Our first rocket launch

Photo credit:  NASA  (We weren’t THAT close!)

We’ve been settling into the RV Resort nicely, getting our Christmas shopping and decorating done.

My new wool habit – a little wooly pine tree,

and a Nativity runner for my kitchen counter.

We have just a few Christmas touches around the RV, but some people have gone all-out with lights!

Tom and I have a rather large Christmas gift for each other this year – somewhat unexpectedly . . . Tom and the boys have always wanted to get new wheels and tires for the Jeep, but Tom figured that we should get some mileage out of the existing tires before we replace them. 

We had just started talking about trying to get that done this spring (maybe on the way back up to Virginia), when last week on our way to Sanford we heard a “Pop!” and the tire monitor on the dash started flashing at us!

Tom pulled over to the shoulder and, sure enough, we had a flat!

Tom got the old one off and the spare on in its place!

It was actually pretty easy, and we were back on the road in about 45 minutes!  So now we’re running on the spare and have the flat tire on the back of the Jeep . . . and we’ve been shopping wheels, and tires, and lift kits . . .  We finally ordered the wheels and tires, and are waiting on the lift kit until we see the Jeep with them installed.

Tom decided to wash the Jeep to get it ready . . .

now it’s all clean and ready for new shoes!

We’d been hearing about the upcoming SpaceX launch since we arrived here, and when it was re-scheduled for Friday morning, we decided to go into Titusville to watch.  There are lots of locations for a good view of the launch sites, and we ended up picking a parking lot on Highway 1, directly across from the Vehicle Assembly building and the launch pads.

There were already several cars there when we arrived, so we figured it must be a pretty good spot.

It was definitely a beautiful morning for a launch!

We had our chairs, two sets of binoculars, and the long lens on my camera . . . we were ready!

We weren’t looking at quite the right location across the river, but as soon as takeoff occurred at 10:36 am, we spotted it!

We watched as the rocket rose into the sky over Cape Canaveral,

and as it disappeared into the clouds!

Funny – it sure looked like it was going in a straight line as it rose into the sky!

It wasn’t until the rocket had disappeared into the clouds that we finally heard the roar from the take-off! 

Just a few minutes later, as we were watching the residual fluffy clouds from the take-off disperse,  we spotted the first stage of the rocket returning!

We watched the fireball lower towards the ground, and heard the sonic boom soon after it disappeared from view, but couldn’t see the actual landing from our location.  I borrowed a photo from SpaceX that showed the landing – pretty cool that they could bring it back down with such accuracy!

It was a pretty cool thing to see, and we heard that night launches are even better, so we’re hoping for another before the end of January!