A Dream Come True?

I had a dream one night...

I'm not done planning, but I'm taking the honyocks on vacation for the first time since before the divorce. Last time, really, was Chicago and that was what? Four years ago?

I can't really afford much of a vacation, but if I waited until I could 'afford' it, the kids would be grown. So yeah, I could put my tax refund to many sensible uses, though none so profound I wouldn't be living hand to mouth to the extent I presently do.

And I've been feeling the need for a getaway myself, lately. Almost anything, as long as it's a change of pace.

Anyway, the dream I had: me and the girls are in an old convertible, I think a Pontiac Bonneville, and we were tooling down a two land blacktop through marshy, coastal country. We were in Florida, one of those things you just know when it's a dream, and there was a rocket on a launch pad. We drove right by it. Like maybe 100 yards from the thing, and the road just went by it like it was any other building.

And the rocket, it was Empire State Building size. The Saturn V was 393 feet tall and I bet it wasn't as imposing, even up close, as this rocket. A rocket that would have been lost in the clouds if there had been one in the sky.

So anyway, impossible rockets with impossibly easy access to the public (let me drive right through an area I'd be fried in!) aside, a vacation to the Cape would be awesome. See a shuttle launch, that would be awesome in the very literal sense of the word. Knowing what 40 Newton Seconds of thrust sounds like compared to five, I can only suppose that two million Newton Seconds, even from a couple of miles, would be a religious experience.

So anyway, the Cosmosphere is super busy on weekends, I'm told. Sells out on Saturdays. So to minimize the stress on Mo, I thought to go during the week. Spring Break, for instance.

But it's more complicated than that. Besides the fact the Cosmosphere is insanely busy during Spring Break, because it's not just my honyocks that are paroled from school that week. Plus, my first choice of hotels was another problem.

The Grand Prairie Lodge boasts a space-themed 'splashdown' water park. How perfectly tied in with the Cosmosphere!

BUT the water park features are not on during the week. I found some scathing online reviews of the hotel that came down to 'The water park was turned off and even when I tried to bully the poor girl at the front desk, it stayed off.' One review even warned of bedbugs, but I think that was just more 'the water park was turned off!' venting.

In any case, the hotel is totally sold out for the weekends we're looking at. There's some sort of junior college basketball tournament on top of the Spring Break Action and I can't get a room there. I can take the girls to the water park on the weekend and pay admission, though.

The other hotels are pretty picked over, too, really. I had zeroed in on a Holiday Inn and spent too much time comparing it to other hotels. It sold out before my indecisive eyes. I even called their front desk to make sure, and I'm SOL on two queen beds, non-smoking, for $89 a night. Which was about as good as I was gonna do.

So I booked a cheapie, a place I don't think even has a pool. If we swim, it will be at the Grand Prairie.

Other than that, I'm looking for other attractions on the way to and from Hutch. There's a salt mine museum where you can go 650 feet underground, that's officially on the agenda. And Wichita has it's share of museums and whatnot.

I haven't entirely ruled out a third hotel night, maybe in another town if it connects well with the trip. The cheapie hotel is cheap enough it's not impossible. Carhenge is out, Alliance is over eight hours away from the Cosmosphere (and something to hit on the way to the Black Hills if I ever get a vacation that ambitious planned).

Possible additions to the itinerary include the world's largest ball of twine...