Chapter 2 – Alabama
June 2024
Ziva glanced back at the five children in the passenger seats of the van as she drove onto the exit ramp off I-565 for the hotel where the family would be staying for the week. She'd found a two-bedroom suite that slept eight and with their government employee discount, the total cost for the week's lodging had been about half of what they'd budgeted. That left some money for a surprise that she'd booked for the family while at the US Space and Rocket Center.
LJ squirmed in his car seat between his sisters in the third-row seating. He'd had a glimpse of some tall white things in the distance that sure looked like rockets to his two- and one-half year-old mind. As his mother turned onto the cross-street to head to the hotel, he spotted the rockets again.
"Ima, Abba!" the little boy tried to get a better look from his position. "Look! Did we go to da moon? Dere's some wockets over dere!"
Tony turned towards the rear in the front passenger seat; he nearly burst out laughing at the look on his youngest's face. Awestruck didn't quite cover it, but was a close as he could get. He quickly grabbed his cell phone and snapped a picture of the little boy with his eyes wide with wonder and mouth slightly agape.
Tali rolled her eyes from her middle seat behind her father. Little brothers, and sisters too, were sometimes so silly.
Rivka pouted from her seat; she was on the far side of the van from the view of the US Space and Rocket Center in the distance. "LJ, move your big head; I wanna see the rockets, too," she groused. "So not fair that Beth and Anthony can see them and the rest of us can't."
"You will see the rockets in the distance from our suite at the hotel," Ziva tried to offer an olive branch to her middle child. "And tomorrow, we will see them up close at the USSRC."
Tony added, "Yeah, we have to check-in, get our stuff into the room, and then get some dinner. It's almost 1600 local time, which is 1700 our time. Then we are going to unwind from traveling since 0430, even with two longer stops for breakfast and lunch, plus stretch and bathroom breaks. We'll go over to the USSRC around 0900 and spend most of the day there."
"Can we touch the rockets, Abba?" Beth was already hooked just from the view from a distance.
"I just wanna see them…" her twin huffed. "Someone's big head is blocking my view." She poked LJ's arm with her finger, hard enough to make him feel it.
LJ turned to his sister, "Me no have a big head. Meanie…" He hit her arm and stuck out his tongue.
Tony made a 'T' with his hands, and got the kids' attention. "Whoa, step-back. I get that everyone is a bit tired and cranky from our long ride, but name-calling and hitting are not acceptable. After we get our suite, we'll find the pool or a play area so you all can burn off some energy. Deal?"
"I guess," Riv was not satisfied, but she knew better than to try to argue with her parents.
Ziva pulled to the curb by the main entrance of the hotel. Since the check-in parking was under a canopy, she didn't mind leaving the five kids in the van while registration, getting keys, verifying payment information, and other necessary details were completed. Tony stayed with the kids, but when he received a text from his wife, he had to go inside as well.
"Ima needs me inside for a few minutes to complete our check-in," he explained to the five youngsters. "You wait here… and stay in your seats." He locked the vehicle from the outside with his fob, while Ziva's was still inside to keep the engine, and hence the air conditioning, running for the kids.
Less than ten minutes later, Ziva came out with keycards in hand and Tony was pulling a luggage bell-hop type cart behind her. He unlocked and opened the doors to the van with his fob and guided the cart to the now-opened rear hatch.
"Gather your personal belongings into your go-bags," Ziva instructed the kids. "And any trash goes in the bag between the front seats so we can dispose of it."
Tali and Anthony helped LJ and the twins repack their bags before folding their seat backs down so the little kids could exit curbside. Tali handed each of them their backpacks and told the three preschoolers to stay put to wait for their parents. Anthony got his backpack and stood with the others. Tali quickly gathered her things and put the last few pieces of trash in the bag up front.
Ziva helped her husband load the suitcases and duffels onto the cart and hang their own backpacks on the hooks above. Tony glanced around the inside of the van, and once satisfied that they had all of the items on the cart or in hand, closed the rear hatch and sliding doors with his fob.
"You or me to park the van?" he looked over at Ziva who was trying to corral the three younger kids. Rivka had ventured towards the end of the building, determined to get a glimpse of the rockets. Once she started running off, the other two followed.
