Teddy Roosevelt National Park

You can just view it from a viewpoint/visitor center off of Interstate 94, or do the right thing and spend the night in the area, and really appreciate the THREE units of the National Park (there are two main ones, and a third small one — the site of Roosevelt’s ranch, which I didn’t find out about till after) in all their dangerous beauty.

I94 Exit 32, Belfield, ND, brings you to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, where if you don’t have time to really stop and see the place, you can at least get a taste of it. The visitor’s centers tend to have limited hours (they’re usually all closed by 4:30 or such), but if you get there when open the staff are very helpful with suggestions of how best to enjoy the parks, and places to stay

It was also there that I learned about the fact that there are Two main Unites to the park: North and South that are about an hour apart from each other, connected only by government owned grazing pasture lands (not interesting, unless you’re a farmer), each of which will take you a good two hours or more just two a drive drive through (assuming you’ll be stoping for photographs along the way). It was then that I decided I should stay the night so that I could do both parts, and it was a staff member who told me about the Rough Rider’s Inn in Medora and gave me the phone number so I could make a reservation for that night.

North Unit is in fact the better one, to paraphrase the young guide who worked at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, it has everything the south park does, only twice as big, twice as nice, and there are more animals…. and for all that… fewer visitors.

Like WAY fewer… It was like I was practically the only one there (although not completely alone), I was standing there listening to really loud birdsong and crickets … and I was only a few days shy of the main season. According to the staff I’d spoken too, if I’d shown up a week later, it would be me following a whole row of cars and hearing mostly the sounds of visitors.

To get there from I94, you have to take North Dakota state road 85 (exit 42), and drive for a full 52 minutes north; along the way you’ll drive past the sweet crude gas station and convience store (nice place, clean bathrooms, friendly staff)

There are so many buffalo here that they are blocking the road and I can’t get out of the park!

To get to the entrance to the South Unit of the park, you essentially have leave I94 either at exits 24 or 27 (depending on which direction you’re coming from) towards the town of Medora (which has an historic hotel I really enjoyed), which is sort of a mini cowboy-themed tourist mecca, .

Sadly, I didn’t learn about the Elkhorn Ranch section of the Park, the historic part, till well after I had left the area. As a History buff it might have been nice to see where Teddy’s ranch was (but isn’t any more). But I have a feeling the staff didn’t mention it because it is kind of a let down ….

Things we do for love

Today was a very emotionally exhausting, upsetting, and draining day; I did something that in my lifetime I never expected I would have to do … I tried to go visit a dear friend who is in prison for having been incredibly stupid. What he did was the sort of thing that in other countries (many in fact) would not be illegal … but here in the USA its not only illegal, it’s anathema.

That said:

There’s a list I keep in my head, its a list of all the people on this planet that I love. It’s a list slowly compiled over my lifetime. To be fair, most of the people on it are men (who I may or may not have been sexually involved with at some point), but there are a handful of women too. These are the sorts of people who I can go months or years without seeing, but always feel close to in spite of that; and, when we eventually get back together it’s almost like we never separated. Almost without exception these folks are unique, brilliant, creative individuals who are often the sort that make a difference on the planet — some even make it into history books (no seriously, they do). They pretty much all live large in one way or another. This guy, this friend, for many years not only was he on the top of my list, he was one of personal heroes,

… he was, and still is — despite what he’s done, someone who made me want to be a better person.

That was the friend I tried to visit today, emphasis on the tried… and failed. If I were to describe him to you in detail, you’d understand why I can forgive him for being a stupid idiot about certain things — and I can not over emphasize the level of stupid that got him thrown in prison. However, in my world some stupid (no matter just how stupid, and this was very very stupid on oh so many levels) does not negate 25 years of honorable merit, at least not in my book. Not only was he one of my personal heroes, but this is the sort of guy, who till just a few months ago, schools invited over to talk to their kids about how ‘no matter who you are, and what your background, your life is yours to lead and you’re the one who gets to make decisions — good or, ironically, bad — regarding how to live it.’ But like many folks from problematic backgrounds he had never fully addressed his inner demons but rather he just repressed them in favor of basking in his current successes, (imagining I suppose that they were now no longer part of him) till they came up to bite him in his ass. To quote different friend of mine who, like this person, was a recovered alcoholic, “there really should be a required 13th step of therapy, so you can figure out why you turned to your drug of choice to self-medicate yourself in the first place.” When I met him he was already maybe 10 years sober and doing amazing things with his life. I can only hope that while in prison, that what he’s doing during his time of prison (in addition to writing his book) is working with a therapist to discover why he did this oh so idiotic thing.

