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| Don't worry, I have a really good picture of the eclipse |
As I explained in part I, this wasn't a traditional roadtrip for us. We slept in our own bed every night. However, some of our family members roadtripped from Seattle to experience the total eclipse of the sun. None of us had ever witnessed a total eclipse like this. I have seen the moon eclipsed several times. It's cool, but not total eclipse of the sun cool.
Our house was directly in the path of totality for the eclipse. None of us knew just how cool or how uncool it would be. The Hot Chick's sister and her family were planning to come and stay with us and we shamed her brother into coming down with his family. His business is a summer business, outside, landscaping. There isn't much time for summer fun. His kids had never been to Yellowstone or the surrounding areas, so we worked on him and worked on him and he figured out how to come on a vacation with his family. The calendar worked out just right. He had to juggle a few clients, but we got him and his family here. They were glad they came.
We visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Lewis & Clark Caverns and the ruins of the Teton Dam. We know how to pack a lot of stuff into a little amount of time. News outlets were predicting about 100,000 people to descend upon our little town of 20,000. We live near the freeway, and we stocked up on food before the big surge hit so we really never saw the crowds. We heard about them. People were renting rooms of their homes, backyards for tents, and even potato fields for camping. We spent most of that time out of town being tourists other places. We never really saw all the people that were supposedly here. For our part, we had nine extra bodies staying in our house. It didn't feel all that crowded because the seven kids slept in tents in the backyard. August, Idaho, tents outside, good.
In 2012, we went up to Seattle for The Hot Chick's 30th high school reunion. We stayed with her brother and his family that I mentioned above. His daughters really loved Aunt Hot Chick and I took this picture then
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| Auntie Hot Chick and the nieces. Sounds like a good name for a chick band |
I loved that picture, so we decided to recreate it on eclipse day. Here it is.
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| Recreating the photo, a few years later. |
The news showed store shelves empty of eggs and milk and other important things. Surprisingly there was plenty of toilet paper. Her brother asked if we needed him to bring us any food or milk as he had seen those newscasts about southeast Idaho clear up in Seattle. We were fine and we told him so. In fact, we never really saw any shortages. Maybe we just knew where to shop.
Since this week was all about family, I'll show a bit of that stuff, mainly for the family members who were here during the eclipse, then I'll get to the eclipse because that is what you are reading this for. One of the nephews was celebrating a birthday. He said it was the best birthday every because he got to spend it with his cousins. I literally have the best family.
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| Happy Birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey.... |
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| Spinning |
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| Family group shot |
Solar eclipses are really weird. Shadows of things begin to refract into multiple images, some shadows appear to be writhing snakes when you get closer to the eclipse. As it gets darker, the animals start settling down and it gets really quiet. Then the temperature drops about ten degrees. It feels kind of sudden. We all had special glasses for the eclipse that would allow us to see it but not damage our eyes. Kind of like welding goggles but cheaper.
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| Strange refracting shadows |
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| More |
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| you can't see it in a still photo, but these were snaking around. Really weird |
And then something happened that I was completely unprepared for. The eclipse went into totality. We were on my front lawn and the only other people we saw was one of our neighbors on their front lawn. When the eclipse went into totality, it was an emotional experience for me and everyone else in our group. And then we heard it. 100,000 people in backyards and parks raising their voices in jubilation.
I couldn't help myself, I thought of a passage in the Book of Job in the Bible.
Job 38: 4, 7 "Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?.....
.....and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
This wasn't just an emotional moment for me, it was also profoundly spiritual. I make no excuses or apologies for that.
As you could see from the first picture of this blog post, I was having trouble getting a good shot of the sun. I abandoned the thought of getting a picture for myself and was going to bum one off one of our family members who is a photographer. But then, as the eclipse began to emerge from totality, he said, "Just take a picture!" So I did. I got exactly one photo of the eclipse. I got a photo when it went into what is called the diamond ring phase. Here it is.
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| The diamond ring phase of the total solar eclipse of 2017 |
My uncle let some people view the eclipse from his yard. I think they were from England or somewhere else in Europe. They had seen four other total solar eclipses around the world. They told him this one might have been the best. Southeast Idaho has an elevation of 4800 feet above sea level. There is no heavy industry here, mostly farming. The air is clear and the sky is blue. And if you are thinking of coming here and causing a ruckus, the mosquitoes are seven times normal size and can carry off dogs and small children! If you aren't planning on causing a ruckus, the mosquitoes will leave you alone.
Almost as soon as the eclipse ended, the airplanes began leaving. We live next to a small, municipal airport that can really only land private aircraft. The airplanes took off one after another for hours. From my hometown to Salt Lake City, Utah, it is about four hours if you drive the speed limit. If you are a Utah driver, you can make it in about three. Our friends who came up from Utah said it took them eight hours to get from our town to Salt Lake City. I asked them if it was worth it and they said, "Oh yeah." They had no complaints. All those people I didn't see were actually here. Because of where we live and where our family lives, they were able to get on a state highway and get right out of town. Apparently no one left that way. They may have added about a half an hour to their trip back to Seattle.
This was an exceptional experience. Made all the better because of family. I want to do it again.
Epic "Roadtrip" Part I: Yellowstone/Grand Teton
Epic "Roadtrip" Part II: Lewis & Clark Caverns
Epic "Roadtrip" Part III: Teton Dam
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