128 BELIEVE IT OR NOT

I was feeling more than a little on the tired and sore side, so decided to take it easy today.  I’m not sure what I was going to do, but it was going to be less of what I had done in the past few days.  I finished breakfast and then went to the “concierge” and asked for suggestions for less rigorous activities. I was thinking of a possible park setting where I could shoot wildlife.  One of my Uber drivers mentioned such a park, but I couldn’t remember the name.  The hotel staff didn’t know either.

Speaking of which, the fellow I rode with last evening is around my age and was into the space program.  So, we had a lengthy conversation of all things space.  I knew I was going up to Kennedy Space Center on the 29^th to fulfill a bucket list item and witness a launch.  I’m really excited about that.

After getting my coffee I sat outside on the benches just enjoying my coffee and people watching.  I was looking through a map guide and discovered that the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum was close by.  After growing up reading the comics about it and watching the old TV Series, I thought it would be kind of cool to go see.

My Uber trip was only $6.00 so it must be close.  That’s another cool thing about Uber.  The trip is calculated and paid for in advance, so if you get stuck in traffic or hit a detour or something, there is no meter running to make the fare more.

I arrived at the museum and went in and paid my entry fee.  The $23 seemed a lot, but the cool things might make up for it.  The building itself is built quite crooked, which is kind of cool but, unfortunately, that’s about it.  Yes, there are all sorts of quirky things in there, but it’s mostly photos and videos.  Nothing you can’t see on YouTube or Google.  The whole building took roughly 5 minutes to go through.  There’s one crooked room inside, that I lost my balance in and almost killed myself and the guy I fell against.

I wandered down the street into what is a touristy shopping area.  I was there at 11:00 in the morning and I couldn’t see any other people around.  I went to get a pretzel, but they were closed.  A guy running a wave swing ride told me that it didn’t open until noon.

So, I explored further and discovered Madame Tussauds wax museum and thought I would give that a try.  So, in I went, paid another $22 and spent almost an hour wandering around and taking pictures.  There were some very good wax figures that looked very real, others, not so much.  But it was fun.  I was also much less worn out.  Although, I was still tired, still took 1000 photos, and ended up walking 12 miles, so a lot less than I have been doing.

I went back to the pretzel shop at 12:45 and it still wasn’t open, so I headed back to the hotel.  Once in, I thought I’d better confirm the launch time for the 29^th.  I searched everywhere and could not find it.  The mission had been moved to February 9^th, four days after I get home.  Oh well, I am still going up to do the Kennedy Space Center and have booked my “shuttle” for Thursday at 8:00 AM.  It’s $74 Canadian for a round trip, plus another $50 for entry into the center itself.  I confirmed too that it is still operational, despite the US government shutdown.

Even though I won’t get to see a launch, I will get to see the space center again.  It along with Harry Potter will be the highlights of the trip, no doubt about it.  I’ve had a great time so far and it’s hard to believe I left a week ago today.  There’s still two weeks to continue my explorations and photographic assignments