I like to be in America: One giant step for mankind.

Where were you when JFK was shot? I don't remember but I DO remember where I was when the first man walked on the moon. I was in Mr Jolly's class and we listened to the voice of Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the moon, over the school radio (remember Radio in Schools?).

The Space Race captured the imaginations of a whole generation as the American's slogged it out with the Russians to be the first country to land a man on the moon.

Starting in the mid 1950s, when much to the great consternation of the Americans, Russia launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite and first man-made object to be placed in the Earth's orbit. Never mind that it was only the size of a large beach ball and couldn't do anything except reflect light. America rushed to meet the challenge and a few months later launched its own satellite. Unfortunately it only rose a few feet off the launch pad, tipped over and burst into flames. Certain people of a cynical bent named it Kaputnik.

Of course, none of this was mentioned when one Friday a group of excited Kiwis eventually found their way to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaverel.

To my relief, Steve took over the navigating responsibilities bringing along the GPS that they had hired with their car. Unfortunately it had been programmed to avoid the toll roads which must have added another couple of hours to the trip. I was growing increasingly uneasy the further north we went and knowing what a difficult job it is, was reluctant to say anything, but eventually I did, and with a combination of GPS's, phone and an enormous map of Florida laid out across my knees, we found ourselves on the right track.

When we were finally set in the right direction and travelling along the not so very busy road, we spotted a road side stall selling fresh fruit. The stall was 'manned' by two women who looked perfectly nice until they opened their mouths. They hardly had a good tooth between them! We grabbed some lovely looking peaches and tomatoes and gracefully declined the boiled peanuts. In a cooker beside the stall was huge pot of peanuts boiling merrily away. I do regret not sampling any (when in Rome and all that) but the smell of them was appalling and I was told I was not to bring them into the car.

We arrived not long after opening time and were relieved not to see enormous queues snaking out to meet us. Even so there was a wee wait. While standing around I noticed a sign that stated people over 55 were given pensioner rates. There were enough people in our team to make that jolly worthwhile, so I nipped under the ropes, pushed and shoved and squeezed and squirmed, until I managed to get close enough to Rose, who was standing at the window, to let her know. She quite gleefully returned with the cut-price ticket (there has to be some compensations in aging) and set us all up in a positive frame of mind. I have to say, despite my poor manners, everyone was extremely polite and accommodating.

We set off for a stroll around the Rocket Garden - an area filled with, well, rockets. I realise that these were some of the earlier models, but even so, they appeared to me to be frightfully small for the job they did. As we wandered through we came across the capsules that the astronauts actually travelled in. Now they WERE small. And cramped. It is incredible how those first men survived in such a meagre space... in space. And to volunteer to shoe-horn yourself into what amounts to a large can, and be hurtled into space - it almost defies belief.

We regrouped for lunch and planned how we could best maximise our time. There was an awful lot to see and do - it really requires more than one day to cover it. We decided to take the tour bus which took us a few kilometres away to see where the action takes place. Although there is not so much action now since Nasa pulled out a couple of years ago.

The American space programne seems to go in waves. Probably the most intense time was after President JF in 1961, ( after the Russians put a man in space) made the bold announcement, that the US would land a man on the moon before the decade was out. They did it, but he never lived to see it happen. Sad.

The tour took some time, pointing out the "biggest" this and the "longest" that, dropping us off at one point, at a large building where we were given a guided tour and saw the control room where they talked down the beleaguered Apollo 13. Two days after the launch an oxygen tank blew up damaging the service module.

'Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.'

This gave me a small thrill, as I had attended an interactive play about the affair in Napier the previous year. Great fun. The audience sat behind control panels and everyone was given a job to do. It was quite nerve wracking really. But still, we got the craft down and we were all inordinately proud of ourselves.

After happily browsing the souvinir shop we climbed back on the blessedly cool bus and returned to base. We only had time to do a quick tour of the main building that housed amongst other things one of the shuttles - not the ones that blew up obviously.

'Shuttle missions during nearly 30 years of operations included deploying satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science and technology experiments, visits to the Russian MIR space station, construction and servicing of the International Space Station, deployment and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope and serving as a space laboratory. The shuttle was retired from service in July 2011 after 135 launches.' Wikipedia

Rich, by that time had absorbed all he could and had wandered back to the car. The building was open and rather vast and it was very easy to lose each other in there. Rose, Steve and I eventually managed to be in the same place at the same time but discovered we had lost Mary. Making a few contingency plans we split up and went looking. She eventually emerged with a beatific expression on her face - apparently she had been to the moon and back. (One of those interactive type ride things - I'm quite jealous).

Our journey home was much more direct, which was just as well, because we had volunteered to cook a good old kiwi barbie for our French friends that night.

The kids had had a great day at the theme park and even though I was a little envious, I was glad that I had visited the Space Centre - after all, I felt I couldn't go all that way and not. Rose wishes she could have spent both days there, and it would have been easiy enough to do. Sigh, maybe next time.