Birthday Launches

M. Edium's second birthday found us standing around in a chilly field northeast of Albuquerque. We had arrived when it was still dark and the grass was still bare. Over the course of the next hour, literally acres of nylon were spread out all around us, and shortly after the sun came up, the sky began to look like this:

This was the 2006 Albuquerque Balloon Festival, and right then we decided that every other year, we'd take M. Edium on a trip somewhere for his birthday. Even if we couldn't top this.

Well, it looks like this year, we might just be able to. It turns out that one day after we're scheduled to arrive in Orlando, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center.

Of course we're planning on getting there for it. This is a kid for whom the space program has been a kind of religion. No way are we going to let him miss what might be his last chance to see a Shuttle launch. Hell, it might be everyone's last chance to see a Shuttle launch.

Only one thing worries me. Two years ago, as all those brightly colored envelopes inflated and rose around him, with the propane burners periodically belching flames like the Fire Swamp in The Princess Bride, he kept murmuring nervously and repeatedly to me, "Go home, go home."

Now, obviously we're not going to be that close to the Shuttle, unless we want to be either arrested or instantly incinerated. But even from the minimum distance of three miles away, I'm a little worried that the noise of five rocket engines might be a bit much for him.

So we're practicing. So far we've gone to the airport to watch the jumbo jets take off and land, and have spent some time in a drum shop. I'll probably also hang out with him next to a roller coaster, and play him some Who albums. It's all about working up to things.

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Lisa said:

We saw the Space Shuttle Discovery Launch STS-124 from the Brewer Causeway in Titusville last June. I think it was a good distance to view (and hear) the launch without getting incinerated (or deaf). Plus, watching with the rest of the crowd made it community experience. Here's the vid we took of it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrMaiKHHTu0

Posted at 01:05 PM, on September 23 2008

Birthday Launches

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