Wow, if I thought I was sore yesterday morning, today has
brought a new level of pain into play. I
hate like hell to admit that I might be doing too much, and I don’t know why I
seem to be trying to get it all done in the first few days. Lordy, I have 2 weeks, although, I do want to
go back to both the zoo and the safari park.
See if I can catch up on animals I missed in both parks, or who were
sleeping when I was there.
I think on the return visits though, I’m going to book
special safaris where I get driven around in a cart. I’ll research it first though. I don’t want to go if it’s like the train
tour I took yesterday. It was nice to
see the different animals that I did, but it was hard to get good photos, and
that’s the whole point of being here.
My right foot was very sore and badly swollen, especially
around the ankle area. So, I resolved
that if I was going to go anywhere, I would tape the foot and force the
swelling down. An ice pack would
probably help, and I’ll have to see if I can come up with a plastic bad from
somewhere. Then a quick trip to the ice
machine.
I was very seriously considering calling this a forced rest
day today, just because I was hurting so, but when I looked out the window and
saw it pissing down rain, that pretty much sealed the deal. Although, when I thought about it, I could go
visit the Air and Space Museum. It’s
going to be all flat surfaces and should be an easy walk. So, photos presided over common sense, and I
went.
When I arrived, by Uber, I was surprised to see the entrance
flanked by an SR71 Blackbird and another jet of some type. I don’t know what impression I had but the
SR71 is about 10 times bigger than I expected.
That would come into play later as well.
I went inside and paid my admission ad the lady gave me the
seniors rate. Even when I told her I’m
not 65 yet, she just said “close enough”.
So, I got inside for $15, pretty much what happened at Gatorland in
Orlando. It’s very impressive inside
with aircraft and spacecraft sitting on the floor and hanging from the ceiling.
The actual Apollo 9 Command Module is there. Some of the other highlights include a
Spitfire, a P51 Mustang and a Messerschmitt 262, the world’s first jet
airplane. Another thing that caught me
by surprise by how big it is, was a mock-up of the Mars Rover. I don’t know why, but I had always assumed
the Rover was the size of an R/C controlled car. This thing however is the size of a small
SUV.
I wandered around taking tons of photos and talking to the
volunteers. I also got chatting with a
paramedic from Florida. Every so often,
he would say things like “I smell something” and when I asked what he meant, he
said, “I smell the pile” and I wasn’t quite sure what he meant.
Two rooms further on, we spotted a badly damaged New York
police car. Of course, the car was
damaged in the aftermath of 9/11. He
told me that he had worked on “the pile” for 2 months after the attack and it
has a distinctive smell. He could smell
the remains of the police car from 2 rooms away. I guess its part of an air museum, since the
disaster was caused by two crashing airplanes.
It took me about 2 hours to go through the museum, and even
with the easy surfaces and leisurely walk, I was again hurting pretty well by
the end of it. So, I made the decision
to go back to the hotel. While I was
sitting on the park bench though, I noticed that aircraft heading for the San
Diego airport all passed directly over the Air and Space Museum, which I think
is a cool touch. So, I spent some time
taking photos of planes coming into the airport. When I got back, I discovered that the
Internet was down yet again. So, while I
was waiting for it to maybe come back up, so I could make yesterday’s blog post,
I fell asleep. When I woke up 90 minutes
later, the internet was back up and I managed to get the previous blog post up
as well as some photos.
I went to the usual restaurant and had a great steak and
shrimp dinner and they were setting up for another live performance, but I
decided that I was too tired and sore to stick around. I did finally capture a few images for my own
private airshow, with a couple of F-18’s doing a flyby.
No comments:
Post a Comment