On this date in 1969 the first men landed on the moon. The event captured the attention of the world. I didn’t watch a lot of TV today but I saw no mention of the landing on TV news or in the paper today. Google art was a tribute to Gregor Mendel on his 189th birthday.
I promised a little more about working at the Cape in my last blog so here goes. I had a conversation with Karen last week and realized how little of that experience I had talked about with my family so this is a good way to document some of it.
My apartment was only 2 blocks from the beach so I spent a lot of time on the beach that summer. My work days went like this. The ride to work was usually interesting. My route took me along A1A to Cape Canaveral AF Station. That’s where all our unmanned and Mercury and Gemini Program manned launches occurred. The traffic was pretty heavy entering the gate to the base and the guards had to check everyone's badge before they could enter. Traffic didn’t stop. The cars and motorcycles drove through holding up their badge to get waived through. The road then followed the coast for a few miles passing all the old and current launch platforms.
Many days started with a glorious golden sunrise. Between the sunrise and all the launch platforms the drive was never dull. On some days a layer of morning fog lay about 50 feet up and all the launch towers and the VAB all disappeared into the fog.
One morning I had a mechanical problem with my Yamaha. I knew what it was but I had to pull off the road to fix it. As I was doing the repair a loud rumble filled the air. I turned around and saw an Atlas rocket climbing into the sky. It was a classified Air Force satellite being launched. I would have missed it if I didn’t need to make the repair.
The Kennedy Space Center complex was connected to the Air Force Station by a long bridge. My motorcycle's top speed was OK for that bridge but at that speed the 2-cycle engine laid out a constant stream of white smoke. I know the cars behind me did not enjoy that. My route then took me past all the KSC offices and then out the 3 mile road to the VAB and LCC buildings where I worked. Since there was access to launch hardware out there another gate and badge check was required.
The ride back after work was just the reverse. Some days I wouldn’t go right home but explore a little. I’d take the long way home exploring he coastline there (it was completely undeveloped) and the dock area where the brought in rocket stages. I watched a group of Manatees in the dock area one time.
OK that’s all I’ve got on that today.
I spent most of today working on the bookshelf for C&C. All the pieces are cut out and the basic structure is now glued together.
Here’s a picture of it all clamped up with the glue drying.
I also cranked up the power washer and cleaned our back patio.
On the kitty front only Buzz stops by but he is getting quite relaxed with me. He plops down on his side just within my reach and lets me pet him while he lies there. It’s funny because Brie does this too. It seems to be a kitty thing for the cats in this neighborhood going all the way back to Mustache.
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