The great Space Camp road trip of 2011

Brian Ambrozy 4 Aug, 2011 at 6:42pm ET Article published in Life

I’ll make this short because I’m packing for the trip right now and have to run. Today we embark to take my son Kyle to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. “We” is my girlfriend Nicole, my son Perry, and myself. Our first stop is Cincinnati to stay overnight with CB Droege and his wife Betsy. From Cincy, we’ll have a nice headstart to drive down to the Smokey Mountains, where we’re going to camp for a couple of days. Then, on to Huntsville to drop Kyle off.

From there, the three of us will continue on to New Orleans, and then all the way to New Braunfels, TX where we will be visiting Schlitterbahn. Then, it’s up to Austin and eventually back all the way to Huntsville to pick up the cadet. Another day will bring us to Nashville (which I recently explored a great deal in a Fiat 500). Eventually we will end up back in Detroit, exhausted, giddy, and delighted.

I’ll try to blog as much as possible. I’ll be checking in on Gowalla and Foursquare as well if you want to follow along there. Pics and video sure to come! Wish us luck!

Comments

4 Aug 2011 ~ 7:03pm Winfrey Huntsville has some really cool space stuff, make sure you don't just drop Kyle off and skip the museum and other cool stuff.
4 Aug 2011 ~ 7:17pm UPSLynx So how long is the trip total? How many days is Space Camp?

That's going to be a sweet trip. New Orleans is fun (but holy crap is it humid).
4 Aug 2011 ~ 8:08pm cola Dad, are you the space?
4 Aug 2011 ~ 9:09pm RootWyrm I foresee this happening:
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IKmZFPvs-zw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
5 Aug 2011 ~ 5:26pm j Kyle: What a great opportunity and I'm very proud of you, hope you have a great time and I can't wait to here all about it

and here's to a well derived and long time coming vacation to the rest of the Ambrozy Clan. The last vacation was...I don't even remember. Have fun guys!
5 Aug 2011 ~ 5:27pm j I meant deserved not derived and yes I started a sentence with an "and".
5 Aug 2011 ~ 5:53pm Thrax LOL, schlitterbahn.
5 Aug 2011 ~ 6:00pm Preacher Been there, done that, sold my Space Camp patches from 27 years ago on Ebay. It was a great time.

Live in San Antone and loved the Schlitterbahn. Enjoy it!
5 Aug 2011 ~ 6:34pm Koreish Kansas City has a Shlitterbahn now. And good BBQ. Just saying...
7 Aug 2011 ~ 10:23pm primesuspect Made it to Gulf Shores! Pics of the super proud cadet incoming.
8 Aug 2011 ~ 1:56am jared You'll love Schlitterbahn. It's one of the last places that isn't owned by a giant corporation and is family oriented.

I was there last year and a friend of mine pointed out two prime examples.

They let you bring and ice chest full of food and drinks (no alcohol) to the park. Of course they have food places there, but it's pretty sweet that families can roll in with an ice chest full of sandwiches to keep the cost of the trip down.

Secondly, they sell "money wrist bands" around the park. You can get a $10 band that has $1/2 tabs on it to tear off. This is pretty nice so you don't have to carry your wallet with you or worry about getting you cash wet. Best part is, when you are leaving the park, just turn in your band and they refund you whatever you didn't spend.

Hope you guys have fun in Texas
8 Aug 2011 ~ 1:02pm Preacher So how is Sweet Home Alabama? We use to spend summers in Gulf Shores and found it to be a very inexpensive, little known, and nice place to spend time on the beach.
8 Aug 2011 ~ 1:20pm Cliff_Forster There should be an Icrontic "Epic Dad" achievement.
10 Aug 2011 ~ 3:14am primesuspect <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/icrontic/6027944403/" title="20110807_Roadtrip2011_1104_DxO by Icrontic.com, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6085/6027944403_7b123cb575_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="20110807_Roadtrip2011_1104_DxO"></a>
10 Aug 2011 ~ 7:53am csimon

primesuspect wrote:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/icrontic/6027944403/" title="20110807_Roadtrip2011_1104_DxO by Icrontic.com, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6085/6027944403_7b123cb575_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="20110807_Roadtrip2011_1104_DxO"></a>

"Chip off the old block."
10 Aug 2011 ~ 4:38pm the_technocrat Redburn, don't be awkward space penguin.
11 Aug 2011 ~ 6:00pm PirateNinja If you guys ever make it out to socal I'll hook you up with a personal tour of JPL
11 Aug 2011 ~ 11:36pm drasnor Tragically the Shuttle Mission Simulator at Texas A&M University, College Station was still in boxes when Brian and family rolled through. We had some pretty good breakfast tacos though.
12 Aug 2011 ~ 1:15pm BobbyDigi Congrats to the Propulsion Specialist Graduate Kyle!

Keep your eyes on the stars! Great Job!
13 Aug 2011 ~ 12:39am primesuspect On his second mission he was the shuttle commander on the Endeavor simulator. They threw an anomaly at him that made him have to choose between the lives of two astronauts repairing a solar panel or the entire crew; he had to get out of his char and physically close the bay doors because his mission specialist was outside repairing the panel; he made the call and sacrificed the two astronauts but closed the doors, saving the rest of the crew. I had no idea Space Academy was so intense.
13 Aug 2011 ~ 12:43am csimon Good call Kyle! I hope he yelled out ..."What? Where you raised in a barn???" just as he shut the door. Hehe
13 Aug 2011 ~ 12:52am Winfrey

primesuspect wrote:

On his second mission he was the shuttle commander on the Endeavor simulator. They threw an anomaly at him that made him have to choose between the lives of two astronauts repairing a solar panel or the entire crew; he had to get out of his char and physically close the bay doors because his mission specialist was outside repairing the panel; he made the call and sacrificed the two astronauts but closed the doors, saving the rest of the crew. I had no idea Space Academy was so intense.

I shall make a note of this for when I space travel with Kyle.
13 Aug 2011 ~ 6:54am Gate28 Looks like Battle School, if you ask me.
13 Jun 2012 ~ 11:13pm Theironhand Kyle came to school today with his Space camp outfit thingy on, And it looked AWESOME!
13 Jun 2012 ~ 11:19pm primesuspect Yeah, his flight suit. He'll be wearing it again this year when he goes back to academy