Patience, patience...

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I've been reading A Fire on the Moon, written by Norman Mailer, a very good book that I recommend. He describes the launch sounding like the "furious bark of a million oil drops," "the earsplitting bark of a thousand machine guns firing at once," and "an apocalyptic fury of sound equal to some conception of the sound of your death in the roaring of a drowning hour, a nightmare of sound."

The entire passage dealing with the launch is incredible and makes me both envious, and glad I wasn't there at the same time.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Apollo 14 CSM arrived at KSC in November 1969. At least the other one might have been a boilerplate spacecraft they used with turnaround moves from one High Bay to another when the real spacecraft hadn't been mated yet.
You can see one in the transfer aisle in this Apollo 11 picture and two in this Apollo 14 picture.

I remember, as we walked in, my father saying, "This is the building where they build rockets to fly to the Moon." It crushes me to realize that no such place exists any more.

Uh, Count, the VAB still exists. It's where the Shuttles are stacked up now.
*** Edited to add - oh, I get what you mean - Halcyon Dayz' post clued me in. Yes, patience. ***

I have a picture of Columbia being prepared for rotation to the vertical, after arriving in the VAB from the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), I guess about a dozen years ago now.

Plus, IIRC, Endeavour landing at Ellington Field. Heh, there's my thumb next to the Moon for that apollohoax thread about "Armstrong's thumb". I kinda miss stargazer; he was a good cat-toy.

Sorry Count Zero, but I just had this mental image.....

"Hey Dad, what's this?"

"It's an oxygen tank for the Apollo 13 service module. Now put it down before you drop ...... (CLANG!!)"

Father and son exit stage left, whistling and trying to look innocent.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

My favourite description of a Saturn V launch comes from "Apollo - The Race to the Moon" by Murray and Cox. They take about 4 pages from the start of the ignition sequence until orbital insertion for Apollo 4 (from the chapter "And then on launch day it worked").

Priceless , This is the mental image that comes to mind immediately afterwards:

Cheech: "What are you doing?"

Chong: "Checking to see if the oxygen tank works, I saw a dude and a kid dropping it, so I am checking it before the techs install it, you know, showing that we Hollywood celebrities can be good at this rocket science stuff....."

Cheech: "Uhhh dude, we have to empty the tank to put it on"

Chong: "Yeah, let's heat the oxygen up"

Cheech: "Ok"

Chong: "Hey you are pluging a 28V cable into a 65V main"

Cheech: "So?, if it evaporates with 28V it will evaporate faster with 65V".......

Cheech and Chong exit stage RIGHT happy to contribute with the Apollo Proyect...

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi