The traffic after the launch was legendary, as expected, and we arrived back at the hotel around 3am. We slept in and made it down to breakfast just before it was closing at 10am. There were a dozen men in blue T-shirts sitting around drinking coffee. On the back of their shirts was the hydrogen chemical sign. As it turns out, they are the guys who supply the hydrogen for the Artemis launch. That explains the parking lot full of chemical trucks. There were about 25 of them.
Several days before our journey to Florida, my electric toothbrush stopped working. It would not charge. Once you use an electric toothbrush, a manual toothbrush just doesn’t do the job. I called Oral B, and we did all the things that a non-technical person can do such as a factory reset of the lithium battery. It didn’t work. Since it was out of warranty, I was offered a coupon for new one. I HATE planned obsolescnce so I declined and asked where I could get my toothbrush serviced.
“Where do you live?”
“Virginia.”
“You would send it to Titusville, FL.”
“You’re kidding. I am going there to watch the Artemis launch.” So he gave me the number, and I contacted them.
I traded in my handle for the serviceman, Brian, to recycle properly (PLEASE KEEP LITHIUM OUT OF OUR LANDFILLS!) and purchased a new handle. It works like a charm!!! He was happy to make a quick sale, I am happy that my toothbrushing will be great again, and the earth is happy that I didn’t throw it away. Where is away anyway?!?!?
Brian told us that his home has a crack in the wall. When he bought the house, the owner said, “Oh, that happened when them boys went to the moon!!! He said that a lot of homes were damaged in the past and NASA set up a claims department to handle those issues … within a certain time frame. Today they use water to dampen the noise and vibrations. We also heard that the wildlife doesn’t like the noise and vibration, especially the alligators. I imagine that wildlife biologists are running their own types of tests and observations during a launch!!
So now it is time to drive 12 hours home. We thought that we would need to break it up into 2 days but I didn’t bring enough clothes for the extra day. Plan B was to wear my swimsuit and coverup tomorrow!! Let’s see how far we get!
We stopped for gas and to observe some interesting vending machines in the bathrooms. We stopped at a McDonald’s because we truly needed FAST FOOD. They literally had NOTHING healthy to eat. This McDonald’s didn’t even have salads. Fortunately, I still had some peanut butter and fruit in the car. So Rob got a burger, and we had a picnic!!
We drove and we drove and made it home just past midnight…which happened to be Rob’s birthday. He loved his spontaneous gift of going to Florida to see the Artemis launch and I came home with a new appreciation for our space program…and a new toothbrush!!!
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