Endeavour's slow roll down the streets of LA

Today is the day the shuttle starts its very slow roll through LA from the airport to the California Science Center. Twelve miles, 2 mph, through streets, over a freeway, past all manner of homes and small businesses. The shuttle was driven out of the airport and spent the morning parked at a mini mall parking lot while the transport wheels were widened and crews took care of power lines further up the road. I walked to the parking spot from my home (about 2 miles) with a friend to take it all in. There was already a small crowd when we got there at around 9:30a or so. Whole groups of school kids, people in wheelchairs and walkers, people of all ages gathered. People brought their dogs and one woman brought her macaw. I ran into my friend Yuki's boyfriend in the crowd! Everyone was super friendly, helping each other take pictures, getting out of each other's way, letting smaller kids up front for a better view. The only unhappy person in the bunch was a woman whose hair salon was on a balcony where everyone was going to get a view of the shuttle's backside. She was not happy. Everyone else was having a blast. The Science Center sent out a bunch of volunteers to answer people's questions. We chatted with police officers on bicycles. The police were all fairly relaxed about the whole thing, only getting more vigilant about keeping people back once the shuttle was actually approaching. The wing of the shuttle went right over our heads! The clearance was quite tight over tops of trees that had been lopped off and next to street lights. We watched as the shuttle made its first turn onto Manchester. It's currently sitting just before the 405 waiting for the complicated maneuvering to get it over the freeway. The helicopters are overhead and its close enough that I can hear them from my home.

Here are some pics I took, plus a couple of videos.

Update: I had been spelling the shuttle's name without the 'u', then I realized I was spelling it wrong. I thought it was odd, since the 'u' is stripped out of other words. Apparently the shuttle is named after Captain Cook's ship, which of course was an English ship.