After Miami, we made our way 225km north east to Sebastian, Florida. The RV park we stayed in was Whispering Pines RV Resort – mostly permanent mobile homes. We heard later that Sebastian was very much a retirement town. Our RV site was extremely narrow and even though it was a pull through, it took a while to get us lined up on the concrete pad so the feet of the RV would stay on the pad when lowered. The people in the RV next to us were from Quebec but could hardly speak English. They had a very friendly young dog who was dying to play with Jax but Jax would having nothing of it.
The campground was situated across from a very busy road with two way traffic and on top of that they also had a commuter and freight railway track at the back of the park. Needless to say the noise of traffic from both sides of the park started at about 3 am in the morning and continued the whole day. We didn’t get a full night’s sleep that whole week. The only advantage of having the road outside of us was that there was a paved sidewalk on the opposite side which I used to walk Jax and Derek used for his morning running practices.
It was a very busy week work wise. We had some errors in our books which took hours of tracking down together and I was also very busy with sales and marketing. I did however, manage to find a hair stylist who turned out to be an absolute gem. In between Mojitos we talked about her partner and travels. She gave me the best haircut and highlight I have had for years.
A couple of days before our intended visit to the Kennedy Space Center, there was a rocket launch. As the Center was over an hour away, we decided to watch it instead from the Merrill P. Barber bridge (a recommended observation spot) 5 miles south of Sebastian. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (USSF-124) was launched at 5.30pm with a payload of 5 satellites on board to take into earth’s orbit for the US Space Force. It left from launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral, about 75 miles (120 km) north of our position. The Falcon 9 first stage (its 9th launch and recovery) landed back on its pad about 8 minutes after launch which we could not see. While the launch was far away it was still spectacular. Elon Musk and SpaceX certainly have the launch and recovery of reusable rockets down pat.
After the launch we drove down to Vero beach a short distance away and walked around the area. The sun was just beginning to set and whole area was basked in a pink light. Vero beach is a lovely upmarket, tourist destination – beautifully kept white sand, boutique shops and hotels and interesting restaurants.
On Friday we visited the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). KSC was named after President John F. Kennedy, who played a vital role in igniting America’s commitment to space exploration. Since December 1968, it has been NASA’s primary launch center for human spaceflight, astronaut training, and is also used for research and assembly of vehicles. All manned space missions are launched from KSC and all unmanned rockets and satellites are launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The two centers are connected by a number of bridges and causeways on Merritt Island, Florida. The area around is it a Wildlife refuge. As this area is prone to lightning strikes, a special lightning protection system has been installed around the launch pads to divert lightning from vehicles during launch. Its Vehicle Assembly Building is the largest single story building in the world. It is 526 ft tall and covers 8 acres, providing for the assembly of rockets and spacecraft.
The Visitor’s Center where we were, provided a bus tour around the facility (unfortunately we did not take it) and has numerous exhibits from completed and planned rocket and shuttle programs. It also has a few virtual reality rides and simulators, an Astronaut hall of fame which pays tribute to Astronauts both living and dead, an Imax theatre, backstage tours on Astronaut training, a few fast food stores and of course a nice big gift store. We wished we could have more time to visit but we had to get back to Jax. We were surprised how busy it was for a Friday but it turned out that Fridays are usually “Field trip Fridays” – so there were tons of kids – who would have known? What an incredible place to visit.
The following day we drove to Sebastian River Preserve to do a hike with Jax. Miles of open grassy forests of Longleaf pine, wiregrass and saw palmetto. We were expecting to see some wildlife but all we saw was one woodpecker, but it was still nice to have a good walk.
For our last day in Sebastian I planned to visit the Sebastian Inlet State Park and also check out the Pelican Refuge. Unfortunately we had torrential rain the whole day, so we ended up staying in the RV instead. Very disappointing.
Departing from the RV site was as challenging as getting in as there were trees and signs to avoid. Luckily Derek expertly manoeuvred the RV through the obstacles and we set off again to our next location. It was only when we were leaving Sebastian that he realized we had left one of our chocs, which had been supporting the back wheel, behind. That was my bad, as usually he pulls out and I pick up the back choc and throw it in the truck. I was so engrossed in getting us out of the site without hitting anything, that I completely forgot to grab it.
