In West Palm Beach

Good Morning. We arrived here in West Palm Beach late yesterday afternoon, about 5pm, found our hotel, and checked in. The drive from Pensacola consumed more than 11 hours of driving time to cover more than 600 miles. You really get an appreciation of just how big Florida is when it takes all day to go from one end to a point not quite at the other end.

We're here for a family wedding... my nephew and God-Son Ben is marrying his long-time sweetheart Sarah. Last night we attended the post-rehearsal pizza party and met so many new people there's no chance I'll remember them all. Ben and Sarah seem genuinely happy... always a good sign on a wedding-eve. Dar and I excused ourselves about 9pm -- the two day driving saga was finally catching up with us. Sleep came quickly and I don't think either of us stirred until a sun-beam nailed my eye this morning.

All the wedding festivities are today, Saturday. So by the time we hit the sack tonight it will have been a long day.

Tomorrow morning, at about 4:39am, there's a scheduled Space Shuttle launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (where else?). So far I've been unable to generate much interest in making the two and a half hour trek north after the reception winds down tonight, so I may be relegated to watching the launch from my north-facing hotel window in that wee hour. If, however, the launch scrubs for any reason (the launch "window" is only 10 minutes long), they'll reload and try again the next morning, less than 24 hours later. If that happens, we may be making a little detour on our drive back to Texas for the opportunity to see one of the last launches of the shuttle system ever.

Ok, that's it for now. I'll try to do a Journal update from my cell phone later in the day -- something I've never done before and have been wanting to try. These entries, if I can get them to work, will be very short, as I'll be doing them via SMS cell messages.

Waiting for the Wedding in West Palm...
Thom