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I got within a couple yards of a space shuttle today! The Vehicle Assembly Building is the giant building (with enough interior volume to contain almost 4 Empire State Buildings) where large rockets and spaceships are assembled. It was used to put together the pieces of the Saturn V rockets used by that Apollo program, and to prep the space shuttles before each mission.
The last of the shuttles, Atlantis, is there for the next few days. On November 2, it'll be moved to the visitor center at the Kennedy Space Center, where they'll finish building an exhibition building around it. It's a little sad to see it there, but know it'll never fly again. But it's really neat to be able to see it up close.
The building itself is pretty amazing. It's built on a scale that's hard to grasp. Where else can you look up fifty stories and see the cranes used to hold spaceships in position as they're constructed?
After lunch at the Kennedy Space Center, I rode to Savannah, Georgia. My only actual stop was for a picture of America's Smallest Church. Funny that I saw both the world's biggest one-story building and that in the same day. On a lot of trips I've taken, the most spectacular engineering works have been religious buildings (like the Hagia Sophia, or the Hassan V Mosque). I'm happy to be on a trip where a building devoted to science is the highlight instead.
In case you're ever wondering "Should I take my road motorcycle along the riverfront in Savannah, GA?", let me assure you that the answer is "No". The stone pavement seems designed to rattle a suspension to pieces.
I think the riverfront in Savannah may be worth a look, but we'll see whether I have time to visit again during daylight. I'm taking the bike in for its 60k mile service tomorrow, and hoping to end the day in South Carolina, so I may not.
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