remembering WAY back...

[CastAway]

to my first camp session. That would be all the way back in 1997, if I did the math right. I remember getting there and waiting in a hall for a decent while with my buddy Houston, waiting for them to actually get us to do something. I also remember that it seems he and I both made a friend on the team, except half the time he was hanging out with the friend and not with me, and, being a dumb little 10-year-old, I wanted him to be hanging out with me, since he came with me... I don't even think I tried to make another friend. I remember the old version of the cafeteria, or at least I sort of do... with make-your-own PB&J sitting out and with those huge mission patches up on the wall. Another thing I remember was all the simulators on the TCF. And I remember the Mission to Mars thingy or whatever that used a simulator to "take you to Mars," then you went down on the "surface" or into the building to do do experiments. Another thing I remember was them calling Dippin Dots Space Dots instead... so I was stuck calling them that for a while before I finally caught onto the fact that the real name was Dippin' Dots. Hmm... let's see... I don't remember much else... most of it is blocked off by newer memories... let's see... oh, there was Journey to Jupiter and the big Skylab exhibit... I don't think I remember much else... oh wait... yeah... I was there one year when they had that weird lunar jumper thing out in rocket park where the little kid's park is now... I don't think I remember much else. Oh one more thing... the Centrifuge instead of G-force accelerator. But that's about it... but yeah... those are some deep memories I had to dig into.

[Benji]

I remember calling them Space Dots when I went in FL, about that time. My memories...

Seeing parts of Alpha being processed on a KSC tour, the Space Mirror Memorial, and the Shuttle To Tommorrow (seen below, the cargo bay had an attraction showing the Shuttle like a commerical airline. The crew compartment was actually the orbiter for one of the camp sims. It's now called Explorer, I don't kinow if it's still used as an attraction or sim).



I also remember the Astronaut Hall of Fame and riding in the G-Force Trainer (not sure if it was called that at the time, but I remember it was like you were riding in a jet). You can see it to the right in this picture:

[Richasi]

Since when is 1997 waaaaaaay back?

God that makes me feel old. lol!

I remember riding that jet thing at AHOF. It was very cool and very stressful.

Ever think of hitting that red button?

[Boomerang]

Richasi i know the feeling they do make you feel old dont they. You go back even further than me but i still go back to 91. I remember that space walker thing in the rocket park as wellas everything else you mentioned. I was actually their the first year they had that mars missionsimulator and believe me it improved between 91 and 97. I remember when they had a V-2 and a replica of an X-15 in the rocket park i know they were gone by 98 and i think by 96 but i dont remember for sure. I remember going to camp when their was no space station except on paper and it was called Freedom. One of the old station modules at camp the one that was used by academy actually use to have Freedom painted on the side of it. I remember when the log book was actually a book and not a bunch of stapled pages or a small book with half the info of the old ones. I don't consider 97 way back in 97 i was inbetween my last 2 years of going to camp and trying to find away to get back one more time.

[Richasi]

Richasi i know the feeling they do make you feel old dont they. You go back even further than me but i still go back to 91. I remember that space walker thing in the rocket park as wellas everything else you mentioned.

Yeah, I remember the space walker. In fact, the first time I ever rode that was June 5, 1985. The only reason I remember that is because I have a picture of myself on it, with the date printed/writen on the back. I kinda miss that too... I was an ace at it and everyone else could hardly do it properly. Though, I do like SpaceShot... it's a thrill sitting on the Hab side and finding you can see all the way over to the campground