Up, Up, and Away

The shuttle launched again last night, once again taking a school teacher along for the ride. No horribly tragic explosion this time.

I drove over to Searstown Mall and parked, then called Yaw. "I'm just leaving work," he said.

I waited a few minutes, then realized that while he could run from here to our viewing spot, with the heat index around 105 and the air so think it would stick to you, I knew I'd be risking an asthma attack if I waited for him and had to run. It's only about a block, so I took my ice-cold bottle of water and started on my way.

As I approached the street corner I spotted Deb and Ian crossing US1 with their bikes. Yaw called to ask where I parked and I told him, and said I was already on the move. He parked next to me and headed out to catch me up. I reached Deb and Ian and we chatted while I watched constantly behind me for him to make it around the corner. He made it with about 2 minutes to spare.

We stood, chatting, all of constantly aware that at any time we should see the tell-tale candle-stick glow. I worried that we wouldn't see it as well because of the thick haze. No worries. We could see just fine.

We stood and watched until we could no longer see the microscopic dot of light in the sky--a distant star moving farther and farther away.