Final Days in Florida

It doesn't seem possible that my Florida adventure is drawing to a close. Here is a brief synopsis of exploring I wanted to post about but simply don't have the time to do it justice and probably won't but I want to get it down.

I visited St. Augustine, the Nation's oldest city, about a month ago. It was spectacular. Again, another trip that I didn't have near enough time to do and see everything I wanted to.

I started my day at Fort Matanzas. I took the ferry across the intercoastal waterway and got to climb all over the fort. This fort guarded the backdoor of St. Augustine. It was here that I learned that the initial momentum of a fired cannon is faster than the speed of sound!

I had to see the St. Augustine lighthouse since it is the sister lighthouse to Cape Hatteras. I climbed, of course, and decided that I like Hatteras better. Hatteras' view is better and it's taller. I sweet talked my way into the Castillo de San Marcos for free and attended an absolutely fabulous ranger talk and got to see them fire the cannon. Awesome!
I took an afternoon and drove up to the Okefenokee Swamp in GA. I saw more alligators here than I did in the Everglades and Big Cypress combined! I took the boat tour and loved it. Next time though, I'm kayaking.
I was able to take a couple days and head to Florida's Space Coast. My first stop was the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, then up the beach to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. There are limited campsites here and all but two are accessible by canoe only.

I loaded up my canoe and started out. It didn't take long to discover my canoe had a leak. It wasn't bad, but by the time I paddled the bathtub up to my campsite, everything was soaked (yeah, waterproof bags aren't waterproof when immersed for two hours in a canoe) and it made for a somewhat soggy evening. I had an island in the intercoastal waterway almost all to myself. The only other campsite on the island was a half mile east of me. The next morning as I was paddling back to the ranger station, I found myself surrounded by a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. I'm in an environment that is as pristine and untrammeled as it gets, I can hear the waves from the Atlantic, not a soul in sight, shore birds hanging out, fish jumping out of the water, water as smooth as glass, me, my sinking canoe, and dolphins coming to investigate... does it get much better than that?!

It was off to NASA the next day. My only complaint was that it seemed like they were going for the Disney effect and I wasn't too impressed with that, especially growing up with Space Center Houston. Oh, and the bathroom was atrocious. However, my admission let me see a 3-D IMAX about the ISS, take a bus out to the launch pads, learn about some of the really cool stuff they're developing, take the simulated shuttle launch experience, and...

coolest thing ever, I got to meet a real astronaut!!! This is me with Mark Lee, who has been on four space shuttle missions! It was pretty awesome. He gave me a challenge and I have until the end of the summer to complete it. It's no small feat, but I'm up for it. How can I let a real, been up in space, floated around in 0-Gs, done unteathered spacewalks, astronaut down!?
Finally, I acquired a running buddy when I arrived in Florida and we set a goal to run to the Georgia border. This last Saturday, we did it. When we started, it was raining and thunder was booming all around us and I thought it was rather stupid to be running in this weather when we could get struck by lightning.

Here is a picture of me and Micah C., tired and sweaty, but at the border!

Next stop, Great Basin National Park, Baker, NV. (By way of Houston, TX for a few days.)