Tali was repacking Beth's go-bag; the little girl had dropped it on the sidewalk when she ran after her twin and the zipper had not been fully closed. Crayons, colored pencils, and other small items had spilled out.
"Come back here NOW, Rivka Abigail, Elizabeth Shannon, and Leroy Jackson," Ziva glared at the three miscreants.
"I just want to see the rockets," Riv turned towards her mother with hands on hips. "I didn't get to see them yet and it's not fair!" She turned and ran towards the end of the sidewalk.
"FREEZE!" Tony called out to the preschoolers.
LJ and Beth immediately stopped where they were and turned to face their Abba. Rivka kept running, her focus on getting to peek around the building and see the rockets in the distance. She wasn't going to stop until her goal was accomplished.
Tali and Anthony looked at each other and shrugged. They stood by the backpacks, luggage cart, and van and watched their younger siblings. Ziva ran past the two who had stopped. She caught up to her middle child right at the corner of the building, and cut the running little girl off.
"Outta my way, Ima."
Ziva reached for the child, "What did you say?"
"Outta…" Riv let out a squeaking sound as her Ima scooped the girl into her arms. "No… wanna see the rockets…" she squirmed and tried to get free of her mother' arms. "NO… down… now…"
While Ziva wrangled the misbehaving four-year-old, Tony led the other two back towards the main entrance.
"You were told to stay by Anthony and Tali," he started to scold the two. "Instead, you chose to run off without permission." He knelt down in front of the two little ones, "Do you understand that you did something wrong?" The two nodded and he continued, "Beth, can you tell me what you did that was wrong?"
The little girl hung her head, "I ran off. I should have stayed with our stuff. I'm sorry, Abba." She looked up at her father with a sad face.
"LJ?"
"I wunned wif Wiv and Bef," the little boy bit his lip as a few tears rolled down his cheeks. "Time out?"
Tony nodded, "When we get upstairs to our room, yes, there will be some time out. But remember that Ima and I still love you. What you did was wrong, but that doesn't change how we care about you and love you." He pulled the two into a quick hug and glanced over towards Ziva and their middle child.
"But Ima, it's not fair that everyone got to see the rockets 'cept me. Not fair!" the child stomped her foot as she complained. "I just want to see those rockets."
Ziva squatted to the child's level, "Rivka, running off without asking is wrong. We told you that you would get to see the rockets from our suite. And you were told to stay by the bags and van."
"I. Don't. Care. I wanna see the rockets. Not fair that only me did not see them," the little girl crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled while stomping her foot again. She started to make eye contact with her mother and quickly turned her gaze to the bushes next to the pair.
Ziva took a breath in and mentally counted backwards from ten; this child would be the one who tried her patience and parenting skills over and over… She shifted slightly and noticed Tony hugging the other two runners.
"I understand that you want to see the rockets. However, running off like you did is not the way to do that. Please look at me when I am talking to you," she gently placed a hand under the child's chin; Riv cooperated and made eye contact. "Running off is misbehaving. There are consequences for not listening and for not doing as you were asked."
Rivka sighed and slowly lowered her arms, "I just really, really, really wanted to see the rockets like everyone else. I… I'm sorry, Ima…"
"Apology accepted. Come," Ziva held out a hand to her child. "Let us go back to the others so we can go up to our suite. You can see the rockets from the suite after time out. I promise."
The family headed to the elevator to 'move in' to their suite for the week. The bedroom with the king-sized bed was obviously Tony and Ziva's; the three girls shared the second bedroom with its two double beds. Anthony and LJ would sleep on the fold-out double bed in the main living area of the suite. Ziva gave the kitchenette a once-over and made a list of groceries to pick up when the family went out for dinner.
The main area and the master bedroom both overlooked the view towards the US Space and Rocket Center across the highway. After the three younger children had their time-outs, Rivka stood by the sliding door to the balcony staring at the rockets in the distance. Tony tried not to laugh at the expression on her face, which was similar to her twin's and younger brother's earlier.
