Daily Journal Continued October29,1998, By-William Thomas Thompson Today is the famous JohnGlenn launch from Florida's CapeKennedy. History will barely remember but one name in todays space shot of seven astronauts on the Discovery flight,I thank God for the pri-vilege of seeing this shot when I get there and if it goes up to-day as scheduled,the weather is perfect. Here at the motel in the next room is a man who was in school with JohnGlenn during milit-ary training. I met him while we were both loading our car,he was headed North and was not planning to see the liftoff. I am now on I-95 again and coming up on the Titusville exit. I can see crowds of people parked and waiting. I drive on South past the Cape exit and take the CapeCanaveral exit and go all the way in. As I cross the canal I see thousands parked and looking up at about 12 noon. I stop to buy fruit and ask the owner of the fruitstand where wo-uld be the nearest place to see the shot,she told me to go to the docks. I wanted to be SouthEast so the sun wouldnot be in my eyes and so it would cross my position after take off. When I drove on docks road it was very full and very crowded with cars and people so much that I could not even stop,I pulled into a joint that was a restaurant serving lunch like tunafish sandwiches and coffee in addition to beer and honkee tonk music. At least they had a bath-room to use and brush my teeth before fighting that crowd for the better view. I then drove up and down the 4lane by the cruiseship Fantasy and saw a small opening in that hedge row and parked in a small edge near this opening to the water front that overlooked a center section of the launcharea and the rocket across the bay. I had 20 minutes until launch time left and some kind people helped me get my camera cases and a hat to keep from sunburn to walk al-ong the splashing waters edge to an ideal place to sit down. They loaned me a net to sit on to stay dry from the ground. I was very happy to have a birds eye view of this great happening with a vi-deo camera and my Canon888 to capture the show. I could of put my feet in the water from where I am sitting but I did not,I waited. Airforce one landed just before liftoff. Bill may have been smart if he had gone with this crew,how great we are and how low we go. Finally after 2 short delays the ship blasted off and the mighty vibrations shook the atmosphere. A brightlight appeared,toobright to watch and it begin moving up faster and came over like it was just overhead but so quickly it was gone out of sight and it left a huge smoke trail. It was over in seconds and gone. Those people that helped me get into place helped me get up and back to my car and directed me onto the highway where I turned intotown to avoid a long line going West at zero MPH. This is the biggest mess that I have ever been in. The traffic jam last for hours and I finally got over to the space center for a tour of the rocket garden. Now I tried to get a motel room at Motel 6 but they upped the rate by $15.00 per room per night due to what they call special events. I take back everything good I have said about them because they are about as greedy as all the others. Some were asking $200.00 for a motel room. I drove up to Daytonna Beach for a beachfront room at a cheap rate. It is easy to get a room on the beach here in Dayt-ona. I hate to see hotels and motels taking the advantage of peo-ple to charge 3 times more when they can. It may be legal robbery to man but a sin before GodAlmighty,where is the soul of America?