The Sadness of Titusville, FL

White Pepper pulled into Titusville Municipal Marina. We were fleeing the cold. At St. Augustine we had waited out a 6 day cold snap and another frigid Artic air mass was due in on Sunday 12-12-10. It delivered near all time record cold for this area with night time temperatures dropping into the 20s.

Walking about Titusville shivering I had two impressions. One was of homeless people, several claiming to be veterans. A local told us that a colony of homeless lived close by to the marina under a bridge by the railroad tracks. Several organizations including a veterans group "looked after them."

To be sure the City of Titusville is trying hard. Every sidewalk and curb of the small downtown area is being redone. Keibler Kobbler is serving up great gourmet lunches. There is a wonderful bakery shop downtown. Discount Propane is selling the cheapest propane that I have ever bought. Considering that the propane store is within walking distance of the marina makes this stop worthwhile by itself.

Another theme was the sad decay of the US space program. From anywhere on the waterfront Cape Canaveral is visible. The 55 story assembly building and a nearby launch gantry dominate the eastern skyline 5 miles across the Indian River on Merit Island. However, the last manned launch has left the pad and none are scheduled in the future. Nearby the marina is a "space park." There are three long walkways dedicated to the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. Walking along these deserted byways there are memorials to the people who have died helping man into space. Of course there is a touching memorial to Christi MacCauliff, but there is a longer list of workers who died in constructing and maintaining the spaceport. Indeed many more have died on the ground than ever died in space. There are benches facing the launch site but no more launches will come. It is just so ineffably sad to someone of my age to think that the past 40 years of space exploration has come to this--just a few marble memorials.

Included in the pictures above are three memorials to the astronauts of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo as well as a distant view of Cape Canaveral. Instead of a homeless man I added a picture of a stork hunting in the pond in the city park.