Tranquility Base

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."  To all you young whippersnappers south of 50 that statement probably doesn’t mean much.  But, when Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered the phrase on July 20, 1969, upon landing on the moon, I and my fellow now half-centurions were experiencing the most exciting time in our lives – perhaps ever.  In my opinion we haven’t topped that, even if you include the invention of the internet and perfection of the pass play at second-and-goal from the one-yard line……..

Most of the hardware from that era is on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington but a large part is on loan to one of their satellite museums, just an hour or so south of Nashville, in Huntsville, Alabama.  The U.S. Space and Rocket Center is a great place for a space geek to spend a day, especially in an RV, and we did just that last weekend.  They have a 27 site RV park attached (appropriately named Tranquility Base with official address of 1 Tranquility Base) so we towed LuLu down for the weekend.

1 Tranquility Base

Oh, it gets better.  My daughter Cheryl, her husband Chad and our granddaughter Anna Kate call Huntsville home.  Plus, my youngest daughter Jenna (of 2G rock fame in the mountains of Salt Lake last summer) flew in to visit.

Jenna atop "2G rock" last summer

My girls

Little Anna Kate

It really doesn’t get better than this so strap in and let’s blast off for a tour.  Yes, photos are back in the blog. Enjoy.  

Cheryl, Anna Kate and Chad

Space Shuttle simulator

Apollo 12 Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) -  built by Airstream

Bunks

Dining/seating area

Apollo 16 command module

Moon rock under glass

 Yes, I fit quite nicely.

It was a great weekend.  Wonderful weather and seeing Chad and the girls was well... out of this world.  I've just scratched the surface of what was on display at the Rocket Center so if you're ever in the area be sure to stop by.  In the mean time you can visit here http://rocketcenter.com/

Kevin