Packed up and checked out of our home (hotel) of the last four days and made an hour drive north east along the Florida Tollway to Cape Canaveral. It was 60 miles and we had to pay 3 different tolls totalling $3.50.... not bad for a high speed roadway, but with the number of vehicles on the road someone is making an awful lot of money from road users.
We crossed the Indian River waterway which continues right down to where we were at Melbourne yesterday, and had to wait while the bridge span lifted up to let a tall masted yacht through. The Kennedy Space Centre is another huge attraction here in Florida and there were plenty of cars in the huge car parks already (it was about 10.15am), but we got a spot pretty close to the visitor centre and got our entry tickets. Had to go through strict security including metal detector, but you wouldn't expect anything else at a place like this.
We boarded one of the 40 huge coaches that ferry everyone to the three main areas and were taken out through the huge National Park that the Centre sits among to the area closest to the launch pads. We saw a couple of alligators in the drains alongside the road, a very common sight apparently as there are 'gators everywhere in the Park and often make a nuisances of themselves in the various facilities. The drive took us passed the huge Building where the rockets and fuel cells are assembled and the shuttle is attached. It is one the largest buildings in the world allowing the huge rockets to stand upright on the transporter while assembly takes place.
     

The launch pad we saw was at least a kilometre away but it was massive with the huge gantries etc. easy to see.
                                                  

We saw a brief movie of the launch procedure before bussing off to the Saturn Five facility where we saw a Saturn 5 rocket in its various stages along with the Apollo spacecraft it blasted into space and to the moon. We saw a mock up of the launch centre where the first moon mission was launched and saw a couple of great movies of some of the missions.
                                      

Had some lunch there - the whole place is just so well set up for big numbers of tourists - and the headed off to the last stop which was about the International Space Station. It was all so interesting for us all and you could have easily spent a full couple of days there - the entry tickets (US$38) were valid for a month - but we needed to move on so we missed the Imax movies, the Astronauts Hall of Fame and some other displays including full scale replicas of the space shuttles.
Reluctantly we had a quick look at the shops and then set out northwards, heading for Daytona Beach and famous International Raceway, which we got to in about and hour through one of the most violent thunderstorms I have seen for years. There was constant lightning and thunder and torrential rain for Greg to drive through and we decided to give the Raceway a miss this arvo and do it tomorrow morning. We found a motel and checked in for the night.