A beer rollercoaster, a shuttle and Hulk

On the west coast of Florida is Tampa Bay but we didn't drive the hour or so to visit the city itself, or even the beach. We came to Busch Gardens, a kind of big scale Alton Towers with an African theme. You know, roller coasters and lions, elephants and log flumes. Busch, it soon dawns on me, is the owner of the brewery that produces Budweiser beer, which explains the many beer stalls dotted around the park. The queues are short in this off-season time and we get on all the insane rides and have a ride on a circular train around the fake African plain. All sorts of animals are munching grass besides giant high speed coasters. It seems ridiculous but it works. There's plenty of room here and the weather also has an African theme.
A great meal at an British colonial style restaurant is followed by more stomach sickening rides and unbelievable tidal wave based water rides. Definitely more adult themed and in turn more interesting than Disney. If you've come all this way to Florida you've got to make the trip here, that's if you like feeling a bit sick all day and paying for the privilege.
After a rest day we drive to the opposite coast for another first. We attempt to get into the Kennedy Space Centre to see the huge display of space shuttle equipment and shuttles themselves but are turned away. This turns out to be for a very good and well timed reason. We've managed to time our visit with one of the last shuttle launches for the next few years. And I thought we just see a couple of decommisioned shuttles.
We have to drive to a nearby town to watch the launch from about 10 miles away with plenty of people who've come prepared with barbeques and beer for a bakingly hot day. We have to wait around for 3 hours to see the launch but it was worth it. The huge rumble of the shuttles afterburners make your hairs stand on end and the sight of the shuttle arcing it's way up through the atmosphere is an incredible sight. The people on the ground are impressed too. A few minutes and it's all over and the traffic chaos back to base ensues. All the way back I can't help thinking how lucky we've been without actually planning anything.
Next day it's off to the very close Universal Studies for another day of theme park mayhem. The park is split into two areas that require more cash to enter but the whole thing again is superb. A lot of the rides in one park are movie-based and less like traditional rollercoasters and more like effects driven entertainment. The other park is more rollercoaster based with a couple of excellent rides of which The Hulk was the most shocking. After a couple of 3-D rides and the 4-D Terminator movie, in which a giant metal spider appears to walk out of the screen, we dash to try and get on some rides we'd missed before the incredibly early closing time of 6:30pm. Most rides are shut at 6pm which doesn't really give you enough time to see it all. Considering it was the most expensive place to visit and Disney was the cheapest you'd have thought they could at least match Disney's 12am opening time. You're chucked out of the park and into a horrible cheesy Universal Street that has ugly brightly coloured bars and restaurants that all look fast foody but charge restaurant prices. We end up eating badly at a TGI Fridays chain restaurant, again a disappointing mistake when we actually come to splashing out on food.
We return for our last night at Eric's house in Kissimee. The end of 10 days excellent accomodation and also a sign that the whole trip is drawing to an end. 11 days left when we hit the road once again. It was all so simply not having to find a place to stay every night but on we must go.