Before he’d gone in we’d talked multiple times and each time I asked him if he wanted me to visit him when he was inside, and he had insisted he did. So, I honored my promise and I drove to the prison to visit him. When I arrived it wasn’t visiting day (he’d not stayed in contact as promised so I had no idea when visiting day might be — the prison web site didn’t say), and the staff at the secured entrance didn’t even know whether or not I was on the list of people who were allowed to visit him.

Before going I had on multiple occasions spoken with his mom and once with his sister, telling them that I intended to go. His sister had even a few weeks before reminded him that he had said he wanted me to, and that I was planning to, and that he should make sure to do what needed to be done to get me on the visitors list. She said he’d not responded one way or another, so that she wasn’t sure if he would do it or not. But I figured, if he had, I would see him, and if not, I’d do what I could to fix that… and even if after that he had not put me on the list, at least he’d know I had done everything in my power to try.

To those who have never had anyone in prison, this is foreign territory. Lord knows I honestly never thought that in all my years any of my friends would be on the inside for anything other than, maybe unintentional manslaughter (being unlucky enough to accidentally kill someone, which could happen to anyone I suppose). Anyways, there is, apparently, paperwork that the prisoner is required to send to you requesting that you visit them, which you then have to fill-in and send back; then, the prison does a background check on you before you can be put on the list. Makes sense if you think about it. The onus, according to the guard I spoke to, is completely on the inmate to do that paperwork, and the guards intentionally won’t lift a finger to help them. The theory being that most prisoners lack the basic skills to succeed in life (or they wouldn’t be in prison), and this is part of them learning those skills. Then, once the prison has jumped through the hoops, and you’ve cleared the background check, the prisoner is supposed to send you an email inviting you — none of which my friend had done in spite of the numerous promises before going in that he would.

Now, like I said, this is a highly educated (graduated from the best schools) individual who had reached some of the highest levels of success in his profession, so it’s not that he lacked the basic skills necessary to send me a form. I tried to explain this to the guard, that if my friend had not done it it wasn’t because he lacked the basic skills… but the guard, who clearly was not the brightest light on the Xmas tree, although I think his heart was in the right place, kept repeating to me that it was about them trying to teach the inmates necessary life skills. (sigh)

Now, you might say: “well if he still wanted you there, he’d have done the paperwork as required” — and in fact you’d not be the first. The thing is, I had asked him multiple times when still out of the prison if he wanted wanted me to visit, and he had said he most definitely did. Granted, once inside he probably got depressed and started to feel sorry for himself and decided that he didn’t want me seeing him like that (he knows he had been one of my heros, and that I love him)… but.. well I’m sorry, but fuck that shit. One thing I’m not is a fair weather friend, and if I think you are in a place where you NEED to be reminded that there are people on this planet who love you, I’ll be damned if I’ll make it easy to push me away.

It’s sort of the down side of having many friends who are unusually brilliant and talented, most of those sorts are also folks with lots and lots of issues.

To quote Steve Jobs:
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

What Steve forgot to mention is some of these round pegs secretly hate themselves for a variety of reasons, and when if they were once high, but then are brought low by the forces in the world that will vilify them, is that they will then do some pretty self destructive shit to make SURE the world punishes them… that’s what I really believe happened here.

But seriously, most of the ones who change the course of humanity are folks that most of the rest of humanity wants nothing to do with till AFTER they become famous. So, if one of them stumbles and falls, I’m not turning my back on them because they somehow fucked up. Failure, even personal failure, is a learning experience, and learning experiences are some of the worst. Clearly, this is one he needed.

However, the fact that I had shown up without that paperwork process having been done by the inmate freaked the prison staff out big time. I’m not one however to let things like that stop me, and basically refused to leave in spite of many hints from them that I should, and that my friend had to initiate the process of my being allowed in (and yes, I told the guards multiple sob stories on how far I’d driven, etc., and I allowed the very real tears of frustration to fill my eyes, because what’s the point of being a girl if you cant play the damsel in distress card). The guy at the front desk realizing I wasn’t going to be easily put off called the person in charge of my friends group within the prison. This guy said to just go ahead and give me the form that my friend was supposed to have sent out; and that I could send it in (they refused to just let me fill it in there, it needed to be put in the post) …. and told me that then, after maybe two weeks, I might find out whether or not I was on the list.

