The Tides
1001 North Highway A1A S Atlantic Ave
Patrick AFB, FL 32925
GPS: 28.231028, -80.600231
Patrick Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located between Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach, in Brevard County, Florida. An Air Force Space Command base, it is home to the 45th Space Wing which controls and operates Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and the Eastern Range. The mission of the 45th Space Wing is to assure access to the high frontier and to support global operations. The wing currently operates a number of rockets and missiles, including the Delta IV and Atlas V, and provides support for the Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial manned and unmanned space programs.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range. Popularly known as "Cape Kennedy" from 1963 to 1973, and as "Cape Canaveral" from 1949 to 1963 and from 1973 to the present, the facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island. It was the site of all US space program launch activity before the creation of the Kennedy Space Center which took over manned launches in 1967.
A number of American space exploration "firsts" were launched from CCAFS, including the first U.S. Earth satellite (1958), first U.S. astronaut (1961), first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962), first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965), first U.S. unmanned lunar landing (1966), and first three-man U.S. spacecraft (1968). It was also the launch site for all of the first spacecraft to (separately) fly past each of the planets in the Solar System (1962–1977), the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (1971) and roam its surface (1996), the first American spacecraft to orbit and land on Venus (1978), the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn (2004), and to orbit Mercury (2011), and the first spacecraft to leave the Solar System (1977). (from Wikipedia)
So What?
Every year during March, a group of folks who were friends and neighbors in Ohio have a brief period when our schedules put us together at The Great Outdoors RV Park in Titusville, Florida. During that time we make one trip to Patrick AFB to 'The Tides' (base club) for Sunday Brunch. It is a simple affair where we eat too much good food, have a couple Mimosas (a cocktail of orange juice and champagne, usually in equal parts) and talk about the fact that winter is almost over and Hitch Itch is beginning to set in. We continued that tradition today. Of course those of us who choose to winter in California instead of Florida missed it.
After stuffing ourselves we walked outside through the Tiki Hut ...
... to the beach ...
... to take pictures to prove we all were here.
It was a beautiful day on the Space Coast of Florida. Bright sun, cool breeze, and the sound of the surf crashing.
Until next year
