Ride Report: Project Mercury Astronaut Bridge Tour

[Robb]

Yesterday was the League of American Bicyclists (LAB)'s National Ride A Bike Day, so I previewed the Project Mercury Astronaut Bridge Ride, which I lead annually on the Sunday closest to the Apollo 11 lunar landing anniversary. While we think of Houston (i.e "Houston .. the Eagle has landed"), the American human spaceflight program started with Project Mercury at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. Hampton City honored the project by naming our main street "Mercury Boulevard" and the road leading to the NASA campus "Commander Shepard Boulevard". The remaining six Mercury Astronauts have bridges named after them. The 18 mile ride begins and ends at Air Power Park which displays one of the Mercury capsules used during training and testing. The ride begins and ends on the 2 1/4 mile linear trail Hampton Waterwalk. It was a very nice day to ride my Atlantis. Usually ride the Clem L for errands and Gus Boots on the local trails. Normally the Atlantis on multi-day tours or sub-24 overnighters (S24O) so this was a treat.

[Mike Godwin]

I gotta do that ride. My dad was accepted into the astronaut program in 1957. I spent the first 3 years of life at Cape Canaveral and lived at air force bases with really fast aircraft.  So cool.  Not bike related, but check out this out with astronauts getting Corvettes  Why America's first astronauts all drove Corvettes (jalopnik.com)  I can't find the original article, I think it was in Smithsonian Air and Space periodical or AOPA magazine. Here it is i think  My Other Ride Is a Spaceship | Space | Air & Space Magazine (airspacemag.com)  My dad did not make the final cut, so no Corvette. 

Mike SLO CA  

[Gary L]

I gotta do that ride too. Mike, I lived in Cocoa Beach back then and my dad ran the Starlite Motel where the Mercury astronauts stayed. He got to be good friends with them and they would come to the house showing off their new corvettes. It was amazing for a little kid like me.

[Kushan]

Really cool ride with bike to match... 

On Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 8:46:51 AM UTC-7 Robb wrote:

[Mike Godwin]

Hi Gary.

I wish my mom were still alive, I could ask her if we stayed in the same hotel waiting for base housing. Is the hotel still standing?  Dang worth a trip for all the sights and rides. 

Mike SLO CA