Now when you enter a federal prison you’re not allowed to have anything with you other than your keys. I did not know this till I got to the front door … So I returned to the car and took only my keys and my id (cause I figured they would need that, but they didn’t). What they demanded was my friend’s assigned inmate number (in prison, apparently, you become a number), info that I in fact had with me, but it was on my iPhone and they told me to go get the information; but then when I came in with the iPhone which I had to go back to the car to get. When I walked back in, phone in hand, they said “NO you can’t bring the iPhone into the building (the guy was really freaking out) — not even into just the entry area; you have to put it back in the car.” So a lot of back-and-forth between the car and the prison was going on…. but I ultimately got the form I had to fill in

….. So now, an hour later, imagine I’m back at the hotel and I’m sitting down at the table to fill it out …. and I realize I don’t have my drivers license.

Suffice it to say that after the stress of the morning I started freaking out just a little bit ….

Now to backtrack…

Then day before when I first arrived at my hotel, I discover that while the TV worked, the HBO cable wasn’t (Game of Thrones, anyone?) but they promised me it would be fixed that next day; so upon return it I turn it on only to find that it is STILL not working. I called down and it apparently was a room specific issue, so the manager offers to move me to another room where it was working. So, I move… and then when in the new room (this is after visiting the prison) I pull the key cards from the old room out of my pockets and dump them in the garbage. I collapse on the bed and watch some TV till I feel my emotional energy coming back.

I finally sit down to fill out the form and it asks for my drivers license (which is NOT in my wallet, where it should be — and I start freaking), and then — thankfully, I had a thought; I went to look in the garbage can and sure enough I had thrown out my drivers license…. remember I had put into my back pocket before returning to the prison after leaving my stuff — as instructed — and I am sitting at the table, looking at the form and thanking G-d for the form having asked for my drivers license number because I could have easily, if not for that, have checked out the next morning with it still in the garbage.

It’s been that kind of a day

Dollywood

Worth a visit if you’re in the area, having the advantage of the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains. Shows for the adults, and roller coasters for the kids. If you go on a weekday off season you’ll almost never have to wait in a line.

Did I mention I’ve been to ALL the DisneyParks, some than once? I can’t do roller coasters, I have benign positional vertigo which means any ride that relies on centrifugal forces is a really bad idea for me. In Hong Kong’s Ocean Park I went on one of those water rides where the boat slowly spins and bounces through the water channel … I was nauseated for the next four hours — those rides for little kids where it’s swings attached to a central poll and all it does it rotate slowly? Ditto. So, while Dollywood has rollercoasters (a few) those are not why I love amusement parks.

I got to the park on a VERY low attendance day. I’m not sure how many parking lots the place has (they seem to wrap around a hill), but I arrived at noon only to find a parking spot in the 3rd lot (C for Candy Cane), and as I rode the tram to the main gate I spotted both of the other lots with cars were still about 80% empty. Parking is not organized and directed the way they do it at Disney World, where if you forgot where you parked your car but can tell them about what time you arrived, they can tell you EXACTLY where you are parked (assuming you parked where they told you to). Here you pay for your parking, pass through the gate, and then it’s catch as catch can, and most people seem to come in looking for spots close to the tram stop and just ignore the rest of the lot, moving on to the next one once they feel they’ll have to walk to far — insanely disorganized. (This would be like Disney patrons only parking in about the first 20 spots in a row and moving to the next row up).

The gods however were with me upon my arrival. I got to the front gate to buy a ticket to spot a woman who looked like she worked there standing by the ticket counter with a man along side her:
“why you here Hun”
“I need to buy a ticket…”
The guy standing next to her said “honey it’s your lucky day, I have been standing here for a 1/2 hour trying to give away this extra ticket.”
It seems season card holders are given some extra tickets for friends and this ticket was about to expire (or some such). Rather than just toss it he decided to be charitable and give it to a stranger, only everyone but me had already purchased their tickets before arriving.
This free ticket turned out to be a double good thing, as about three hours in massive storms kicked up which resulted in most of the rides, and such, shutting down because of lightning.

Even though Dollywood advertises itself as good for people who get dizzy, I did not find this to be the case. In the whole park there were only two rides that were not bad for me were the Dollywood Express Train ride (with a genuine old antique soot and smoke producing steam engine), and a ferris wheel (which I didn’t bother riding). But I whole heartedly suggest the train, beats the heck out of the Disney Train which takes you through and around the park as well as into the surrounding woods.

