WE HAVE LIFT OFF, BUT WITH A DETOUR

Big crowds here for Spring Break and to watch a fiery daytime launch of a Delta C rocket. It put another of 12 new GPS satellites into orbit. The originals are 22 years old! So maybe your smart phone is a little smarter today, or you won't get lost this time? The other thing it put was awe in everybody watching. Brilliant flame even in midday sunshine, and a rumble like a freight train on your roof. Magnificent.

But we have a touch of the homesick and will be driving off before dawn tomorrow morning. Pat has once again cooked up everything in the fridge and packed all our stuff for the days on the road. The car got washed and waxed because it might be weeks back home before it's warm enough to do it there.

The cardinals will be waiting for a handout at the feeder. The Easter Bunny will be hippity-hopping up the Easter Trail in a few days. So we're heading home, but there was a deal we couldn't resist. We're detouring to Rio first...

GREEN WITH SPRING FEVER

Spring is bursting out all around us and the pull of springtime back home is strong. Maple sap flowing, snow melting, return of birds/buds/beauties in the barn --- all going on! For now it's enough to walk among green trees and blossoms. One of us even found a plant sale by the side of a back road!

Also this week was the annual Pat-Rick Day. Somehow the Irish have adopted the name, and dance in the street wearing green on the 17th...

The actual first day of spring brought sea fog here, so no equinox sunrise to be seen. But a green circle of life all the same.  On the beach was a dead Loggerhead sea turtle, sad considering it's the start of their egg-laying season. But later in a park there's a green Florida Box turtle very alive. Looking for spring love??

There was another rocket launch scheduled yesterday, carrying Kazhakstan's first national satellite. We waited through the one-hour launch window but it was postponed. In the meantime there were boats to watch big and small. Local pelicans catch fish faster than the human fishers!

With all this springtime, even a Dumbo can guess where we're headed next week...

THREE FIRSTS... (#1 of 3 POSTS TODAY)

Spring is in the air here, with colourful  blossoms and many of the familiar birds we'll see back home in a couple of months.

 But the week was special for three first-time events for us.  Love the new stuff! The first first was a rare nighttime rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center within sight of our place. A satellite to test atmospheric magnetism atop the reliable Atlas C rocket. We had seen daylight shuttle launches in the past, but this one lit up the dark sky like a --- well, like a rocket! I've put in a pic of the sunset 4 hours before blast-off for comparison. Both are awesome!

Then there's a first-time Beach n' Boards Fest here, with surfing and other beach action. Lots of fun for all the Spring Breakers in town. Kid's bellyflops, teens half-pipe, and pro surfers. The latest toy is the Surfer Dude that you throw into a wave and it surfs back to you, sort of like a salt-water boomerang. Note the first-time thrower on shore?!

The surfing is, like, gnarly, dude! and draws the biggest crowds and the prize money. But if you can name the champion surfer signing autographs, your board is way saltier than mine...

But the third and most amazing first was accidentally finding a manatee cove full of those lovable big slow sea cows!! It's in a protected wildlife refuge and the water was an ideal 70F for them to wallow and feed in grotty (but yummy if you're a manatee!) bays. You learn that their closest relative is the elephant. And that they've been around for 60 million years. And that extinction is inevitable. All the more incredible just seeing them in the wild. Thankyou Mother Nature!

...AND A THIRD --- BIKE WEEK! (#2 OF 3 POSTS TODAY)

It figured Friday the 13th would be a lucky day to drive up the road to Daytona Beach. For the THIRD time we were engulfed by Bike Week. An absolute zoo of 100,000 motorcycles and even more gawkers like us. 99% Harleys of all vintages but all making that unmistakeable "potato-potato-potato" sound drowning out any other. Only stayed a few hours this time but so awesome that I'm ready to join in next time. Maybe a 1200cc Softail??

Hard to pick out a tree among the forest but some individual and custom bikes stood out. Ever seen a Whizzer? A lot of time, money, and inspiration in these beauties...

Best in show? For Pat it was a tug at her country roots ---- a John Deere in correct green-and-yellow! For me, a roadtrip-ready Indian with leather saddlebags and creamy paint job (unlike this guy, nothing to hold your nose about!!)