After more than a week of short stops and lots of driving we were ready to settle down for awhile. We arrived at the Manatee Cove RV Park on Patrick AFB (near Cocoa Beach, FL) on October 24th. When we were here last year there were plenty of sites available, but this year we weren’t even sure we were going to get into the campground at all. Fortunately we were able to get into a site on a short-term, temporary basis. After about two weeks we were told we could stay for the season – huge sigh of relief!
Manatee Cove has lots to offer. There are 150 plus full hookup sites in the park and a centrally located community room with a full kitchen, TV, and pool table. They offer a campground bowling league (for free), karaoke on Tuesday nights, Bingo on Thursday night, and coffee and donuts on Thursday mornings. We also set up a “jam session” on Monday afternoons for any musicians in the campground. You can join the Manatee Cove Marina for a small monthly fee (you don’t have to have a boat) and they offer a variety of activities including a Friday evening happy hour with snacks, entertainment, and a cash drawing. The Base also sponsors a number of base-wide events geared to families, but fun for everyone. If you are bored here, it’s your own fault!
Veteran’s Day is widely recognized in the area and this year the Kennedy Space Center offered a free admission to veterans and their families on November 9 through 11. We jumped on this opportunity! The Space Center continues to update their facilities and their tours and we saw much more than we had on previous visits. The partnership with SpaceX and Boeing has added another layer to the Space Center with the Commercial Crew Program. We took the bus tour of the complex, toured the Apollo/Saturn V Center, the Atlantis Shuttle Launch Experience, the Journey to Mars, and watched several movies. It was a wonderful opportunity and we owe a big Thank You to NASA for offering this opportunity to military families.
One of our favorite kayaking sites is the Haulover Canal in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve. This is the channel where boats traveling the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) transition from the ICW through Mosquito Lagoon to the Indian River. Dolphins love the frolic in this channel and the surrounding area. Two friends from the campground, Tony and Lori, joined us for this trip. There was plenty of dolphin activity. We also saw pelicans soaring gracefully until they spotted a fish and then literally crashed into the water to grab it. There were also Osprey, Bald Eagles, and Cormorants in the trees along the shore. Our one disappointment is that we didn’t see any manatee on this trip. One of the local fishing guides told us he thought the water was too cold and they had gone to warmer waters.
They call this the Space Coast for a reason; there are plenty of rocket launches to watch, and excellent sites from which to view them. We were able to watch two launches while we were there. The first was a mid-morning launch on November 11th. We watched this from Cherie Downs Park. For the next launch we contacted some of our friends from Michigan who winter in Melbourne, Jim and Diana Belisle (Visit their blog at www.explorvistas.com), to join us for the scheduled launch on December 4th. We drove to Jetty Park to view it, but it was cancelled due to unfavorable weather. However, we did enjoy a nice lunch at Grillz in Port Canaveral. The next day we made the short drive to Second Light Beach and watched the successful launch. I’m sure the International Space Station was pleased to get their resupply.
I was able to present two folk music performances in our community center. It’s always fun to entertain friends who enjoy the music of the Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul and Mary; Gordon Lightfoot; and others.
We enjoy watching the annual competition between the Naval Academy and West Point in the Army-Navy Game on a military base. Each year the Marina sponsors an Army-Navy Watch Party. As always it was lots of fun with good-natured ribbing between the veterans during the game. Go Army in 2020!
On Monday, December 16th we pulled out of Manatee Cove to store our trailer at the Homestead Air Reserve Base while we flew back to Michigan for the Christmas holidays. On December 29th we’ll be back in Key West in time to celebrate the New Year.
Michigan Traveler 
It was great spending the day with you, Bob and Pat! I’ll bet that would’ve been quite a show from Jetty Park, had that Falcon 9 went off as planned. Safe travels!
We enjoyed being able to spend so much time with you guys. We don’t know what we are doing after Key West, but we’ll let you know if we are headed your way.
We’ll try to have a rocket ready!