberry, and a blackberry. I had the boys help me start our garden. I'm having all the kids help when I fertilize and deal with the pest so they can learn from it.
I order my plants online. Those bananas were small like this just two months before this picture.
Dean's new thing is the mustache pose for pictures.
The night before Hurricane Ian came through I walked outside in my sandals and nearly stepped on this Coral Snake. I took a picture and then went online to make sure it was a Coral Snake and not a Milk Snake. Sure enough it is a Coral Snake. It got away while I was trying to identify it. At first I was a little concerned about it being right there by my back patio but then I read about how hard it is to get them to bite you and how even though their venom is very strong they inject so little and no one dies from a Coral Snake these days with anti-venom available. So meh...
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