We have recovered from our "tornado" trama! Wish we had taken a picture of the radar on the computer screen, but that was not a priority at the time. Things have settled down and after a couple of days of colder temps, things are back to the normal - 70s and sun. The local weather guru predicts that because of el nino, there will be more severe weather this winter.

Stopped by the Police Hall of Fame and Museum yesterday. There were interesting displays of early police equipment, criminals, forensics, a shooting range and and impressive amount of weapons.

Visited the Kennedy Space Center today! Very well done. One display that we found especially interesting was about the moon landing. In August of 1969 we were attending the Atomic Cup hydroplane race in the tri-cities. The landing came during the race and the thousands of people watching the races were very excited and there was great cheering and celebrating. That evening, we were driving home across White Pass glued to our radio waiting for the first step on the moon. Radio reception was a bit sketchy so we stopped along the way where we had good reception to hear the actual first step. It was fun to relive all of that with the newsmen and reports of the day that we had largely missed. It was a special time when our country was united in our pursuit of this goal.

On Friday we take the motor home to storage and fly home on Saturday! We are excited to see everyone at home and are anxiously awaiting the birth on Tues morning, the 13th. Carlee is ready, too! We are especially looking forward to seeing Garrett, Parker, Carlee and Cody; Aunt Mary; Jean and Mark in their new home; and Nancy at the office.

When we went to bed last night, the warnings about storms in the area were getting quite serious. Bob fired up the radar on the computer to keep watch. He got up in the night and saw that there were numerous tornados heading our way. You are kind of at a disadvantage not being familiar with the county names and all of the local towns and communities. They first issue a "tornado watch" then a "tornado warning" and finally a "take cover"! Our area was clearly in a "tornado watch". It was interesting to follow all of this on the computer, but quite frightening as we are in a very vulnerable home. Tornados can form quickly and are not as predictible as hurricanes. If it came to "take cover" our options were limited! Bob decided that a 40 mile drive would get us out of harms way. So we packed up quickly and headed south at 5am. We stopped at that distance as there was another cell forming and another "tornado watch" just south of there! We waited out the rain storm, had a nice breakfast out, then headed back. Things are not too bad when you have your own little house with you!

The TV and radio have been covering the story all day. Tornados are nothing to take a chance with. A church that was demolished today was built recently to withstand hurricane winds of 150 plus! We are glad to be relaxing this afternoon and that the weather forcast is good!!

We have arrived in Titusville, FL - adjacent to Cape Canaveral on the "space coast". Driving across the state we actually got to about 150 feet elevation. Thats one thing that is very different about Florida, there are no hills in the distance. The best views are from the freeway overpasses. We find that strange!

Our current park is really beautiful. It is part of a golf course community and has wonderful facilities and lakes and fountains, etc. The instructions say not to swim in the lakes. A couple of sentences later it says "please don't feed the alligators that occasionally visit the lakes". I will be sticking to the pool! We have not yet seen an alligator but hope to sometime down here. We have seen many exotic birds including pelicans, herons and snowy egrets. We have also seen manatees in the inland waters.

There are definitely lots of people in Florida. There are countless housing development areas. In the nice beach areas much of the property is privately owned.

There are far too many toll roads as far as we are concerned!

Restaurants are busy and the large retirement crowd has late breakfasts and early dinners! A local IHOP and the patrons were robbed the other morning by 4 people with tazers! You would think you were relatively safe eating in an IHOP!

After a little rain overnight it is sunny and 75. There are thunderstorms predicted for tonight. The natives think it is pretty cold, be we think it is fine! I am on my way to swim and will probably be the only person in the pool.