Pop goes The Hare

Well, we made it to Charlotte, which was a surprisingly more modern city that those we've seen so far. But the following was to be a long day of driving, so not much time was devoted to sightseeing. We did eat at a seafood restaurant, a boat on an estuary. In the morning I went for a run around Patriot's Point, which was pretty cool. There's a maritime museum with a destroyer and an aircraft carrier and such.

So we took off for Richmond, Virginia, via Durhan, North Carolina. I didn't realise it, but Duke, the medical university, is in Durham. We stopped to look around that campus (very cool chapel building). And then, just as we were heading in to Durham for lunch....

Apparently I ran a red light that I didn't see..... I woke up in the hospital with no recollection of the accident. I have a broken arm (makes typing awkward). My passenger has a broken collar bone. The other driver is unhurt, apparently. I never met him... to my memory.

I've been out to the wreckers to see my car... it's going to be a write off. So now we're stuck waiting for he insiurance assessor and to see if either of us can drive a rental car. So we're sittting tight for a few days.

I'm still watching the impending launch. I can fly from here back to Orlando tomorrow morning. I might make it just in time for the launch. Then I guess I'd flight right to Alabama, to meet my booked flights home.... we'll have to see how it works out.

Watch here for more details.
Cheers
GBFSB

The Hare Reporting from the American Southeast

Hi Again,

Apparently I'm only good for blogging when I'm on tour. This being my first blog since the fabulous Vietnam adventure.

So, GBSFB is now in Charlton, oops, I mean Charleston South Carolina. And here's how I got here...

This story begins on July 13th, the scheduled launch day for the STS-114 space shuttle "Return-To-Flight" launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. By spectacular good fortune (sorry Eileen and crew) the launch was scrubbed about 90 minutes before blast off. This meant that the earliest they could reschedule for Saturday July 15th. My luck held, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with the fuel-low sensor so July 15th passed without copious quantities of solid rocket fuel being expended.... which leads to the start of my tourism...

Left the fabulous City of Sin on Saturday July 15th, after passing through Salt Lake CIty, Utah and Chicago, Illinois (it was a long flight, all on one plane), I landed in Orlando, Florida, 5 after midnight on Sun 16th. Stayed in Orlando for the night and spent some of Monday wondering about Disney World before heading south to West Palm Beach. I never did find the town of Celebration, which is what I was originally looking for.

Spent the next day (I suppose it was Monday, but who cares when you're on vacation?!) hanging out in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. A lot of time spent in the pool, because the humidity was outrageous!

Tuesday we took off south to Miami. A swim in the Atlantic Ocean (warm, of course) and lunch in South Beach (in a 20/30's style hotel/cafe owned by Gloria Estefan). The a quick zip through little Havana (actually, you could have called the beach little Havana!), and then back for a fancy shmancy dinner in Palm Beach. (Virgil, you should add Worth St Palm Beach to your list of must-see shopping streets).

On Wednesday we relinquished our free accommodation and headed north for the tour proper. First stop Kennedy Space Center! OK, so the tour didn't get very far on this day... coz we stopped at the NASA center and hung out there all day! :-D Went on the tour out to the shuttle launch viewing station. Saw the actual Discovery sitting on launch pad 39B waiting for the return-to-flight launch. Saw the awesome 'crawler' they use to move the fully assembled shuttle out to the launch pad. Went out to the Saturn V/Apollo center and watched documentary (tourist) footage of development of space flight to the point of the moon landing. The went and walked around one of the real Apollo rockets. WOW, I want to be a rocket scientist when I grow up! Oh yeah, I'm going to be, I almost forgot. :-) So, then we came back past the tortoise and the alligators (I kid you not, they were just hanging out... it's a wildlife sanctuary, when it's not a blazing inferno of rocket fuel and vaporized steam) and proceeded to take a walking tour of a space shuttle (Explorer), the SRB (solid rocket booster) and other blast-off rockets (way big, way cool, I touched the big orange tank). Then round the "Rocket Garden" with samples of all the astronaut capsules (small!) and rockets and engines through different stages of development (big!). It doesn't really matter if I don't get to see this launch in person... I saw it on the launch pad, and the space enter is GREAT!

So, by the end of Wednesday we'd made it to St Augustine, Florida. This is the oldest european settlement in America. Settled in about 1513, by the Spanish explorers.

Thursday we drove north again into Georgia to Savannah. Downtown Savannah is a great, historic township. It has an ancient cemmetary/park in the city center. I love to look at old gravestones. And right next door was a beautifully restored cathedral. It was magnificent. We even found a half-decent cafe in town (Ambrosia).

So finally we headed north and east again to Charleston, South Carolina. We stopped briefly at an old Plantation homestead (Frampton House). This was a beautiful old building with a truly oddball collection of confederate memorabilia, Americana and tourist information. The had a "Joggle Board" outside, which seems to have been and inexpensive form of entertainment for young and old alike. A precursor to the modern trampoline maybe.

Having run around Charleston this morning going ooh and ahh at more historic buildings, I'm about ready to head inland and north to Charlotte, North Carolina. Gota go, more tourism awaits. :-)

Catch ya back here soon
Hugs
GBFSB

More...

One two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twe-ee-ee-e-elve....
... thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty.

All happy and enjoying their new home.

and there are some Golden Barbs too (I couldn't help myself. These glow about as much as neons, but are golden and a bit bigger... photo doesn't really show the glowey-ness)


I think next week will be 10 more neons and possibly 3 Tiger Barbs (more shark shaped, with black and yellow stripes and a red bit on their dorsal fin).

Fish are friends, not food...

Fishies seem quite happy now and there are still 10 which is good...

None are floating or swimming upside down, although a few are looking seriously obese, which is concerning because I've only had them a few days! Time for a rigorous exercise regime and carefully controlled diet me thinks.