Current location: Fort Lauderdale, FL, N 26 05.957', W 080 08.173', elev -8 ft.

Yesterday, I again traversed the state of Florida, driving from Tampa on I-4 through Orlando. I always notice billboards for classic rock radio stations. Classic Rock stations have some of the stupidest names, all beginning with the word the: The Bone, The River, The Eagle, The Fox, The Twist, The Jet. After passing through Orlando, I was on to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. I took a lot of photos, here are some of the good ones.

Kennedy costs $30, and going in, I wasn't sure the price would be worth it. I had been to KSC once before, but I didn't pay, someone else did. Also, since the last time I was there, we have had a major terrorist attack as well as a shuttle orbiter disaster, so security was very high. After buying my ticket I had to pass through three security checkpoints. The first was visual, and the guard asked me to take my hat off so she could check that I wasn't wearing a bomb on my head. The second was a metal detector, and the third was a bag check. At the bag check, the guard asked me to push buttons on my phone and turn my camera on, to verify they were legitimate devices and not bombs.

My fears about the cost of Kennedy were not confirmed. The $30 was well worth the admission, KSC just has so much to offer. Once inside, I immediately got on the bus tour, and the tour has very informative videos on the way out to the launch gantry. From there, you can view the shuttle Discovery on the launch pad, set for a July 13th flight, the first shuttle flight in more than two years. I'm very excited by the prospect of getting the shuttles back in the air. The costs (even the occasional human life) are justified for the march of forward progress in science and exploration. The astronauts and rocket engineers who put their lives on the line (and even their families) will be the first to tell you that. And in the end, you realize the European explorers of 500 years ago had even more risk for the prospect of discovery and greater riches than we do now.

After the shuttle launch gantry, the tour buses take you to the Apollo Center, where you can view 3 short films about the history of the space race and the Apollo launches, and view one of three remaining Saturn V rockets, as well as the original, actual Apollo launch command center, with the original equipment used to send men to the moon. This is very humbling, because nothing like the Apollo program has been achieved since, and probably won't be for twenty or thirty more years.

Finally, the tour buses take you back to the main visitor center, where you can view IMAX movies, get status updates on the current shuttle mission, see a full scale model of a shuttle orbiter, and view the astronaut memorial for the 17 astronauts who have passed away during missions, and 5 other support personnel who have also passed away carrying out their duties. On the way out, I spent some time in the gift shop, where they took another $25 from me. Kennedy Space Center is well worth the price of admission.

As I was leaving, a large thunderstorm was starting to form. This was about 6 PM. Florida is such a weird state. Weird weather, thunderstorms almost everyday, and they roll in very quickly. Since they have no snow, the roads only need replacing every twenty years or so, instead of 5 like in the North. But when they do replace the roads, they work on about 40 miles at a time, which really messes up traffic. I just can't believe so many people are moving here. The Fastest Growing State TM.

I am driving down I-95 to Ft. Lauderdale with the windows open, and my arms out the window. When the storm hits, the water droplets hitting my arms at 70 horizontal MPH and at least 50 vertical MPH feels like hundreds of tiny needles piercing the skin. I take a look at my arm, and it is dotted with tiny red flecks, and a mist of water.

The thunderstorm hits full blast, the sky is dark as night, except for a hole in the clouds to the west, where you can see a patch of clear blue sky in the tempest. The sun shines through the hole and gives light to the land underneath the clouds. The colors in the clouds are not well defined, but they are strong, and humbling. I have the radio so loud, the bass makes my car shake in the rain, and the wipers are going back and forth, back and forth, adding their rhythm to the storm, their movement helping the bass shake the car. I am listening to Lucy 54 on XM radio, and I hear a block of early to mid nineties alternative hits, Foo Fighters, Bush, Collective Soul, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN each adding their all to the storm.

Then comes the lightning. It is bright, and purple under the clouds. I have never seen so much lighting in my life (because I am on a flat plain and can view the whole sky in front of me). Lightning fills the sky, rolling east to west, laughing, its crackling like a laser Floyd show. The lightning appears above and below a rainbow, the rainbow lies North to South, along my path.

I got in touch with a a friend of mine whom I regrettably hadn't talked to in over a year and she talked to me about her own road trip, and how seeing a rainbow over the plains was one of the great highlights. If you read the bible, you know that rainbows are symbol of trust, a promise, a bridge between the old ways and the new ways. I think that is an excellent metaphor, an excellent purpose for rainbows.

This is the craziest lightning I have ever seen, and it lasts for 50 or 60 miles, from north of Palm Beach, to Fort Lauderdale, an amazing show of brief light contrasted with darkness, a highlight of the trip. This is the kind of weather that inspires you to write, maybe a fire and brimstone story of God in the bible 5000 years ago, or maybe just a lowly road trip entry.

When you ride in the car for this long, you can feel it, you can feel its every nuance, you can know how its going to handle, you become a part of the vehicle, traversing the roads endlessly. I am well suited to driving 8, 10, 12 hours a day, this is where I belong, being the car, on the road.