Rowan finishes KSC and we tour Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge

Rowan, in virtual reality on Mars

(Continuation of Rowan's adventures at Kennedy Space Center)  Grandpa was ground control for my virtual reality test on Mars. He told me where to turn, what rocks to scan, and what buttons to press. After that, we got into another tube, put a headset on, got a harness, and then it closed. inside the tube we had controls in front of us, which were a joystick, red button, and a screen. I was the commander, and Grandpa was the driver. First, I had to land the Orion capsule on Mars [When I deployed the parachute, the hole tube flipped 360], then Grandpa had to drive a rover [Yes, that same rover] to certain waypoints [When he got to the second waypoint, we entered a dust storm, and the tube 360'd again.]

Just a great nature walk on Merritt Island

Thursday, we got to see Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. We got to see a bunch of plants and birds and we even saw 3 alligators! Well, I saw 3 :), Nana and Grandpa only saw 2 :(. Anyway, that was all that happened this week. Except for Wednesday, when Grandpa got a new TV for the boat, but that's another story. Bye!

Along the way on Black Point Drive

Our big event of the day for the boat was to start the outboard motor. The last two times we returned to Fleetwing, the outboard refused to start and needed a cleaning. The gas had evaporated and left a gummy deposit in the carburetor and a stuck needle valve. This time, we finally wised up and ran the motor dry (at idle with no gas attached). It started right up!

Our prize of the day - an eagle!

We paid our usual visit to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, The last time in the fall, we hardly saw any birds but this time there were plenty. I guess they had time to get south in January. We saw an eagle for the first time, always fun.

We plan on an airboat ride Friday that includes a tour through an alligator area with up to 100 alligators, usually. We'll see what happens, it should be fun.