After talking about it for several years, we decided to attend the annual IBM reunion picnic for those of us who worked at the Kennedy Space Center on Apollo or the Space Shuttle. The picnic was held at Kelley Park on Merritt Island, FL on Saturday, April 26, 2008.

We decided to take a motorcycle trip to FL for the picnic. Our first stop was in Jamaica Beach, outside of Galveston, to visit with our Austin friends, Ruth and LeRoy, who have a home there. Then it was off to Seabrook, TX to the home of Clif and Terry Grim, who had also worked at KSC and were going to join us for the ride to FL.

We left Clif and Terry's on the morning of April 23rd and headed for New Orleans. We spent the night at the Le Richelieu Hotel, where Jane and I have stayed several times before. We like the hotel for its location, price, and on-site parking, a big help when you have a motorcycle.

On Thursday we had a breakfast of beignets and cafe au lait at the Cafe Du Monde in Jackson Square. Then it was off to Apalachicola, FL for an evening at the Coombs House Inn. We had an excellent dinner at Tamara's Cafe.

On Friday, we headed out and reached my mother's in Port St. Lucie in late afternoon. Along the way we dropped Clif and Terry off with FL friends Chuck and Laura.

We had a great time at the picnic and enjoyed seeing many of John's colleagues from back in the 70's. Clif and Terry had to head home on Sunday so Jane and I were riding alone for the trip home. We hit a couple of patches of rain in west-central FL but otherwise had a great ride. In order to avoid the interstate, we retraced some of the route we had taken on the way down. We stayed the first night west of Tallahassee and the second night in Orange, TX. We arrived home safe and sound on 5/2.

Since Clif was along, I didn't end up taking too many pictures. What I have are shown below. Clif has many pictures posted at KSC Day 1 and KSC Day 2.

Click a picture to see a larger view.