NASA Orion EFT-1
Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, Florida
Whole day inside the same United 737-800. At least it was a new one in good shape, complete with in-flight wifi. Some gorgeous sun over Houston for the layover, then less than two more hours to Orlando, where a massive Christmas tree greeted travelers inside the terminal to remind them that the holidays are here!
Much like the Hertz at IAH, the Hertz at MCO tempts you with fast, fancy cars right outside the rental booth. In this case, it was a Mercedes E63 AMG and a BMW M5 just begging to be driven. Alas... there was a lot of driving to be done on this trip, and a twin-turbo V8 was decidedly not in the cards this time around.
At least the shiny new 2015 Chevy Cobalt LTZ RS that was the ride of choice was literally brand new (just 6 miles on the odometer!) and was surprisingly good for a C-segment economy car. Touchscreen not quite up to Ford MyTouch standards, but the rest of the car was quite up to par, and fuel economy at high speeds was a pleasing 27mpg; more sane driving probably would've produced 33-35mpg.