I left town pretty much on schedule. Traffic was light and the roads were clear, and I was anticipating a nice, boring drive. It stayed boring until I got to Berea, Kentucky when the road leaped up and ate my tire. I was simply changing lanes on I-75. A nice big superhighway. What's simpler than changing lanes in light traffic.

If KY had done some road maintenance it would have been simple. The concrete slabs have spread and deteriorated. My tire slipped into one of the crevases between slabs and came out like shredded wheat without the wheat.

AAA picked me up, and conveniently enough, I was just a mile or so from an exit with a Walmart Auto Center and a Red Roof. The driver took my car to Walmart, then drove me and my luggage next door to the Red Roof.

According to Google, the Walmart Auto Center opens at 10:00 AM. So I showed up at 9:30 to discover they were already open.

That's the good news.

The size tire they don't carry is the size tire my car needs.

But, all is not lost. There's another tire store a couple miles away, and *THEY* might have my tire. If I can find a tire, Walmart can mount it.

Unfortunately, Monday was the Federal Holiday, and the other tire store was very patriotic.

I spent an amusing hour with Google looking for tire stores, car rental places, or anything that would get me onto the road again.

A tire store one town over was open, and they had the tire I needed. The folks at Walmart gave me the name of a local cab company. One phone call later and I'm waiting for a cab.

This actually worked. The local cab company mostly carries the elderly to and from doctor's appointments and shopping. The cab was already on his way to Walmart to pick up a lady and her groceries, so it was easy to pick me up as well. A quick detour to drop off the other rider and her food, then we were off to Richmond's Goodyear Tire Center.

By noon, me and my tire were back at Walmart, and I knew more about the taxi business, the town of Berea and my driver's relatives than I ever suspected existed. The driver talked non-stop. Luckily, he was fun to listen to.

The tire was repaired by 1:15, and I was back on the road by 1:30. In daylight, could see that the KY road crews had been at work. There was lots of hot-patch showing in the cracks between the slabs. They just hadn't gotten around to fixing my (least) favorite pothole.

The trip was starting to feel like a video-game road rally. I'd failed the first hazard - playing frogger with potholes. Next I had to work my way through the easy levels: Twisty mountain roads, twisty mountain roads with construction, and twisty mountain roads with construction in the dark.

That got me through KY, TN, SC and GA. But then I hit the end-game levels: fog, fog and traffic, fog, traffic, and lots or road changes, and finally fog, traffic and guess what exit you need when the signs are hidden in the fog.

My original plan had been to travel until 10:00 or 11:00 on Sunday night, then finish the drive on Monday with time to scout out the area before Carol's liftoff on Tuesday.

Between having to stop early on Sunday, starting late on Monday, and the new, tougher levels every hour or so, this didn't happen.

I reached the Titusville exit around 1:30 AM and I was in a Day's Inn and dead to the world by 2:00 AM.

I'm afraid I didn't get up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Tuesday. I was more bushy-eyed and dim. I stumbled awake and barely stumbled out of the hotel.

I had about 10 miles to go to get the the Kennedy Space Center. I managed to leave the hotel about 9:15, which should have been plenty of time to travel 10 miles.

This did not take into account that they'd torn down the bridge to Merritt Island, where the Kennedy Space Center lives.

To be fair, they only tore down half the bridge. The traffic slowed down, but didn't stop at the bridge.

As you might expect, and I should have, there's a lot of folks going to the Space Center on a launch day. The entrance to the KSC is where traffic came to a standstill.

Being clever, once I got close to the entrance, I put myself into the "Credit Card" lane, thinking that would be fastest. This would have worked, except for the folks who couldn't figure out how to use a credit card. Despite this I pulled into the Lot 6 that I heard folks being sent to about 5 minutes before liftoff.

Where there were no empty spaces.

I fussed and fumed as folks circled and searched, and finally managed to get out of lot 6, despite all the cars cutting me off as they pulled into a lot with no space. I turned the wrong way onto a one way street that wasn't being used by anyone going the right way and into the lot for busses and oversized vehicles.

As I got out of my car, a guy in the next parking spot called. "There it is!"

I looked at saw a brilliant white line in the perfectly clear sky. It would have been about a quarter of an inch long at arm's length. It rose quickly, and barely a second later, a cloudy white contrail appeared. These start to appear at about 25,000 feet. Roughly, five miles in under five seconds.

Again, if this were at arm's length, it left about three inches of contrail, and then it vanished and the roar faded away about the same time.

Just after I saw the contrails, the roar reached me. I was about a mile from the liftoff site, and the roar was almost loud enough to feel. The earth shuddered under my feet like an earthquake.

I'd brought my tablet with Carol's music on it. I'd intended to play her "To a Friend" song that was sung at our wedding as the rocket went up.

I missed that opportunity, but once the rocket was up and it was quiet again, I dug out my tablet and played her song, watching where the rocket had vanished, knowing that a small part of her ashes were heading into space, at least for a few orbits.

I might have cried a little.

Then the guy in the next spot shouted "There's the re-entry", and I got to watch the main stage return and land again.

It was too far away for me to see the actual rocket, but I saw the bright white jets flare from a few inches above the horizon until they passed below the horizon from where I was standing.

After the first stage rocket disappeared behind the horizon, all was silent. I had time to put away my stuff and walk several yards when there were two sonic booms about 1 second apart.

Sharp cracks like a high-power rifle shot, and loud enough that I truly felt each of them.

At that point, the show is over. They guy who had been calling out the events (and helped me not miss them) packed up and headed to his car.

I decided to go through the KSC. It's a museum, and Carol would have been angry at me if I didn't stop and look at the exhibits.

I thanked the guy who had been calling things out. If it weren't for him pointing where the rocket was, I'd have missed several seconds of the events. I was looking in a totally wrong place for the return.

Beyond Burials has provided me a link to the Memorial Video.

https://youtu.be/P8IdYhyR45Q

Carol's ashes are attached to the PROVES satellite, an experimental "cubesat" about 4 inches on each side. Cubesats are cheap satellites that NASA offers to fill unused space and give schools and hobbyists (not individuals like me, but groups like the Ham Radio AARL) an affordable way to put something into orbit for a while.

Carol's ashes are scheduled to spend about 8 months in orbit. I don't know if I'll be told when/where they come down "as a shooting star," which sounds so much nicer than "burns up on re-entry."