Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 12 Summer 2011 Road Trip

Today we are leaving Memphis Tennessee and heading to Huntsville Alabama.  We leave the State of Tennessee and cross into Mississippi.

8469 US-72 Mississippi Welcome sign

There are some interesting vines growing up the hydro poles.  How do the vines know not to grow onto the hydro wires ?

8471 US-72 Mississippi 8472 US-72 Mississippi

The roads through Mississippi are nice and smooth.

8476 US-72 Mississippi 8477 US-72 Mississippi

We stopped at the US Space and Rocket Center.  This is the home of Space Camp for children, but we will check out the exhibits and an IMAX movie.

From the highway we can see the Saturn V Rocket.  This is mock up of the rocket that was used in the Apollo Moon Missions.

8504 I-565 (Alt. US-72), Alabama - first view of US Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama 8505 Admiral Alan B. Shepard Jr Highway sign and Davidson Center for Space Exploration - Huntsville, Alabama

8509 U.S. Space and Rocket Center sign - Huntsville, Alabama 8510 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Saturn V Rocket Stitch

The IMAX film was about the discovery of flight, but basically it was a glorified commercial about the design and construction of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Kids would love this place, there are hundreds of hands on things to see and do that would keep a kid entertained all day long.  Not such a thrill for adults.  The rocket and space ship displays are all outside.

8514 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama 8517 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Lunar Lander 8518 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Lunar Lander in a moon crater

Pete and I did go on the G Force Accelerator, which simulates the sensation of 3 G’s of force against your body.

8520 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - G Force Accelerator 8522 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Bill and Peter going in G Force Accelerator 8525 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Bill and Peter going off G Force Accelerator

We also wanted to go on the “Space Shot” which simulates the force of take off and a brief moment of weightlessness, however the ride was broken.

8527 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Space Shot 8526 U.S. Space and Rocket Center - Huntsville, Alabama - Space Shot

From here we headed to our hotel in Huntsville Alabama… A very nice Best Western.

8528 Best Western PLUS Rocket City Inn and Suites, Huntsville, Alabama - our room 8529a Best Western PLUS Rocket City Inn and Suites, Huntsville, Alabama - our room 8530 Best Western PLUS Rocket City Inn and Suites, Huntsville, Alabama - our room

We went to a great restaurant “Logan’s Roadhouse” for dinner and had a steak dinner.  This is a chain of restaurants and we enjoyed our meal so much, I am sure we will be looking for them as we travel.

To see all of the photos that we took today, just click on the link to our FLICKR site.

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