Other than that, Dollywood is about the performances. Now you’d think she’d have her pick of talented but unsuccessful country artists of various genres, but I found the three performances I heard to be beyond underwhelming.

That said, wifi at the park SUCKS, there was no 4g… Nothing!! There was supposed to be free Wifi which I connected to at the front gate, but no connection. I wasted a good half hour trying to find connectivity that lasted for more than a minute near the front gate area and finally gave up… I did however finally find some inside one of the restaurants towards the back of the park, Miss Lillian’s Chicken Shack.

Food at the park is kind of bizarre. You can spend $10 to $12 on a single sandwich, or for $14.95 you can have an all you can eat buffet… Miss Lillian’s included four kinds of salads, smoked or fried chicken, smoked turkey legs, and chicken fried steak, and all you can eat of four kinds of desserts (I had the banana pudding). It was all sort of cheap quality stuff, for $14.95 it was a deal. And there is a a lady walking around the place who looks like she was a rip off of Minnie Pearl’s character from the TV show, “Hee Haw” (it was on US TV from 1969 — 1992) annoying the customers and playing a bit of banjo. I strongly suggest passing the food stalls and opting for the sit down restaurants instead which all seemed to be pretty good deals.

Finally, the park has a sort of Renaissance faire aspect to it, in that there various crafts not just available for sale, but being performed for you: carvers of wax, workers of leather, and blowers of glass, etc. You can order things like a custom aluminum sign for your house, and then watch it being made.

Thoughts & Musings

So day before yesterday I stopped in a MASSIVE antiques store in Helen, GA (it took up all 3 floors of a huge home, described as Antebellum, and a modern extension — off to the right). What made this stop interesting, beyond the sheer size of their collection, was that at the front counter they had a large number of DVD copies of Disney’s Song of the South.

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When I said to the owner, a woman, that I didn’t think they HAD released it to DVD because of how controvertial it is, she told me that they imported them from the UK (where I guess they are released). Then I mentioned how Martin Luther King himself had asked Walt Disney (himself) NOT to make the film, and if he did to PLEASE NOT show “happy singing slaves” and how Disney had ignored him on all counts, but the movie had failed at the box office because by it’s release in 1946 it was already out of step with the times …

Then, an older guy, who had overheard my comments and who stated that he was a retired cop, started talking about how they’d changed the name of the road his police station in Texas was on to Martin Luther King Drive, and how offended the cops were that they’d done it… He went on to say that the racism (push back) had just escalated from there… it was a very “interesting” conversation that would never have happened in the North.

Now in retrospect I’m thinking on it and in fact the store had IMPORTED them, and it wasn’t just one copy, it was a lot of copies… i.e., Disney might not want to release them in the the U.S., but this store owner clearly believed that there was enough demand to support the extra cost.

Oh, and before I spotted the DvD I was bemused by a relatively large collection of Sambo dolls and figurines for sale — which is something else one sometimes sees sold in other countries but rarely in the US of A.

Nacoochee Mound & Sautee Nacoochee, GA

While the Indian mound is essentially a mildly offensive tourist trap, the tiny village of Sautee — just down the street — is in my opinion well worth the visit:

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Located in Georgia, just outside of Helena, there is this Indian mound that really impressed me, at least until I learned from online sources (such as Atlas Obscura) that it had already been excavated, and then replaced (and is therefore a replica rather than the original) — a fact that none of the signs at the location tell you … nor one shared with me by locals.

The area in which it sits could best be described as countrified yuppie. It’s all gift shops and locally made artesian soaps cheeses and art etc., none of whom I suppose have any motivation to tell the truth about historical mound their shops are adjacent to. Not only did the locals not share the actual facts with me, I was, I would argue, actively misled by them. I can’t remember if it was the saleswoman at the racist antiques store across the street (which sold Sambo dolls and ‘Song of the South‘ DVD’s) or one of the other locals business people who initially assured me that the mound was an Indian burial mound that had been kept in “almost pristine condition” in large part because of the gazebo that a local farmer had opted to place on the top, that kept him and future farmers from leveling it.

In fact, if you look closely and read the sign, and then go to this site, you’ll discover that the sign is mostly a pack of lies!!!! There is no evidence that DeSoto visited, and archeologists are fairly certain that the mound predates any Cherokee habitation of the area.

