Trip Preperation
Witnessing a rocket launch has been on my bucket list going back to my childhood. My father and I were both very interested in space travel and science fiction. He always said if aliens landed in the backyard, he would absolutely go for a ride. I really wish I had seen a shuttle launch, but I was too poor back then to travel much. I started planning in July 2024 and wanted to see something big. At first I planned on an SLS launch, but Artemis II was going to be a multi-year wait, so I settled on a Falcon Heavy. The next Falcon Heavy launch was Europa Clipper, scheduled for October 2024.
10/07/2024 - 10/13/2024
2721 Miles
Round Trip from North Haven, CT to Titusville, FL
Day Two - Suffolk, VA to Okatie, SC
Day One - North Haven, CT to Suffolk, VA
Day Three - Okatie, SC to Titusville, FL
My last trip was in a PT Cruiser to Phoenix, and I had planned on going on the cheap, staying at Motel 6. See that trip to see how I learned some important lessons. This trip will be in my car, an Audi TTS, and I will stay at Hampton Inns. I would also be staying at my brother Rob’s house in South Carolina on the way down and stopping in Charlotte, NC, to visit an old friend. These stops dictated I break the trips up in back into three days and two nights. Once I had picked the nightly stopovers, I then tried to break up the driving by finding points of interest to stop at about every two hours. Lastly, I found restaurants that served food I would eat and coffee shops to get espresso. Follow the link to my previous trip to Phoenix for more information about my criteria for food and coffee.
Day One - North Haven, CT to Suffolk, VA
Day Five - Charlotte, NC to Gettysburg, PA