Huntsville - part 1 (Sat 13 Oct-Wed 17 Oct)

Saturday 13th October - got up mid-morning, showered & dressed.  Sorted out my washing & went downstairs to do the 1st load.  Used the hotel computer to check out places of interest, find & print directions and checked facebook.  Put 1st load in the dryer then went upstairs to my room, got 2nd load & back downstairs to put that on.  Went back upstairs to my room & got 3rd load, back downstairs & put that on, took 1st load out of dryer, up to my room, folded & put away.  Went back downstairs, put 2nd & 3rd loads in dryers, went back up to my room & mucked about for a bit.  Then it was back downstairs, removed 2nd & 3rd loads from dryers, back up to my room, folded washing & put away.  By this time is was mid-afternoon so I mucked about on the computer some more, then got a headache from blowing my nose so lay on the bed & napped for a bit.  Woke up mid-evening, watched some tv and just blobbed till I fell asleep.


Sunday 14th October - woke up mid-morning, showered & dressed, checked facebook & emails, checked directions for where I was going, went downstairs & got a taxi to Walmart.  A few hours later I returned to the hotel with everything I had on my list, and surprise surprise, a whole heap of stuff that wasn't on my list.  Plopped bags on the bed, put frozen stuff in the freezer (toaster strudels!), put chilled stuff in the fridge, made a cup of tea, then checked facebook & emails.  A wee while later I sorted out my purchases, folded them neatly & put them in a bag.  I then had some steamed vegetables for dinner & watched tv till I fell asleep.



Monday 15th October - got out of bed about lunchtime, beautified my feet which took just over an hour, then showered & dressed.  Checked facebook & emails, sorted out some of the music on my tablet & watched some tv.  About 6.30pm Kimberley picked me up & we went to Red Lobster for dinner - endless shrimp!  Got back to the hotel about 9pm, spent another half hour or so talking to Kimberley, then made my way back to my room.  Checked facebook & emails, watched tv and went to bed about 1am.

Me, Kimberley & Ulrich attempting the self-photo.

Tuesday 16th October - got up earlyish, showered & dressed and then headed to the shopping centre nearby to have a looksie.  Spent most of the day there, bought a couple of books, had lunch at PF Changs, bought some more clothes for Madison & some for Dominique as well.  Got back to the hotel, made plans to go to the US Space & Rocket Center (as I found out the hotel has a shuttle which will take you there no charge!), went up to my room & blobbed for a bit.  Then I updated my blog, exciting few days I have had, checked facebook & emails.  Had the shrimp linguini I brought back from Red Lobster the night before for dinner, watched some tv and went to bed about midnight.


Wednesday 17th October - Got up earlyish, showered, partially packed & then got the hotel shuttle to the US Space & Rocket Center for a quick visit.  Didn't expect it to be too interesting as space & rockets not really my thing so only expected to be there for about an hour or two, but I got there about 9.30am and I had to leave before I saw everything as I had to check out of the hotel by 2pm.  It is also the home of Space Camp and Aviation Challenge.  There was a very interesting exhibit about Von Braun at the start, but there were 2 classrooms of 7-8 year olds visiting at the same time as me so I didn't get any photos of any of the inside exhibits.

Entrance to the US Space & Rocket Center.

Finally got to see up close those pointy things I kept seeing from the roads.  This is outside the USSRC, the kids had all been taken for learning sessions so it was pretty quiet outside. :-)

Some interesting stuff.  This isn't a rocket, it's a landing module.

Recreation of the moon surface.

The Saturn V rocket - carried many space missions - the tallest of the tall pointy things one sees from the roads - apparently this is a recreation, the real one is in the building next to this.

Skylab - not sure if this is a recreation or real.  The lady at the entrance told me that the exhibits standing up were recreations & the ones on their sides were real, actual used things.  

A retrieval submarine.  And the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this?  "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine".  And I bet you sung it in your head as well!! 

Some more of the outside exhibits.

Ulrich beside the Saturn V rocket recreation.  Was quite difficult getting the whole thing in the photo when up this close.

Memorial wall of all the space missions.

Close up of one of the plaques on the wall.

Neil Armstrong's moon boot print.

Inside the "Saturn V Hall".  This is the end of the actual Saturn V rocket, with a bit of the head of an actual V2 rocket as well.

One of the many, many space mission related exhibits in the very, very long Saturn V Hall.  This is a simulator astronauts used.

Another space mission related object.

Part of the engine of the Saturn V rocket.

The actual lunar buggy from the 1969 first moon landing.  All together now - WOW!!!

The actual Apollo 16 Command Module that flew to the moon & back - it was launched by a Saturn V rocket on 16th April 1972 and landed back on earth 11 days later with the crew & 208 pounds of moon rocks.  All together now - WWOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!

An actual moon rock.  All together now "Oh. Hhmmm."  LOL

Looking back down the Saturn V Hall at the suspended rocket, well parts of it, couldn't get the whole thing in so chopped off the top part.

A model of a 'Moon Base'.

Something one of the 'space' companies is working on.  And, yes, there is an actual little 'doll' standing in the bathroom section.  *giggle*

One of the outside exhibits I didn't have time to get to.

Got back to the hotel about 1.30pm, finished packing, checked out & caught a taxi to the bus station to catch my 6.30pm bus to New Orleans.  Got to the bus station about 2.20pm & spent the next 4 hours watching the people.  Was not a very big bus station, and was in the middle of business district nowhere (no shops, take-aways or such nearby), but some very interesting people passed through.  Also made a friend which helped the time to go by.  What didn't help was the bus being 20 minutes late, but it was all good when it finally did arrive.  Had a quick stopover in Birmingham & then changed buses in Mobile before arriving in New Orleans at 5.30am Thursday morning.  NB: continued in new post 'New Orleans - part 1 - Thurs 18th Oct'.