I just arrived in Orlando yesterday for TechEd 2008 that will begin tomorrow.
At some moment during the travel from the airport to the hotel, the driver told me that the Discovery shuttle was about to take-off! So he proposed to stop aside the road and have a look if we could see it. And ... See that little light just above the clouds...
How far away were you? Could you hear it from there?
I was about 60 miles from Cape Canaveral. I could not hear it from there, but that really was impressive. I guess that beeing closer must be just amazing!