Endeavour Space Shuttle
Ok, so I’ve been busy this weekend, but I gotta say……this is
a once in a lifetime treat I got to see!
I got to see the Endeavour work its way through the streets of LA!! It took 3 days to go 12 miles from LAX to the
California Science Center in LA. It took
about hour to go one mile…..if we were lucky!
We hung out at Crenshaw & Martin Luther King Blvd. The Endeavor was supposed to arrive at 2pm on
Saturday; however it didn’t show up until 7:30pm!! BUT….well worth it! I think it was the perfect spot to be
in! While waiting for her to arrive,
Debbie Allen entertained us with dance routines, we had guest speakers; astronauts,
mayors, and everyone in-between. There
were 1000’s of people waiting and several got over heated and fatigued. However, I just took a break and people
watched. It’s no secret that the
Endeavour went through some of the roughest parts of town, however, I could
feel a pride with people of all walks of life gathering together to wait for
the orbiter. Two local people chatted
with us for several minutes, everyone seemed kind and ready to wait this
out. I cracked up seeing Darth Vader amongst
us and smiled when I saw 2 little cuties dressed up in their shinning silver astronaut
costumes. Chatted with the guy selling
water from a cart he was towing and observed 2 guys selling Obama posters, carefully
laying them out on a bush and lighting their incense….kinda like setting up
shop! Of course you did have the lady
pushing around a shopping cart selling Endeavour t-shirts & posters.
The sun went down, and the weather chilled. First we saw all of the flashing light of the
cops and escorts then slowly we began to see her nose edging straight towards
us! I think the highlight was watching
her get turned. Believe it or not, that
did not take much time at all! Matter-of-fact,
I wish I would have videoed it. So we
were lucky enough to see her straight on and her side view as she got ready to
proceed down Martin Luther King Blvd.
The last portion of her journey.
The Endeavour and transporter weighted 170,000 pounds so many
of the LA roads had to have steel plates laid down to protect the roads and all
of the underground tunnels and wiring…..who really knows what lives beneath the
roads of Los Angeles?! We saw the black
nose coming towards us 1st and then you couldn’t miss the wing span
and tail wing (those are layman’s words ok…..don’t hate me!) The shuttle is 5 stories tall and the
wingspan stretches 78 feet. It was as
long as a football field! That’s HUGE
people!
I
feel very fortunate getting to see it on the move just because I doubt I’ll
ever see something like that again.
However…..just because you didn’t see it “on the move”, don’t let that stop
you. You can still check her out at
California Science Center. I went to
their website (http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/GenInfo/PlanningYourVisit/Hours/endeavour/endeavour.php)
and found that the tickets run $8.25 per adult.
You do have to get timed tickets so make sure you check out reserving
them ahead of time.
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