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Candy and Damian USA Aug/Sept 2007

a travel blog by Candi&Damian


Candy and Damian will depart for the USA on Saturday 18th August.
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Durban, South Africa




permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 18, 2007 from Durban, South Africa
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Getting through Joburg Airport and waiting for the plane....

Johannesburg, South Africa


Prepare to enter the Travelblog of Candi and Damian! Enter at your own risk!!


The flight from Durban to Joburg was on time and even landed early! Had no problems getting through OR Tambo Aiport and finding our plane. Only worry was how close we would be seated to a rather ripe indigenous!!



permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 18, 2007 from Johannesburg, South Africa
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Dakar, Senegal




permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 18, 2007 from Dakar, Senegal
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Arrival in Atlanta

Atlanta, United States


We were both very pleased to arrive in Atlanta at last - the flight was 8 hours to Dakar in Senegal where the plane stopped to refuel and take on more passengers, and then another 8 hours to Atlanta.

Was dark from when we took off in Jo'burg at 7pm until 6am USA Eastern time. We were very glad to see the Sunrise!



permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 19, 2007 from Atlanta, United States
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Orlando

Orlando, United States


Got to Orlando on Monday afternoon. Collected the hire car and Damian got to work on his driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road skills!! So - while he concentrated on that I tried to navigate us through the busy roads to our hotel. We ended up taking a bit of a scenic route through the touristy part of Orlando, but eventually worked out the road system and arrived at the Rodeway Inn. It is on International Drive which we think is a lot like a mini Las Vegas. It is lined with restaurants, fast food places, hotels and mini-golf and entertainment areas.

The hotel is comfortable and fairly quiet. We have both adjusted to the time difference, although it took me a few days to get used to it.

We have both been rather amused by what Americans eat for breakfast. The buffet at Sizzlers (across the road from the hotel) offers the usual fruit, cereal, yoghurt, eggs, bacon, toast - as well as pancakes with syrup, chelsea buns, doughnuts and soft-serve ice cream!! Yuck!!

It is very, very hot and very humid - bit like Durban in summer. There is a heat wave in the South East of the country (where we are) but there are floods and storms to the far north of us around Chicago.



permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 20, 2007 from Orlando, United States
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Kennedy Space Centre

Orlando, United States


We had a really exciting day at Kennedy Space Centre. The Shuttle Endeavour landed on that day at 12:30. We stood outside when it was due to land to see if we could see it, but unfortunately it landed north-south and came in really fast so you couldn't see it from the visitor's area.

This photo is from the NASA upclose tour. They took us around passed the launch pads. Candi took this shot, but got her timing wrong because I wasn't ready for the photo. We were on the seaward side of the pads here.

This photo is taken at the rocket garden at the KSC visitors centre. The rocket garden as you can see has numerous rockets dating back from the beginning of the space race. The mercury and gemini program rockets are visible. The Mercuty rocket is on the left and the Gemini rocket is the big silver one right behind. Actually these rockets are a lot smaller than I expected. You can just see one of the mercury capsules lying sideways on the right. Its about the size of the Jabiru aircraft without wings and tail of course. If you consider that they put a man in that tiny capsule and then blasted him into orbit at 17500mph (27000km/h) and it had no wings or control surfaces that pilots are accustomed to, a very crude set of intruments and computer control, I'd say it was pretty scary stuff.

On our way to the launch pads we drove along the crawler way - the track from the Vehicle assembly building to the pads. It just so happened to be that they were returning the crawler to the main complex from one of the pads at the time we drove down the road, so we got an upclose view of the crawler and Mobile launch pad.

Here is a photo of the vehicle assembly building. They built this building to assembly Saturn V (five) rockets for the moon trips, they continue to use the building to assemble the space shuttle components.

We went to the Apollo/Saturn V centre. This is the re-assembled launch control room. These are the actually consoles used to launch the Saturn V, they are not mock-ups. They do a simulated launch in this room from about T-2 minutes through to blast off and Main engine Cut-off. The consoles come to life, you see images of the launch on all the screens, the room and windows shake and there is a loud roar of the rocket launching, you see a glow coming thorugh the sky facing windows. It is VERY IMPRESSIVE.

After the launch control centre we went into the main Saturn V building. Here they have a real Saturn V lying down in segments. It is huge, impressive, mind blowing. The Saturn V is about twice the size of the shuttle stack. The building is a tribute to the Apollo/Saturn 5 program.

Back at the visitors centre, here are real shuttle boosters and external tank. However there is only a mockup of the shuttle. They do not have any real shuttles (orbiters) on display. There are only 3 orbiters - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. They keep them under lock and key.

permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 21, 2007 from Orlando, United States
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Walt Disney World

Orlando, United States


Epcot Centre is made up of an area called Future World where there are some rides, a 3D cinema etc etc. There is a lake in the middle and surrounding that are areas for different countries - Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, UK and Canada. Each of these areas has typical buildings for that country housing restaurants and exhibits.

