The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center is two hours from Tampa on the east coast.
Behind the main buildings is a rocket garden, with examples of NASA's success stories.
You can walk among these metal monuments to the space race and marvel at their size.

The bus tour is the only way to get near the launch pads, so we hopped aboard. The bus went past the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the shuttle is mated with the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. Years ago the Saturn 5 rockets were assembled there. The first stop on the tour was Pad 39, the stepping stone to the moon. It's been remodeled as a 3 story viewing stand of the Cape. We saw the space shuttle Endeavour being readied for a flight to the International Space Station in November.

I almost could hear Dad comment: "And we thought Rick's rockets were complicated."

"We came in Peace."	"I'm only here for the beer!"

				Stop 2 was the Saturn 5 building, dedicated to the moon flights. A full size moon rocket is lying on it's side within.
	All the mission emblems are hanging from the ceiling. On the other side of the building is a theatre re-enacting the final moments of the first lunar landing.

Back at the visitor center we toured a mock-up of the space shuttle called the Explorer, and walked under the external tank with SRBs.

Astronaut Jon McBride hosted the "Astronaut Encounter", where the audience was invited to ask questions about space flight, zero-G, and rockets in general.

Donna and I were so overcome with a feeling of patriotism that we immediately enlisted in the astronauts training program and are seen here on a recent exploration of the moons of Mars.