Consider for instance “legend” that is associated to the mound:

“The legend of the Nacoochee Indian Mound states that Indian lovers from opposing tribes are buried within the mound. Sautee, a brave of the Chicksaw Tribe, and Nacoochee, the daughter of a Cherokee Chief fell immediately and hopelessly in love when a Chicksaw band stopped in Cherokee territory at a designated resting place. The two lovers met in the night and ran away to nearby Yonah Mountain to spend a few idyllic days together. When they later confronted Nacoochee’s father with the idea of creating peace between the two nations, Chief Wahoo ordered Sautee thrown from the high cliffs of Yonah Mountain while Nacoochee was forced to watch. Almost immediately, Nacoochee broke away from her father’s restraining hands and leaped from the cliff to join her lover. At the foot of the cliff, the lovers dragged their broken bodies together and locked in a final embrace and died there. The Chief, overcome with remorse realized the greatness of love and buried the lovers, still locked in death, near the banks of the Chattahoochee River as a burial mound.”
source: Southernhighroads.org

Seems a bit TOO Romeo and Juliet for my tastes… that and the fact that the mound is listed on the National registry of historical places may, in actuality, have more to do with it’s having been located on the estate of L.C. Hardman, a former Georgia Governor, than anything else. … none of which I learned till I started researching the location for this blog post.

I have to say that in retrospect, as someone who has deep personal connections to the Native American community, I felt a bit ‘ripped off’ by my experience at this location. On the upside, it’s not someplace I went out of my way to see, it just happened to be along the drive… but that said, some honesty would be appreciated! I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering this is located just outside of Helen, GA, (notable only for German architecture and restaurants — only one of which is any good — it is essentially a tourist trap aimed at anyone in search of a little touch of a Bavaria in the midst of the Appalachian foothills).

That said, directly adjacent is one of the actual gathering points (of which there were many) for the Trail of Tears… a forced relocation (that for those Native Americans not affluent enough to purchase transit devolved into an ultimately genocidal/ethnic cleansing) of the south eastern United states, during the administration of Andrew Jackson.

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That said, I did find one major “FIND” a bit further down Unicoi turnpike… first you’ll find a very cute “village/crossroads” (not more than few stores) of Sautee Nacoochee which includes the ridiculously picturesque Old Sautee’s Store and market,

walking distance from which you’ll find the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, a museum for the Traditional pottery of the area, built as an annex to a converted historic school, which now serves as the Sautee Nacoochee Center, a gallery and visual arts center for local artists (and a lot of what they have for sale — and at affordable prices considering it’s original art… are, at least in my opinion, really good)

Dec. 21, 2015: SpaceX Takeoff and LANDING!

Today I watched history being made! I watched a rocket take off from Cape Canaveral, and then LAND again where it was supposed to. Humanity has crossed a technological threshold!!

10556399_10206469756357262_3148948298286161776_n — If you draw a line straight down from the takeoff to the far bank (next to the blue building), thats’ about where I sat

My whole time I was in Florida I kept MEANING to go to Cape Canaveral, but just was never able to drag my ass out there, for a host of reasons, including inertia. The first liftoff I saw with my own eyes was on this trip, and it was quite by accident; I was at Disney’s Epcot, and happened to look in the right direction at the right moment and saw it. It was amazing. But I wanted to see one up close (well, as close as legally possible without paying an arm and a leg for the privilege). Finally, I saw on one of the web pages that track this stuff that there was going to be a liftoff (launch) tonight.

I drove out to the east coast of Florida to see the 8:30pm blast off… hopeful that it would happen. The last takeoff I intended to go to got scraped because of bad weather, and we did initially have a forecast for storms for tonight as well, but happily the forcast has changed and moved those off till tomorrow.

Per the suggestion of one of my best and oldest friends (the guy whose Winter Garden house I lived in from June through August — it is like a 15 min. drive from his place to the back gate of Disney) I left early (so that I could drive almost an extra hour south of NASA) in order to get a GOOD hot dog for dinner from what was advertised as the Florida branch of “Mustard’s Last Stand” ( a Chicago institution for the Northwestern University crowd) before heading north again to see the lift off. My friend knew it was there but had not yet had the chance to try it. Unhappily it turned out to be a totally bogus waste of time. The original Mustard’s is located right next to my alma mater’s football stadium, and its dogs are regularly listed as the best in the whole Chicago area — hence my willingness to drive an hour out of my way while in Florida. The Evanston/Chicago one has been around since 1969, this Florida rip off (who nabbed the url first) has only been around since 1987 (and how scummy is that? First they copy the name — adding Chicago style eatery so as not to infringe, and then they nabbed the url, Seriously!). There was spotty rain while I got my dog, and I hoped they wouldn’t scrap the liftoff again.

