I was exhausted but I had to drag myself out of bed. Had to pack since I opted to sleep once I had returned to the hotel the night before. Drag everything back down to the car. pack that. Double check I didn’t leave anything. I left the burrs, though. Those fucking burrs.

It was only at this point did I realize I should have stayed one more night. I could explore Florida a bit more. There was the nature preserve near the KSC. Alas… didn’t think, didn’t plan.  And I had already picked these little bastards off my shoes…

Sharp prickly Sand Burrs

Plastic fork, people. Seriously. Wedge them into the tines of the fork and pull. Works wonders. Too bad I only thought of that when I was almost done and my fingertips were numb. Evil little things…

Oh look! A palm Tree!

Brunch at the iHop. Pictures of the palms in the area. That was about it. I hopped back onto I-95 north and drove all day until I made it to my parent’s house back in North Carolina. Stayed a few days to rest and spent time with the ‘rents, then a few days with my sisters back up on Long Island. Soon, I was back up in Rochester. Was it worth missing out on Thanksgiving? Yeah. Will I try for another TweetUp? Hell Yeah!

Will be a TweetUp Reunion in August when Curiosity lands on Mars? Maybe…

MSL Curiosity Poster

Today I and a few other Tweeps opted to use our free day pass to the Kennedy Space Visitor’s Center. I woke at 7, having slept abou 4 hours (again) and got to the park at 9 when they opened armed with my tri-pod, camera, and lappy bag of organized chaos. yes. But to quote a new friend who quoted an XKCD comic “We are the Internet.” I wasn’t the only one bogged down with tons of stuff. And as I walked to the entrance I remembered the last time I was there. I think that I had more child-like wonderment now than I did when I was 10.

Welcome to the Kennedy Space Center!

I didn’t make any plans other than lunch with an astronaut. So I just played by ear at first and checked out the rocket garden. It was just so cool to see these towering missiles, rockets and capsules designed for space travel.

It was kinda cool...

Rockets looking up to the sky...

It was around this time I bumped into a few fellow Tweeps. We stood talking and made references to ice skaing on the moon since we saw a KSC employee install then skate on a small ice rink. Why? Why not. I walked around the gaden a bit more taking pictures and then decided to plan my day, having found a schedule sheet.

I bumped into my friends again and decided to look around the Space Exploration gallery. In there were the models of the mars rovers including the newest member of the family which will leave the join them on Saturday. Oh. I cannot wait!

MSL Curiosity!! Isn't he soo cute...?

Checked out an IMAX 3D movie of the Hubble. Picked up the ticket for lunch and headed over to have said lunch. But on the way we met with SPACE STIG!!

Some say...

Lunch was a delicious Thanksgiving buffet. Commander John Crieghton shared his experience as an astronaut and was just so awesome. But after this fun we met with a few more people for the Space Shuttle Experience which simulates what it’d be like to lift off from Earth in the space shuttle. (“Twang!” hehe). We kinda took over the entire pod. which was awesome!

Another 3D IMAX film on the Space Station. played with LEGOs because we had a tweetUp slot.

Look at what I built!!

I couldn’t finish because I had to catch the last Star Trek Live show of the day! It was so silly, but so much fun. There was one girl called up to volunteer and this other kid just ran up with her. From the other side of the room. and wouldn’t leave after the actors were “we only need one volunteer.” I felt bad for the girl.. it looked like she was going to cry because this other kid wasn’t being fair. Oh well. The actors improved well!

And yes. There were Tribbles.

Oh. Such a long day!! took a few more pictures. Shopped. I was looking forward to an awesome sunset and the sky had gone overcast while we were in the Star Trek thing. I was given a hug when I saw that my plans were shot down. Alas… I have TWO MORE DAYS of pictures to take. At least….

I thought that would be the end of my Thanksgiving. I developed a sudden headache on the way home. But took an Aleve and a protein bar. What was a hunger headache had left and I was able to cross the highway to the Cacker Barrel a whole group decided to “occupy” (#OccupyCrackerBarrel). And occupy we did!

Long day. Very long day. And a very awesome day! Now I need to sleep and get ready for the first day of NASATweetUp!

My Tumblr will be update later… but if you want to see a few awesome talks tomorrow, make sure to go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tweetup I believe the feed starts at 11!!

Sorry. Residual stress from DRIVING TO FLORIDA FROM NEW YORK  WHATTHEHELLISWRONGWITHME!? It was fun. Seriously. No. Yes, I am crazy. I don’t think I was ever sane.

In case you haven’t heard me rant excitedly like a school girl for the last month- I’m here in the sunshine state for the #NASATweetUp of the Mars Space Laboratory dubbed “Curiosity”. I’m going to see and experience SO MUCH that I decided to blog about it.

First off. What is a NASATweetUp? Well, I suppose I should break it down even further to “What is a TweetUp”… A TweetUp is a gathering of people, specifically with at least one thing in common – they use twitter. The only way to enter is to use twitter. And if you win, the organization assumes you will tweet about it, and then tweet some more when you are at the gathering. In a way, it’s like unofficial publicity. NASA has seen this power of publicizing through twitter and figured out how to use it. NASATweetUps- using social media to gather people, with another thing in common (SPACE) and plan something amazing and fun that they’ll share with their friends and followers to help “spread the word”. Awesome for them. Awesome for us!

Now, about this Mars Space Laboratory… We are sending a new rover to Mars. The planet. No, I don’t think it is made of candy (no M&Ms on Mars… Cheese on the moon, however, is still debatable.) This SUV sized robot of awesome is going to to drive around the Gale Crater and “investigate the area’s past and present environments”(MSL press release. Seriously. Everyone should read this.) Basically, it’s going to observe and analyze what’s on the surface and below the surface (up to 6cm, I believe, with a laser!) and run other tests because it is a mobile laboratory on freaking MARS. (Well.. not there yet…)

At this TweetUp I get to meet engineers, scientists, and other awesome people who are a part of this mission. I also get to meet other amazing people just because Mars is freaking awesome and they wanted to be a part of it, too! (*cough*Bill Nye The Science Guy *cough*Will.I.Am*cough cough*)

How did I manage to get this AMAZING opportunity? Easy! I entered the #NASATweetUp lottery! huzzah! Simply follow @NASATweetUp on Twitter and when they announce a new Tweetup just enter! You’ll be randomly pick from the pile! To be completely honest – I freaking lucked out! I didn’t know which tweetup opportunity I sumbitted my twitter handle for. I saw the chance to enter, put in my name and actually forgot about it. Only a few weeks later I got the email saying “CONGRATULATION!”

First I was like...

Then I was all like

Yeah… Go ahead. be jealous. I can take it.

I arrived in the sunshine state last night after splitting my insane road trip into two parts. Part A from New York to North Carolina in 11 hours. Stayed with the ‘rents for a day, then proceeded to Part B… another 10 hours from NC to Florida. Arrived at the Pre-Tweetup dinner and met a few awesome people. Meeting people you’ve only met online IRL was weird but exciting! Oh, and the food was good.

Today I went to pick up my badge. The drive to the Space Center was just totally terrific. I also saw the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the distance. Oh it was a beautiful site. (VAB not shown.. sorry…)

I would not mind this being my commute everyday. *cough*HINT*cough*

I am already so excited, and I barely did anything yet. I received a free pass to the Visitor’s Center which I’ll redeem tomorrow. A full Thanksgiving day of just Space Nerd-ery. I’ll post an end-of-day post. Also follow me on Twitter and on this tumblr I just made while writing this to keep up with all of my thoughts and pics. Yeah. this is going to be awesome.