After dinner at a local fast-food eatery with an indoor play area, the family stopped at a grocery store to purchase the items on Ziva's list. She figured having breakfast foods, beverages, and snack items in the suite would make life a bit easier than trying to get all seven of them out to eat breakfast and for snacking after the day's activities were over.
On Monday morning, Ziva was very glad she decided to have cereal and other breakfast items in the suite. It made getting ready to head over to the USSRC much easier than trying to get them all to a restaurant or fast-food place to eat and then to the main event for the day.
As Tony pulled into the parking area for the USSRC, the kids were duly impressed. A bunch of 'wow,' 'oh wow,' and 'cool' comments could be heard from the rear seats. Even Tali was impressed; Ziva chuckled to herself at the ten-year-old's reaction to the Saturn I rocket, V2/A4 rocket, and Space Shuttle with external fuel tanks that were visible from the parking lot.
"Dey BIG!" LJ leaned back to look up at the full height of the Saturn I.
Ziva led the family to the ticketing center to collect the pre-ordered tickets for the family's general admission for three days, the IMAX theater, the Apollo 11 VR experience, the flight simulators and trainers, and the moon-shot VR experience. The surprise item was the two-day camp activity on Tuesday and Wednesday that also included NASA 'flight suits' for each of the kids. When Ziva showed her family all of the event tickets, Tony was as excited as the kids, but pouted when Ziva told him he did not get a flight suit for camp.
"You can have mine, Abba," LJ offered to the snickers of his siblings.
Beth stated the obvious, "LJ, your flight suit would be way too small for Abba. He wears size humongous, I think…"
Ziva had to turn away to laugh quietly at the expression on her husband's face.
"Just how big do you think I am?" Tony asked his number three ninja.
Beth looked over at her siblings for some help; the three younger kids had a quick discussion about how to answer their father's question, while Tali pulled up the Gift Shop information on her new phone.
"Abba, the gift shop has flight suits for adults," Tali showed the image on her phone to Tony. "You can buy one there that will be just like ours."
Beth tugged at Tony's shirt, "We think you are about six or seven feet tall and weigh about five hundred pounds?"
Ziva couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Excuse me… I was two hundred six pounds at my wellness check last month and I have been six feet two inches tall since I was fifteen or sixteen years old," the father informed his offspring. "And, yes, I am going to investigate those adult flight suits in the gift shop. Maybe Ima will buy one as well?" He looked over at his wife with his best 'puppy eyes.'
"We shall see…" Ziva started in the direction of the main entrance to the complex. Today would be the day for exploring all that the center had to see on their own, including the Saturn V rocket, which had its own building. It was one of only three remaining rockets of that type in the world. They crawled through a space station mock-up that had been used as a trainer module for the first Skylab missions. In the building with the Saturn V, the Apollo 16 capsule, a moon rock from Apollo 12, and images from the moon expeditions captured the family's attention for almost two hours. Tony shared vague memories of watching television coverage of the final mission in December 1972 with his mother.
At the end of the day, all seven were tired, but as Tony put it 'good tired.' Each of the kids had received their Space Camp packet with information, their flight suit, Space Camp backpack, and a map of where activities would take place. Tony and Ziva had received their adult camper packets, including rules about supervising minors, the list of family activities, and a discount coupon for a flight suit. Ziva relented to the pleading of Tony and the kids, and all seven went back to their suite with flight suits to wear for the two days of camp.
The family day camp was packed with activities, explorations, and learning fun both days. They completed astronaut training exercises, two immersive movies, learning challenges as a family, and building model rockets and launching them as teams.
After lunch on Wednesday, the teams put the final touches on the rockets. Ziva, Anthony, Beth, and LJ painted their rocket with red, orange, and green stripes for each of the kids' favorite colors. Tony, Tali, and Rivka painted their rocket with blue and purple stars for the girls' favorite colors.
"Our rocket is going to fly higher than your rocket," Riv boasted to her twin. "We got the best rocket in the whole camp!"
"Nuh-uh," Beth shot back. "Ima is gonna do her magic and make ours go into the clouds."
Rivka smirked at her sister, "Well, Abba is gonna make our rocket go to the moon!"