Note: I was EXCEEDINGLY unhappy with my Cheese dog, and it was totally NOT worth the extra drive (which almost had me late for the launch) … Firstly, they used the cheaper Velveeta as the cheese (BLECH) instead of using high quality Merkts cheese like they should have (even I know for a fact that it IS sold in local Florida stores, so no excuse there). Also secondly, while the hot dogs were Vienna beef, they were those really skinny small ones and NOT the big meaty ones any Chicagoan would have expected, so it was mostly bun… MAJOR rip off.

Driving back up I stopped at a local gas station and asked where I should go to watch the liftoff. The guy working the counter and the female customer (who looked to be about 30, but who was CLEARLY a meth addict) both suggested jetty park as the best free location; but, by the time I got down here it was kind of obvious from the backed up cars that parking near there would be an issue. So, I grabbed the first parking space near that I could find (way at the other end, by the Milliken’s Reef restaurant) and ended up sitting next to two older gentlemen on a bench. There were a LOT of people here, so I could guess how crowded the preferred location was.

RIGHT behind where I was standing there was this bizarre, modernistic looking building (built to kind of look like a rocket), which turned out to be named Exploration Tower… they had turned off all the lights in it, right before the lift off, and then they came back on afterwards… and I thought to myself “that would have been a great place to view the take off….” When I got home I was looking at some of these images on line and found the one from Reuters at the top of this blog, which I’m willing to bet money was taken from that building.

Granted, my recording isn’t very good… I did it off of my iphone 4s, which is already on its last legs (I wanted a new one but the iphones they released are SO much bigger that they don’t suit my small hands, am waiting for them to release a replacement for the 5s before I buy one). However, this is why G-d made Youtube.

That said, the fact is no recording really does justice to the experience. What sounds like wind hitting the microphone was this massive roaring noise that seemed to be everywhere all at once — that you just have to experience. And there was the camaraderie of the crowds, the excitement in the air, etc…. you just can’t feel that in the videos, the roaring and cheering of the crowds, so loud that you could even hear the folks across the bay cheering when the SpaceX stuck the landing…

It was amazing!

And I was THERE!!!! …. The whole drive home I was feeling “l saw something historic today” and then, the two hours of driving and the overwhelming emotional excitement of the launch of the space X, had worn me out completely by the time I got home.

Awestruck: viewing my VERY First Rocket Launch with My Own Eyes at DisneyWorld

This was a truly earth shattering moment for me. I was walking around Epcot, near the China pavilion, when suddenly I saw something metallic glint in the sun, and a trail of something white behind it, lifting straight up towards the sky… it took me about a second to realize what it must be.

I was amazed, and dumb struck (practically immobile) … I could not speak. Seriously… I started pointing up at the sky, could NOT get a word out of my mouth and was making these weird moaning noises instead (people who saw me initially thought I was mad). When no one paid attention I started poking men who were walking by (Fathers with kids) and pointing at the sky.

One of them finally said, “What, what am I supposed to be looking …. OH SHIT! It’s a ROCKET!” And this finally redirected the attention of the other people who were staring at me like I was a mad woman.

Still I could barely move and wasn’t doing very well with the talking either … I’m not over stating this… I was completely dumb struck … literally unable to speak.

This man started pointing it out to his kids, loudly, and then other folks all stopped to see what we were pointing at, exclaiming things like, “THIS has made this trip worth it (from bored dads)!” and “I’ve never seen this before!” “Amazing!” “Oh my G-D!!!” “Honey LOOK!” “Wow, that must be from Cape Canaveral!” etc. … and we, as a growing crowd of techno geeks, watched it climb and climb till it disappeared

Only after the shock and awe subsided and my voice and wits returned to me — after we had all congratulated ourselves, all bonding in the enormity of the moment in a communion of “THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL!!!!”… did I finally remember to pull out my camera… hence the lousy photo of the smoke as it was already beginning to be pushed around by the winds — it had been a perfectly straight line.

….. and I for one was completely overcome by my emotions for at least the next half hour.

One interesting thing was, I seemed to be the only woman who gave a shit. All the guys who passed (who weren’t locals and hence accustomed to the site) stopped and stared, but I noticed that women seemed more than annoyed by their husbands being distracted from “being at Disney” than interested in what was happening in the sky above. That and I noted not one of the moms was even like, “Hey! Teaching moment for my kids, let’s talk science” … nope, that seemed to be left to the men.