At 8AM I was at the local Ford dealer to get the AC mixer box actuator replaced. Since they would already have the glove box removed I told them to change the cabin air filter. I also had them update the maps in the GPS system. I was out the door on my way home at 11:30AM. The maps update was $185. The actuator and cabin air filter -:parts $94.40, labor $410.99. The same Tech did all the work.
Back home we had lunch and then I regened our water softener. About 2PM we headed to Port Isabel to watch the Starship launch.
We weren't sure where we were going to park while we watched the launch. Last year we drove to Boca Chica Beach, just to see what we could see, not for a launch. There is only one two lane road that goes from Brownsville to the Boca Chica. Right before you get to the beach you drive through the SpaceX facility. That road gets closed on launch days but I'm not sure how much is closed.
When we left we planned on going to the park at the south end of South Padre Island. As we drove by the South Texas EcoTourism Center we decided that it was probably as good a location as any. It has a long elevated ramp to provide a good place for viewing the wetlands. The lines on the map below show the routes to drive from the Eco center to SpaceX. While there I heard a man say the actual "as the crow flies" distance was 11 miles.
Kathy managed a couple of good photos of the launch. A surprise, something all of us who have been in a thunderstorm know is that there is a huge distance between the speed of light and the speed of sound. Most of us have seen lightening flash and counted the seconds to estimate the distance to the strike. The speed of sound is 1,125 feet per second. It takes over 50 seconds for sound to travel 11 miles. It was loud when it hit us but the "popping" is strange. It sounds like someone lit the end of a long string of firecrackers. You can hear a little of it about 40 seconds after the launch in the video at:
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-elon-musk-starship-e165e81ed2350ce684c7ed8d9357d7ba
I was using our binoculars. I could see the launch gantry. It was so cool when the booster came back down and was caught by the gantry. If we learn of another launch while we are hear we will sure do our best to make sure we get to watch it.
I've been doing most of the driving around Harlingen and a couple of times I have scuffed the front valance, running over taller curbs. Kathy drove to Boca Chica today and when she parked at the Ecocenter the valance scrubbed the curb. When we left it seemed like the car was making a new noise, nothing dramatic. We stopped and I did a cursory check of the front bumper. Everything seemed OK. When we pulled in to park behind the coach we heard a thump. When I got out of the car, lying on the ground was the valance. It fell of just as we parked at home. God is so good. It could have fallen part way off while we were on the highway and wedged under the car.
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