Adventuring with Amelia

Day 3, and we have now officially camped in 20 states in the 3.5 years we have owned Amelia’s Make-A-Wish camper and replacement camper!

This morning, Amelia woke us all up just after 6 am. This early wake up call worked well as none of us showered last night after our late arrival to our campsite last night, at 9:15 pm.

Amelia and I showered quick before breakfast. The tie dye hoodie dress she is wearing is my newest adaption for her and how to handle using the campground showers. I hated trying to get her dressed in tight spaces with skinny legging and still somewhat wet toes and feet. It was impossible. New plan: pull this oversized sweatshirt dress on and finish getting her dressed back in the camper. It worked fabulously and I wasn’t worried about her falling and needing stitches.

Mr. Messi got a calming treat this morning (which didn’t seem to help his anxiety) and hung out at the Kennedy Space Center kennel today. This kennel is free for visitors. You have to bring in their shot record and fill out a form, that’s it. Nobody is in this building to care for the dogs, but it is air conditioned and on the property. Basically, they monitor the coming and going of the dogs to make sure they go with the right people, but they don’t feed, water, or walk/potty them.

So we left Messi in kennel #24 with his truck kennel/bed and went back about halfways through our visit and took him potty. Clearly not his favorite day ever, but it worked well. He was there with 4 other dogs today, so not too busy.

Fortunately, the guy at the gate when we paid to park noticed Amelia’s handicap placard. He told us to go to lot 2 as the ENTIRE section is handicap! This lot is also right next to the kennel. We honestly couldn’t have parked any closer to the kennel. It is the building just under and to the left of the orange rocket in the background. Winning!

Heading in!

As my parents literally were just at Kennedy Space Center on their own Florida trip last month, they informed us to get on the bus to tour the other section as soon as you get in. The buses stop running a few hours before the Space Center closes, so do it first to prevent being rushed.

This is the Vehicle Assembly Building. Is the tallest 1 story building in the world. Each of the stripes on the American flag are wide enough for the bus we were in to drive on. This is the building they assemble the rockets in before moving them out to the launch pads.

Apollo 11’s actual Mission Control room. The video experience was awesome. The windows above our heads rattle and the seats were shaking while the rocket on the screen launched.

My kids are getting so big! (And yes, I put Amelia in her sassy “I’m autistic, what’s your excuse” shirt today). The Space Center is actually very aware of the needs of people with special needs. They have sensory areas designated throughout the facilities. They have ratings on their experiences as to how much on a scale of 1-5 they will impact the different senses. Very cool to see the accommodations.

We found astronaut Snoopy!

Amelia enjoyed this “walk on the moon” interactive floor experience.

As Amelia is quite picky these days, so we opted to do a compromised lunch. She orally ate Cheetos and got a gtube formula feed for lunch. (I absolutely love her gtube and the ability to get her nutritionally complete meals without struggling). The rest of us got chips and sandwiches. DJ and I got veggie subs and Jackson got a ham sandwich.

One of my favorite sections was seeing Atlantis. This space shuttle/rocket was re-used 33 in 26 years. Atlantis “took off as a rocket, flew as a a spacecraft, and landed as a glider.” Seriously impressive!

Jackson checking out the model cockpit of Atlantis.

Jackson checking out a space toilet! Hehe!

The boys are out walking Messi and Amelia just fell asleep. I’m enjoying some of our Bu-cee’s roasted cashews while I’m finishing this super long blog post (sorry, not sorry). It’s a gorgeous night in Florida!

We have also started prepping already for leaving tomorrow, so hopefully we can get on the road and get to our spot in the Florida Keys before it gets dark out tomorrow!

Goodnight!