The dome exhibit was unfortunately closed for updating so we didn't get to go in there.




permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 22, 2007 from Orlando, United States
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Astronaut Training Experience (ATX)

Orlando, United States


On Thursday the 23rd I participated in an astronaut training experience at KSC. It gives you a little closer look at some aspects of astronaut training. But being a one day program it only touches on a few aspects and even so only scratches the surface.

Here is a photo of the training room with the mock-up shuttle cockpit and lower deck. We used the shuttle mockup for the simulated mission.

We had lunch and met one of the astronauts, Jon McBride. He has been with the shuttle program from the beginning and flew one of the chase planes on Columbia's maiden trip.

Neil Amstrong's suite. Yes the real thing. This suite has been to the moon and back.

The famous count down clock with a launch pad visible in the distance.



permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 23, 2007 from Orlando, United States
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Orlando to Fresno

Salt Lake City, United States


We got up early in Orlando to catch our flights to Salt Lake City and Fresno. Driving back to the airport and returning the car to the right place wasn't too difficult. We then flew to Salt Lake City. It is a stunning city set inbetween the mountains with a huge salt lake nearby. The lake has more than 50% salt (NaCl) content. We had a 3 hour stop over in SLC and so decided to try and get transport out of the airport to see the city. We saw an advert for the Temple Square bus and so found our way to that. The temple square bus is a free shuttle service run by the Mormon's to/from the airport to the city centre or Temple Square. We had a very pleasant driver who gave us a little tour around the square and told us what to look at. We then got out and strolled around the square taking photos and then up one road to the Capitol hill building. We returned to have a look at the Mormon Conference hall - a massive hall that seats 21 000 people!

We met the same shuttle and driver who took us back to the airport - a 1 1/2 hours or so well spent. Our flight left on time - it was in a smaller jet, a Canadair 200 which took us to Fresno.

permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 26, 2007 from Salt Lake City, United States
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Yosemite

Fresno, United States


We landed in Fresno, a smallish airport that serves both commercial traffic and private aircraft. Now this is where the fun began...

We had established that there was a bus service in Fresno which we would use to get to the Amtrak Station. Once outside the airport we found the bus shelter. One of the bus routes would take us past the Amtrak. A short while later a bus came along and we asked if it would take us to the Amtrak. The driver pointed out that the bus stop we were looking for was just outside the airport, by the traffic lights. So we trundled down the road with our luggage, all of about 200 metres and found the bus stop. The bus pitched up on time and the very helpfull bus driver (lady) explained our options. It seemed better to hop off this bus along the route and catch a connecting bus which would go right past the Amtrak. So far so good. We got off at the stop in question to wait for the other bus....

At some point both of us started to wonder what if the bus didn't come? We were stuck at the corner of some road with no other means of transport. Well we waited and waited...we knew the bus was supposed to come along the other side of the road, do a round route and return to where we were. No sign of the bus! When the time came when it should have been there we knew we had better do something. Across the street was a garage and shop. I went across to ask if I could phone to call a taxi leaving Candi with the luggage. The owner didn't seem like he wanted to be too helpfull, but at least let me use the phone. Called a taxi who said they would be there soon. We crossed the street with our luggage and stood at the garage getting more and more frantic as there was no sign of either the bus or taxi. We had 20 minutes to catch the train...the ONLY train that afternoon to Merced. Then suddenly someone called out from a car parked at the traffic lights. A friendly mexican american and his wife pulled over, said we looked lost, asked us where we were going and offered to give us a ride to the Amtrak. Wouldn't happen in South Africa! Boy were we thankfull! They sped us down the road and got us to the station just in time...or so we thought.

Now the next bit of fun. It became apparent that there was a problem with the train...it had hit a car at some crossing, killing some people and was now being delayed for 2 hours! We had made it to the Amtrak by the skin of our teeth and now we were going to miss our bus to Yosemite! The ticket office lady told me that if we were late for our bus and we bought our ticket through them they would guarantee to get us to Yosemite. So we took that option. Well the train did pitch up 2 hours late and eventually got us to Merced. It turned out that there were a few passengers on the train also going to Yosemite and so the Amtrak organised a shuttle bus to get us all there. The bus trip took about 2 3/4 hours and we arrived at Currie Village, Yosemite in the dark at about 9pm California time. Now consider that we had got up about 4:30am in Orlando which is 3 hours ahead of California time, we had been up for about 20 hours!

Well to finish this saga on a positive note it turned out that the wooden cabins in Currie Village had been over booked and they had to give us a cabin with a toilet and bath, which normally would cost about $40 more. We had originally booked one without. We were very thankfull that we had our own shower and toilet that night!

Moral of the story: Don't rely on small town public tranport!

Photos of Yosemite:



permalink written by  Candi&Damian on August 26, 2007 from Fresno, United States
from the travel blog: Candy and Damian USA Aug/Sept 2007
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