Leanwolf, I've been on-site for something like 125 launches. It was always entertaining to watch the faces of first-timers. First, there's the blinding light, and then the sound gets there. When that peaks, you can literally feel your liver moving under the impact. People go wide-eyed and slack-jawed because it is SO much more intense than they imagined. At the really big ones like the Shuttle and Falcon Heavy, the ground literally moves under your feet. Even I can't imagine what it'll be like during SpaceX's upcoming Starship launches with double the liftoff thrust of anything that's ever flown to date.
Everybody should go there to experience it.
BTW, at my first launch - an Atlas - I was only 6,000 feet away. And I'm sure I went wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