Ziva and Tony locked gazes over the teams' side-by-side work areas. They were definitely amused by their off-springs' over confidence and boasting.
"We're going to beat you," Ziva teased her husband.
Tony chuckled, "No way. We have the superior rocket…" He held up the body of the rocket to fit the nose cone in place for launch in thirty minutes.
Tali and Anthony grinned at each other, then rolled their eyes. If anyone dared say their parents were not competitive, the two would probably resort to fits of laughter.
The camp personnel showed the adults how to load the rocket engine packs into the lower portion of the rocket tube to prepare for launch. The engines were one-time use only, but could be purchased in bulk to launch the rocket multiple times. The camp-owned launch pads and controllers would assist each team to launch their rocket. If all went well, the team could recover its rocket to take home at the end of camp sessions, but to launch again at home would require purchase of engines, controller, launch pad, and other parts.
A successful launch could propel the rocket to about one thousand feet from the ground. The recovery pack, including the parachute, would then float the rocket body to the ground for reuse. The teams took turns launching and admiring each other's finished products. LJ like the green-striped rocket that a family of four from Texas created.
Ziva's team was up to launch first of the DiNozzos. She carefully positioned the rocket on the launch pad as the three kids watched. LJ wanted to help so Ziva let him put his hands on with her to settle the model in place for lift-off. The four stepped back to the controller and Anthony and Beth pressed the launch button. LJ jumped up and down and squealed as their rocket lifted from the launch pad and propelled upward. The group watched as the colorful model soared towards the sky. One of the camp leaders had a radar-like tracking device to estimate maximum height and kept scores for each team.
"One thousand fifty-eight feet," she announced as the parachute deployed to ease the spent rocket to the ground. "DiNozzo team A is our current leader by five feet."
Two more teams completed their launches; Ziva's team remained in the lead by four feet. Tony's team was the final launch. He stepped up to the launch pad followed by Tali and Rivka. The two girls placed their rocket on the pad and their father did some final adjustments. The three retreated to the controller and counted down together. All three pressed the launch button… and waited…
At first it appeared that the blue and purple stars rocket wasn't going anywhere. Ziva high-fived Anthony, Beth, and was about to high-five LJ when the rocket shot off.
"Ima, it's going up!" LJ pointed to the rising model from his Abba's team. "Waaayyy up!"
The colorful parachute deployed as the rocket slowly fell back to the ground.
"We have a winner! And a new Family Space Camp record! One thousand one hundred two feet!" the woman with the altimeter tools declared. "DiNozzo team B come forward to claim your prize for first place please. Also, DiNozzo team A come get your second-place prize and Westfield team gets third place."
Tony and his daughters grinned classic DiNozzo grins when they were handed a full kit including a model rocket of a larger size than those they'd built at the camp, launch pad, one single-use rocket engine, and full launch controller. Ziva, Beth, and the boys also flashed signature DiNozzo grins when they received their prize of a case of ten of the one-use engines that fit the models they had built and the new kit won by the family's other team. The third-place team went home with an additional two engines for their rocket.
"All campers, this concludes the family camp; feel free to browse the park for the remainder of the open hours today. Also remember to pick-up your family's souvenir picture from yesterday, and the Space Camp Family Camp patches to add to your flight suits. Soar high!"
Tali and Anthony proudly carried the family's winning rockets from the camp area as Tony toted the prizes to the family's van. Ziva and the other three waited by the main entrance for them to return so all could do a final exploration of the park and exhibits.
"This was better than I thought it would be, Abba," Tali admitted as she fell in beside her father on the way to the space shuttle Pathfinder display. Pathfinder was the final prototype and also a training vehicle for the SPSS astronauts. Its display was the only full shuttle launch assembly remaining in the world.
"Yeah, I think this will be a trip we remember for a long time," Anthony added. "Thanks Ima and Abba."
"I am glad you enjoyed the USSRC. Tomorrow we will visit the US Veterans Memorial Museum. They have artifacts and equipment from the American Revolutionary War through present day," Ziva informed her family. "And we now can check the State of Alabama off our bucket list!"
