Titusville '24

February SpaceX Falcon 9
launch into significant cloud cover.

Before Jada returned to Florida for a south Florida and Keys adventure, I enjoyed more launches and bike rides.

Sunset in Titusville

Seen on a city bike ride, a 4 feet long alligator.

Small alligator and turtle

Launch into significant cloud cover.

The rocket reappears between clouds.

And the first stage booster lands at Cape Canaveral. 

Video of the launch and booster landing.

Daytime launch later in February.

This video captures the entire launch until the second stage dissolves into the firmament.

And numerous bike rides around Titusville.

Daytona

Larry and Randy at Daytona for the IMSA sports car race,
an overnight race that we joined on the last day to see the
race cars before the sunrise and for the grand finish.

Randy and Larry made a trip to Florida and we got together for a road race at Daytona and a rocket launch.  Randy reminded us that a former neighbor, C'ville High School Graduate (and, sadly, a dannie) was an Space Shuttle astronaut recognized in the Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Complex Visitor Center.

For a brief video of this race, Click Here.

Randy, Larry and I caught a night launch after the race.

The Vehicle Assembly Building
where the rocket stages are stacked into
their final configuration.

Apollo Command Module

At the Apollo Saturn V museum.

The Saturn V was the largest rocket ever built until the SpaceX Starship, over 50 years later.

The Atlantis Space Shuttle display is most impressive.  The actual spacecraft is
pictured here on display.  This was the last shuttle to fly.

Randy stands beside a display recognizing
Joe Allen, Shuttle Astronaut and
Crawfordsville native.

Randy stands beside a display recognizing Joe Allen, Shuttle Astronaut and Crawfordsville native.

Larry and Randy in the Rocket Garden

The Rocket Garden

With a pleasant shock, I ran into
great friend, jeweler and skier,
Guy Stewart and his daughter at the
Kennedy Visitor Center, so we enjoyed a dinner
together after playing tourist at the Space Complex.

Guy and Kayla were able to hang around after Randy & Larry left for the airport. 

They enjoyed this afternoon rocket launch. 

Kooser 2024

My grandchildren, Avery and Jesse.  The best part about
traveling to Pennsylvania for my annual ski trip is
seeing these kids!

Our ski group has been renting a cabin at Kooser State Park, Somerset, PA since about 2007.  The cabin is our base for skiing the local trails and lifts at Seven Springs.

Great skiing with snow on Friday and
cold weather on Saturday and
Sunday.

This year the snow was excellent and the temps stayed cold, so the skiing was great.  Yet still, the camaraderie was even better!

Many folks from DhBoss, the sailing group based at Moraine State Park, have joined the crew skiing at Kooser/Seven Springs.  And this year, many non-skiers came out just to enjoy a mid-winter visit with their sailing buddies.

While a couple other years have had
more snow, this year was more than most.

The woods around our cabin.

Along the road over the mountain 
traveling from the cabin to Seven Springs.

Seven Springs

Most of the folks around this table weren't even skiing,
they came to the Foggy Goggle to visit their
DhBoss (Davis Hollow Boat Owners Sailing Society)
skiing friends.

DhBoss!

And the sailors can't help pulling out
the charts and sea stories.

Murph, all buttoned up for the cold,
snowy day on the slopes.

Erik and Sean begin
preparations for the 
Saturday evening steak dinner.

Sean cuts the steaks
from the huge hunk of
meat he brought us.

Great steaks!

After the big steak dinner, the cabin crew joined the
crowd at Jen's condo for even more goodies.

Sean created this sign.