Limbo Land

So. Here we are in Florida. Now, Florida is a really great place. Warm breezes, ocean waves, friendly people, what a great place to be stuck in. Yep. Stuck. This is all so surreal. Sunday we drive 9 hours to Montreat to pick up my daughter. Have a marvelous time in Asheville visiting the Mellow Mushroom and spending a bit of time visiting my daughter's stomping grounds. Get up the next day and drive 10 hours to Florida. Get in late, have quite a bit of drama over the room but yeah, it's Florida... how bad can it be?

Spend the next day on a delightful tour of Nasa, feeling sort of special with our family passes, being ushered through special back doors and going to visit the whole team of Space Shuttle Discovery "across the ditch"... (Astronauts are put in quarantine a week before a launch to make sure they don't get sick during their mission so you can't hug them... or their family... before the big "take off" so they stand across the street from you as you and all the other family members are herded into a large corded area so you can wave, clap and stare at them before the actual launch. Sort of monkey like but a great photo op)

Got to go to Imax and see just how scary Ricky's spacewalks are in 3D (if he ever gets the launch on a reasonable time, he'll get 3) Got to sit in a simulated "space shuttle experience" ride and feel the G forces he'll feel if/when he launches. Got briefed by a real astronaut on what it will all be like and got to ask questions just like we were... well, people who got briefed by real astronauts. Got a ride out to the landing strip and the special family launch space that said family (us) will get to watch supposed launch.

And now we sit. and wait. and drink. Poor Weez, my sister in law and said astronauts wife, is a mess. She feels so bad that we have all come from all over, California, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, New York, and of course, Texas, where they live, to see this wonderful experience for Ricky.... only to be scrambling trying to find hotel rooms and new flights and all the other logistics of living in limbo... shall we stay til Monday? or Wednesday? What ARE the odds that this sucker will fly? Can I get my employer/dog sitter/clients to just be patient and wait a few more days? And what if it doesn't launch? How long do we hold out? Should we leave Weez and the kids alone? What if we go home and they announce the launch the next day? What if we stay and they don't launch til April? So many questions. So few answers.

But in spite of all of it, we are having a great time. There is a large group of us. Friends from 30 years ago. The entire Miller family sans a few cousins. We have been partying like it's 1979. We laughed so hard last night reminiscing that most of us were complaining of our bellies and faces being sore from laughing so hard. When we were young we used to have "big chill" weekends... where we would all get together and party for an entire weekend.. we are all giggling about how this is a "big chill" week. Trouble is, we don't know when it will end. We don't know how long we will be in limbo here. We don't know how long our livers will hold out, let alone our hotel reservations.

Oh well, we are digging in our heels and trying to see it all through. Hopefully it will be Sunday. All we can do is play it one day at a time. Sooner or later he will launch, or we will come home. But in the meantime... it's party time! Could be worse... at least we are in sunny Florida! And my oh my it is BEAUTIFUL here. Kinda hard to complain huh? Esp. when Ricky's safety is first and foremost on all of our minds....

See you one day...don't know when. Namaste'