It was hot as the dickens, but after the SF Summer Deep Freeze, even the insta-swampnuts heat of Alabamy was not unwelcome. That I got to spend quality time with a quality nephew down at Space Camp was the main feature of the trip, but getting to go to NASA Space Camp is no small doins' (I am pretty sure we could have had a good time at Huntsville Water & Sewage Department Turd Hurder Camp - actually I KNOW we'd have had fun doing that...but I digress.) My point is few things are a guaranteed good time, but I was pretty sure Space Camp with the nephew would be one, and I was right.
I must confess, I wasn't one of those kids who pined at the core of my being to go to Space Camp, though I know many kids who did. Having now gone, I kinda get it. I admit that from the opening lecture by a real Astronaut, I was pretty well hooked and into it. Until you hear the achievements needed to be able to go into space, you forget just what terms like The Right Stuff refers to. These are literally people who are the best at everything they attempt. I am impressed with anyone who can make Top Gun or get a Master's Degree in Engineering or qualify for athletic scholarships to big schools or what have you, where many of those who have been up in space have done all, or many, of these things. It is humbling. To be able to ask them questions and such might bigger deal for the adults than kids, but even the kids seemed pretty into it. I certainly was.
This particular camp was for family - relatives for the most part anyway as far as I could tell, though not all were bio-related. They have loads of different camps, and Nephew Quinn has been before. Apparently there is some overlap between what he did last time and this, but not totally. He seemed to dig it.
The grounds themselves are on the spot where the original American rocket program was, and where the Redstone rocket came from.
I wondered how up front they were going to be about the fact that our rocket program was built on the back of Nazi research and how many of the giants of our program were either SS men themselves, or working under SS men. They admitted a small amount of the history between us and the Nazi's, but nowhere enough to satisfy a hardened cynic like myself (there was no mention left of Lisa Nowak either, speaking of untidy PR.)
I didn't really expect them to get up and say "Guess how many Jews died as slave labor on the first rocket programs undertaken by Dr. Von Braun kiddies?" One, I don't believe the Good Doctor had any choice but to join the Nazi Party. Two, what would the kids do with info even if they knew?
Most of the activities were actually quite active. I would say 50% of it was a mission or arts-n-crafts, and the rest involved being spun around or shot up in one dimension or other.
The rocket building was a good mix of both. My ship, the Interplanetary Taco Truck didn't make it very far and had a mid-air catastrophic event. Nephew Quinn's little Astronaut likely didn't survive, but at least his flew incredibly far.
I have no idea if a weekend of Space Camp will set the kids up as friends for life or anything, but kids are kids, and they all gelled for the time we were together. The other adults in our group came from all around the country and I am not sure we will all be besties forever, but they were all good dudez and we had a good time. Quinn already once mentioned going to advanced Space Camp some year, so he must have had a pretty good time.
We had some cushion built into our schedule since we flew in and out of Nashville. Since we had to have a rental car as is, I decided we would spend an additional day tooling around the area and just do whatever looked fun.
Eating BBQ seemed to always look fun - we did it 6 times in 3 days.5 days. I ended up paying dearly for this little extravagance (I usually eat no meat all, not ONLY meat), but I gotta say, it was worth it. I thought the Alabama White Sauce was over-rated, but nothing else was. Everywhere we went, the pulled pork was excellent. They don't front on the BBQ, and I am glad of it.
After camp, we went up towards the NE and spent the night in Chattanooga, a city I first visited with my Great-Grandparents in 1982 (after visiting the Knoxville World's Fair), and grew to love then.
We hit Lookout Mountain, though didn't ride the cable car or see Ruby Falls. Instead, we did the ZipLine course at Ruby Falls. It was excellent, but damn if it didn't prove just how old I am getting. The nephew ran it like a bunny and my run would have made Woody Allen seem macho. The kid was effusive about it, so it was all worth it.
We spent awhile cruising around the Chattanooga Metro Area, mostly hunting for Army Surplus stores. We found one and got an MRE. Big fun.
I still like that area very much, and even though it is a bit southern pigfucker for my tastes, it really is blessed with natural beauty and much of historical interest. The only major change I noticed was that I didn't see Double Cola for sale anywhere. Bummer.
Eventually we had to hit the road to get to Nashville in time to do a little sightseeing and then hop on our plane back to Cali. I found a Stuckey's that was still open, but it was a shell of its formal self - they were almost entirely devoid of Pecan Nut Logs. WTF?
Eventually, we hit Nashville. Shockingly, I couldn't interest a 12 year old northern boy in a visit to the Country Music Hall Of Fame or even Music Row. We did find our way to Jack White's store, chockablock with White Stripes' Goodness! Since we had been rocking the White Stripes all weekend (I believe I have made a convert out of both nephews), even the youngin' was down for a visit.
Beyond that, we mostly just wanted to camp out river-side and cook up the MRE we bought at the Chattanoogie Military Surplus store. It tasted like they all do - but the key was to make our last Uncle-Nephew activity for the weekend a memorable one (the kid started school almost right after we got back), and I think we succeeded in that.
All in all - good livin' and good company. I think that is practically the definition of Good Times.
Posted by rudayday at August 30, 2010 10:47 PM