To get to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, you cross a causeway that takes you over Merritt Island and through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. This road is startlingly beautiful, wild, and yet readily accessible. You can readily view wildlife of all different kinds, but mostly I was interested in the many species of birds. I had never seen pelicans in the wild, but Merritt Island has plenty of them. The image above is typical of the scenery as you cross the causeway ... except for one thing. This is the only place I have ever visited where you can see alligators in the ditches along the side of the road. That may be a daily occurrence for people who live in Florida, but it was a very big treat for a northern girl like me.
Here is an aerial (space shot?) view of Merritt Island and the causeways that access it. To get to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, you would probably take either of the two northernmost causeways. The bright spots you see in the top center of the picture are the Vehicle Assembly Building area and Launch Pads 39A and 39B. Below is a little closer look.
The Vehicle Assembly Building is the largest building I have ever seen. I am told that the Boeing building in Seattle is larger, but this one is mighty impressive. The VAB is where they prepare the space shuttle for launch.
When the shuttle is ready to be set out on the launch pad, they roll it slowly along a track that runs from the VAB to the launch pads. The tour I took included a close look at this track and then a ride to the beach between the two main launch areas. Having been something of a space junky since I was very young, standing on the beach between these two famous launch pads was especially thrilling. The view below is Launch Pad 39A, I believe, with 39B in the distance.
Below is what it looked like on the beach between the two launch pads. The most interesting thing about it was that there were old WWII bunkers still in evidence. You have to wonder what utility anyone thought those bunkers might have in case of an invasion.
Notwithstanding the bunkers, the beach was very beautiful, and the entire feeling of being at the center of history was awesome. On the day I was there, the awe was enhanced by storms out over the Atlantic, and the surf the storms kicked up was quite impressive for a girl who grew up thinking Lake Michigan was a really big body of water.
This image is something like you might see looking back at the VAB from the causeway on the return trip, including the storm clouds hanging ominously over the edge of the cape.
My trip to Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, and the Kennedy Space Center was altogether one of the most pleasant days I have ever spent traveling ... spectacular scenery and abundant wildlife in a natural setting with the aura of history and the romance of space travel. Heaven on earth, in more ways than one.
