Volusia County Trifecta

Jon is on 2rd shift this week for the launch and Mason and I had the whole day free. Soooo off we went for some mom/son/letterboxing adventures!
First stop was the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. The center was a surprise artist colony smack in the middle of some Florida scrub and home to one of the best LB's we have ever found!
DeLeon Springs has been on the to-do list for 2 years now, yay, we finally made it! Trivia, back in the 50's Sunshine was a big draw....No not sunshine in the sky, but Sunshine the water skiing elephant? Skiing pachyderms are no longer an attraction, thank goodness...The big draw now is a restaurant, the Old Spanish Sugar Mill where you cook your pancakes on the griddle right in the middle of the table. Mason and I interviewed one of the waitresses and turns out they do have a GF batter available, double yay!DeLeon Spring temps are 72 year round and even though this is April, we had a 93 degree day which made for a perfect combo!Last stop was Lake George SF in Astor and an excellent example of why we love LBing so. This park was way off the beaten path...On this particular afternoon, after driving down a 2.5 mile piece of it, we ended up on a peninsula jutting out into the St Johns River.
A perfect day except for the time where I was crying at the gas pump...

Fort Christmas

Saturday a much anticipated family day was set into motion and off to Fort Christmas we went. The place was really hoppin and we were surprised by how different the encampment was from last year? Like where are the re-enactors? A few questions later finally landed us a person in the know and we found out that because of the late Easter this year, the camp was scheduled 2 weeks ago and yes they were very sorry but no the website had not been updated. Yuh, well we were bummed for all of about 2 seconds...Turns out there was a HUGE 4-H Agricultural Festival going on and we were welcome to join in the fun!

Before electricity all sheep shearing was done the old fashioned way, with manual shears. This antique pair was almost but not quite up to the task, they were kind of rusty... Washing raw cotton... Sure it was a tedious and mindless job so they made the children do it. After a thorough 30 minute instructional on how to properly use a bow and arrow the 3 of us got the opportunity to shoot. Not to brag or anything but my first slung arrow was a bulls eye! The boys did pretty well themselves with plenty of bulls eye between us all. This could be a new family hobby?
We weren't all that impressed when the Fire Dept called the kids over and at first thought sure another fire truck demo...No, it was way cooler than that. This was a demo on how controlled fires are started and controlled, complete with actual visuals, they totally burnt up some grass! After the demos the kids had an opportunity to hold and use the fire hoses and make sure those fires were out!

One of the days surprises...There was this pen with gators in it and they encouraged folks to just lean on into it and pick one up! Jon grabbed the smallest fella, an approx 1 year old baby, he was too chicken to go for one of the toddlers!

Family Ties

Faith and Jill, 1st cousins...Morgan and Mason 3rd cousins. Now if you look in the left corner of pic, the dude wearing the red shirt, that's Jon, a 2nd cousin.

Battle at Narcoossee Hill

Nah, no real battle here, just Mason and his pop pop listening to and watching a presentation on fiber/fabric production during the Civil War.


This was our second year visiting Battle at Narcoossee Hill Educators Day in Chisholm Park which is held the 4th weekend every March. The biggest difference between 2010 & 2011? Was dry this year, which made playing with friends afterwards a whole lot less messy.

Birds Eye View

A few months back our church hosted a silent auction for the youth where Jon bid on and won a one hour plane ride with Fred Mahan...
Jon, Mason and Fred, The Pilot.
Mason riding shotgun.
South end of Merritt Island
Birds eye view!

OV-103 Discovery - Final Mission

20 minutes before launch... big problem:

- NTD this is SRO on 212
- Go SRO
- Range says NO GO at this time

A few minutes later:

- Discovery, launch director. We're going to take this one on down to the wire. We'll go through our polls here and uh, take you on down to 5 minutes and see if we can't get a great flight today.
- This is shuttle launch control. 5 minutes remaining in our hold at T minus 9 minutes.
- This is the NTD conducting the launch status check. All stations verify ready to resume count and go for launch.
- OTC? OTC go.
- TDC? TDC go.
- TTC? TTC is go.
- LTS. LTS is go.
- Houston flight. Houston flight is go.
- MILA. MILA is go.
- STM. STM is go.
- Safety console. Safety console is go.
- STD. STD is go.
- LRD. LRD is go.
- SRO. SRO is NO GO.
- Copy are you good to go to 5 minutes and hold? Yes. We are good to go to 5 minutes and hold. Copy.
- And CDR. Discovery is go.

At the 5 minute hold, it still doesn't look good, and the launch window is closing:

- Holding at T-5 minutes.
- Our only issue is a red condition from the eastern range. Their central command system display is not operating properly.
- 2 minutes and 48 seconds of hold time remain in today's launch window.
- Today's launch window expires in 2 minutes 28 seconds.
- All systems are go with the exception of the eastern range.
- SRO standby.
- 2 minutes remaining in the hold today. 2 minutes remaining in our launch window.
- SRO NTD final recommendation please.
- Stand by one.
- 1 minute 30 seconds remaining in our window.

21 agonizing seconds later....

- Ops manager NTD. Ops manager on 212. Go ahead. I got verbal confirmation from the 45th wing commander... we are GO. I would like you to proceed. Copy that. NTD with that uh verification that the range will support today's launch we need to press on. Pick up the count on your mark.
- Copy that. And SRO NTD? Need to put this uh, your hold switch to proceed position.
- 40 seconds remaining in our launch window.
- Range is go.
- GLS has the SRO hold been removed?
- Negative sir.

- SRO NTD.
- NTD I can remove the hold here...
- SRO on 212.
- We need you to put your hold switch in proceed position.
- in proceed.
- GLS can you verify?
- GLS verifies.
- 15 seconds remaining in our hold.
- Copy. We'll pick up momentarily. CGLS pick up the clock on your mark. GLS copies. 3..2..1.. mark. T-5 minutes and counting. TLT OTC perform AT start. TLT in work. CDR OTC reconfigure heaters. Copy in work.
- Reconfig complete.
- All systems are go and weather is green.
- Flight director NTD.
- Flight NTD?
- NTD Houston flight.... I have 2 seconds of trade back hold remaining. Two seconds.
- NTD SRO is go for launch. And what is your status? We are go. Copy.

Go for main engine start...



Credit for this lovely photo goes to Chris Swindal, he is an amazing photographer!

Shadow Bay Park

Winter vacation is over and we needed something special to ease us back into our routine.
Letterboxing provides lots of inspiration so off to Orlando we went! This series on endangered/threatened species covered Sand Lace, Sand Skink, Scrub Lupine, Scrub Wild Buckwheat, Florida Bonamia and Papery Whitlow-Wort.

This gopher tortoise was playing peek-a-boo with us and while he wasn't on our list today they are endangered.