Alabama: Huntsville (Day 3)

Day 119
No Boat Travel

Clark and I agreed that we would be up and out early to make the most of the visit to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  However, some activity at the dock delayed our departure. One of the looper-owned boats near the fuel dock, Tuscobia, could not exit the slip when it came time for them to leave this morning.  Either the water in the river was lowered since they came into the slip or taking on water positioned their boat lower in the river, but either way they were not going anywhere fast.  The floating docks near the fuel dock have cables running under water that connect the docks one to another.  When they tried to reverse out of the slip, the cable was in the way and stopped their progress.  

Using a boat hook one of the looper guys measured the depth in the slip to the cable on either side of the boat and found the cable lower in the water on the starboard side, so first we all worked together to re-position the boat as far to starboard as possible.  Second, since he had taken on water, he purged the water to reduce the weight of the boat.  Third, Clark suggested that several men climb on board and stand on the bow of the boat to raise the stern higher.  Doing all of these steps allowed the boat to be backed out of the slip.  Some jokes were made that the boat would need to stay until spring when the water level came up higher. I am sure that the captain and his wife were happy to get themselves out of that predicament.

With all the excitement it was after 9:00 by the time we left the marina on our way to the Space Center.  Once Clark got involved in assisting with the boat problem, I knew that was the end of us leaving until the situation was resolved since there is no way Clark will leave in the middle of an unsolved problem.

It all worked out fine in the end.  We got to the Space Center at 10:00.  Walking into the Space Center I reflected on what it must have been like for my son Jeff to be there 17 years ago as a 14 year old Space Camp cadet.  I wondered if he was in awe of his exciting opportunity or if he shrugged it off as "no big deal" to be there.  Maybe if he reads my blog entry, he can tell me his reaction to being there at such an impressionable age.

Space Center Space Camp
(Jeff said this looked like the dormitories)

The coupon we obtained at the visitor center yesterday was good for one free IMAX movie each.  We chose the movie explaining how the invention of flight has changed the world which showed at 2:00, so we had a few hours to look around before movie time.  

Rocket Park

Lunar Modular

Space Shuttle

We spent quite a bit of time in the Saturn V building and had a guided tour of that portion of our visit. The guide told some interesting stories as she told us about the center.  At one point she had us try to lift a space suit - way too heavy to lift!

Heavy Space Suit worn by astronauts

I was 14 when man first stepped on the moon.  Touring the space center had me thinking back in time to being a youth when all the mysteries of space were being first tapped into by travel into space.  I saw several kid's movies advertised about Space Camp and the guide mentioned Apollo 13 several times making me want to watch that movie again as well with some pointers from the guide on things to look for in the movie.

In addition to the tours of the buildings and the IMAX movie Clark wanted to take a ride on two of the exhibits there - G Force and Space Shot.  I had a bit of a headache at the time he rode on G Force.  I could not imagine that being spun in a circle at high speed would help me feel better.  By the time we got around to Space Shot later in the day, my headache was long gone so I joined Clark for a taste of weightlessness.  

Space Shot

Space Shot - it is quite high up there!

After we got shot up and settled back down, Clark turned to me and said, "That makes the pulse rate go up!"  I checked my pulse via my FitBit and found it to be 72, so I think it did not have as much of an effect on me as it did on him.

The Space Shot was the exciting conclusion to the day.  We decided to go straight back to the boat when we left since it was approaching 5:00 and we wanted to go for a bike ride before dark.  When we set out on our bikes, having gone west last time, we headed east on the bike trail tonight to see where it took us.

Madison County Boat Harbor
boat houses

View from the bike trail

Bike Trail back to marina

By my estimation the bike ride was 30 minutes and about 3 miles long.  Perfect!  After we got back to the boat, we grabbed our shopping bags and headed out for groceries.  By the time we got back to the boat from shopping, it was going on 8:00 so I cooked up some pretty yummy chili dogs for supper.  What an action-packed day we had today!