Florida Space Coast Ricochet Meetup

Given the number of space enthusiasts on Ricochet, it is high time that we have a Ricochet Meetup on Florida's Space Coast. I had written this post to help flesh out a plan, so you can refer back to it if you are interested. The dates for the meetup are February 6-8, 2026, although some of us will get to town the afternoon or evening of February 5th. There won't be an official itinerary for that evening, though.

Lodging:

If you haven't already booked a room, I suggest finding someplace near Cape Crossing Resort & Marina in Merritt Island. A handful of us (Stad & neutral observer, LC, Painter Jean, Red Herring & Robert Herring) are renting a vacation home at the resort. We will invite everyone over at least a couple of the nights we are there. When we get closer to the event, I will send a PM with the address to all who are coming.

If we don't come up with some group excursion for Saturday, we may just be hanging out there during the day.

Here is what we have for an itinerary. Of course, all of these items are optional. Nobody is expected to go to everything. When we get closer to the meetup, I will want to know how many people are going to each of the restaurants listed.

Friday, Feb. 6th:

Take the Space Shuttle Excursions tour of Cape Canaveral. I am going to give advice that many people will ignore, to their regret. Buy your ticket(s) for this now. I can name three different Ricochet meetups where I advised people to buy their tour tickets ASAP, and some (or all) waited too long and couldn’t get the tickets they wanted. Just do it before you forget. This tour goes from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Go to Rikki Tiki Tavern for lunch. 401 Meade Ave, Cocoa Beach, FL

Since it is only ten minutes away from Rikki Tiki Tavern, I plan on going to view the “One Giant Leap” mural after lunch. 7300 N Atlantic Ave., Cape Canaveral, FL.

Nothing else planned for the afternoon.

Dinner at 7:00 PM at Chaparral Mexican Grill. 1341 N Cocoa Blvd, Cocoa, FL

Saturday, Feb. 7th:

Find your own adventure. Sometime this weekend, I will stop by My Island Ice Cream. If there's a good place to get my picture taken with a sign for the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway, I'm doing that. Dolphins Waterfront Bar & Grill is very close to the resort, so I'm sure some of us will mosey over there for a drink.

Supper at 6:00 at Brasas Grill. I will need a headcount for this, so I can make a reservation.

Sunday, Feb. 8th:

Spend the day at Kennedy Space Center. Although you can buy admission ahead of time, you can also just buy your ticket on-site. They are open daily from 9:00-5:00. It looks like there is a lot to see there, so I'd probably want to be there pretty much from open to closing time. If others only want to go for a few hours, that's up to them.

Based on the endorsement by @TheodoricofFreiberg, we’re going to have supper at Dixie Crossroads at 6:00. I will need to know how many of you want to go there, so I can make a reservation.

I have no idea if there will be any rocket launches at Cape Canaveral while we are in town, but we can hope. It is quite likely that space instrument engineer @GLDIII will be joining us. That would be pretty fabulous, to take these tours with someone who has an intimate knowledge of the machinery we will be seeing.