Huntsville, AL

[lustindarkness]

FJ Cruiser is a truck now

Body on frame, yes. Since when are SUV a car?

An SUV is an SUV.

But not a car, right?

Listen Rican i'm already peeved with you for failing on the Nut kicking, do you really want to annoy me more!?!

Yes, entertain me at work please.

[lustindarkness]

That is true...cargo space overall isn't too hot.

Which is why even though i really like them, not on my list for next car as need something that can carry lots of camera gear and pelican cases.

Try going camping with a family of 4 for a weekend.    Even the roof rack is put to use.

Edit: It worked great for me and my son, road trip/camping for a week and a half, with rear seats folded down.

[Caliga]

AAR, Part II

Thursday, April 25th
So once we were able to check into our room I spent some time looking local stuff up on the web and checking in on work (workaholic  ) and then it was time for dinner.  Princesca had made dinner reservations at a place called Connor's Steak and Seafood, which is apparently the top-rated restaurant in town.  We headed there around 6, by which time we were starving since Alabama is on Central Time, unlike Louisville.

The place was great.  We both got filets.  I had mine medium-rare and topped with boursin and fried onions, which sounds strange but it was basically perfect.  Princesca got bleu cheese on her filet.  I had broccoli as a side and she had... macaroni and cheese.   Of course, it's like some gourmet mac and cheese, but still... for dessert we split bananas foster, which sadly wasn't 'right' in that it had not been flambeed... but for some reason nobody seems to do that anymore.   I forgot what kind of wine we had with dinner but it was decent.  The service at the place was so attentive it was almost irritating, but I guess I like that better than being ignored.  In all it was a good dinner, especially since the bill barely exceeded $100 and I'm used to paying quite a bit more for this sort of meal.

btw this place, which I strongly recommend, is a small chain with additional restaurants in Knoxville and Ft. Myers if any of y'all are in or end up traveling to either of those towns.

Friday, April 26th
We got up early and had a light breakfast in the hotel room, and then headed on over to the US Space and Rocket Center which was the main reason we went down to Huntsville.

The first thing I saw was a SR-71 Blackbird parked in front of the entrance, which was pretty neat to see in person... I've seen the F-117 before, which is dwarfed by the SR-71.  To me the Blackbird looks like something Batman would have flown around in.

The first exhibit we checked out was a traveling/temporary exhibit about black holes.  It was this really neat interactive thing where you got this little credit card thingy that stored the 'research' you had done so far, and each time you went to a new station to learn some more shit you inserted your card into a reader and it updated to show you'd done that station's research.  You also got to assign yourself a humorous nickname and I of course was "Doctor Hot Shot".

The main takeaways I learned about black holes:

* black holes are both the hottest and coldest objects in the universe, depending on whether or not they are actively feeding on matter, but generally it's easiest to detect them with infrared telescopes and most difficult to detect them with x-ray telescopes.

* it's also possible to infer a black hole's location by observing the trajectory of stars nearby because they're going to be affected by the black hole's gravity well.

There was lots of other info about black holes but I knew it all already (e.g. time slows to a stop as you reach the black hole's event horizon, etc.)


The next exhibit we looked at was about the history of Huntsville's involvement with the space program, which as you may know is heavily intertwined with Werner von Braun's history.  Now, I'll come back to this later too, but the main thing I noticed about this area was that it made barely any mention of his work before we shanghaied him at the end of WWII to keep him away from the Soviets.  Anyway, it explained how before the 1940s, Huntsville was mainly known as 'The Watercress Capital of the World' and its transformation into Rocket City USA began with the construction of the Redstone Arsenal right before WWII.  Then there was this section about how all of this rocket shit benefits us and is responsible for the invention of items such as WD-40, angioplasty, etc. and that's why it's really important to fund space exploration even when we're broke.

[Admiral Yi]

When you get to Teh List bold it so I'll notice.

[Phillip V]

So people go to Alabama of their own free will?!?!?!

Condos in Huntsville, AL seem quite pricier than my current location in Fayetteville, NC.

I would go work in Huntsville if they offered $95k+ a year.

[PDH]

Ok, you are not a complete worthless turd.

[CountDeMoney]

I would go work in Huntsville if they offered $95k+ a year.

I don't think numbers go that high in Huntsville.

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm pretty sure some of those NASA boys are pulling down better.

[Caliga]

AAR, Part III

Friday, April 26th
Next we toured the 'rocket yard', which has dozens of rockets, missiles, and vehicles (mostly missile launch platforms).  I can't remember all of the different models they had but there are several Saturn V rockets, which are staggeringly large, as well as a Patirot, a Jupiter, a Juno, several Nikes, etc.  Out here there were also V-1 and V-2 rockets.  Now, we could barely see either of those because there was some dumb high school competition that day where parts of the rocket park were roped off so students could compete on a 'moon buggy' course.  The 'moon buggies' were really just tandem bikes so I'm really not sure what they were supposed to be learning by doing this....

Anyway they also had the Space Shuttle Pathfinder there, which is a test mockup they used to simulate a real shuttle while the shuttle was being developed, attached to an external tank and two solid rocket boosters to simulate the shuttle's launch configuration.

We had lunch at the 'Mars Grill' (just a turkey sandwich and tater tots as I recall) and then went into an exhibit hangar with another Saturn V rocket turned sideways and sectioned, as well as some other neat things such as a Gemini capsule you could sit in (it looked too small for me ), a lunar rover, a full-scale Skylab replica you could walk into, and a lunar landing module you could get in, and I did get in that one and play with the controls a bit for the photo-op.  After that, we browsed the gift shop and that was pretty much it for the US Space and Rocket Center.

[Ed Anger]

Did you have: Astronaut Ice Cream?

[Caliga]

Did you have: Astronaut Ice Cream?

No.

[MadImmortalMan]

Huntsville's rocket park sounds a lot like the Johnson space center in Houston.

[CountDeMoney]

Did you have: Astronaut Ice Cream?

I did at the Kennedy Space Center.  Now that's a cool place, and hands down the most awesomenest gift shop anywhere. 

[Caliga]

Huntsville's rocket park sounds a lot like the Johnson space center in Houston.

Been to Houston several times, but never had time to go to the space center.

[Ed Anger]

Did you have: Astronaut Ice Cream?

I did at the Kennedy Space Center.  Now that's a cool place, and hands down the most awesomenest gift shop anywhere.

When I was a kid, the Air Force Museum gift shop was the holy land. Bugged the living shit out of my parents.

Now my kids bug the living shit out of me.  AIRPLANE! 40 Dollars!