The Email... STS-134 OMG!!!!

Two miles directly west of the Gilchrist (Oregon) mill lies an old log cabin. Family owned, it sports a loft, a wood burning cook stove, a fireplace, and an unattached outhouse with a perfect view of the meadow. This cabin is located exactly 42 miles south of the middle of nowhere.(According to candidate Neil Goldschmidt, "in his hard-fought campaign for governor against Republican Norma Paulus in 1986, when he famously declined a proposed debate in Bend, calling it "the middle of nowhere."...taken from http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/SPECIAL-REPORT-Ten-influential-Oregonians)

On March 21, at 1:20 pm, this is where I was, *(43°30'30.12"N 121°44'0.14"W ) when I received the most amazing email. It was spring break and we were attempting to get into the cabin despite being advised to do otherwise by my father.

We had a jeep, a large dodge 4x, a great adventurous friend, a teenage boy, myself, and three dogs. We had managed to get both vehicles stuck repeatedly in the deep snow, and were in the process of digging them out again, when I received an email from NASA.

“Dear Sarah Williver,

Congratulations, your registration has been selected to attend the NASA Tweetup at space shuttle Endeavour's targeted launch April 18-19 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida! The event will provide you the opportunity to speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts, and managers, and to experience the launch of space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station....”

We weren’t lost. We weren’t in any real danger. (Although, my dad had advised me to call someone with a bigger truck than his, in the event we did get stuck...) We were close to the cabin and had cross country skied in the night before. We had food, cell phones (with data), sleeping bags, food, water... but we were stuck. And we had been stuck, and shoveling for the better part of the day. We would drive 100 yards, sink, dig, repeat.....We were tired, sore, and still stuck. But I was going to Kennedy Space Center!

And so my journey to watch the Endeavor (STS-134) launch with 150 0ther lucky members of the Twitter community began. The launch is scheduled for April 19th. More information on the #NASATweetup is here: http://134tweetup.com/ . I will be blogging about the community, the people, and the incredible journey I am about to embark on. You can follow my tweet stream at twitter.com/SkierSarah or @SkierSarah.