Tickets from Allegiant Air DSM-STP and a rental car for a week, all for under $500. Here's my car, a 2008 Chrysler Sebring.
Reconstruction of I-275 results in three sets of traffic lanes: current south/westbound, old north/eastbound, new north/eastbound.
First item of business: Drive across the state on I-4. It's less than half the distance of I-80 across Iowa.
Starting east on I-4.
Only rest area on I-4. Very interesting restroom setup, but no state maps.
Approaching Disney World with storm clouds ahead.
Going from I-75 to I-95 here is a lot faster than Kentucky-Virginia, and a LOT faster than Detroit-Boston.
The lowest-numbered "2di" now clinched!
Starting Day 2 with a deadline to make Kennedy Space Center. It will be close.
Daytona Speedway
One of the early Gemini capsules.
Monument to the Mercury 7
Notice that one astronaut does not have a military rank.
Apollo I memorial benches
Apollo I launch complex
Launch Pad 39A
The VAB, fourth-largest building in the world by volume
The "crawler" used to transport rockets and shuttles from the VAB to the launch pads.
The bottom of a full-size Saturn V rocket
Pretty sparse tourism for early May, judging by my Titusville hotel.
In the background is a mockup of the proposed six-person crew capsule for future moon missions.
Beside this mock space shuttle is the closest thing KSC has to a "ride" - a simulated shuttle launch based on Discovery's "return to flight" in 2005. Highly recommended.
Astronaut Memorial
May 30, 2009 was the last day ever that a space shuttle would be on Launch Pad 39B. The towers surrounding Endeavour are lightning rods in preparation for future rocket tests.
Why the rods? "Welcome to the lightning capital of North America." So naturally we put a bunch of tall, pointy things here...