Eclipse adventure

So, the eclipse.

Seeing a total solar eclipse is one of the few achievable items on my bucket list, and I've known for awhile that there would be one just a couple of hours away on August 21, 2017.

We purchased a camping spot in Lathrop, Missouri, a couple of hours from home, and very near the center line of totality. Lathrop is a small town, and we thought we might enjoy that more than the huge event that was planned in St. Joseph. Also, we were able to get a camping spot with electricity, which is always a plus.

In the days before the eclipse, we watched the weather forecast - maybe clouds and rain, maybe not. Over the weekend, we mentioned our concerns to someone at the astronomy club. "You already have a spot?" he said. "Then go. You will still have fun."

Even on the drive down Sunday afternoon, watching heavy clouds, we pondered switching and heading towards Saint Louis, where my aunt's backyard was also in the path of totality. But we had left the cat home alone, and STL would be a longer drive home for us. We decided to stick with Lathrop, reminding ourselves of our friend's admonition - "You will still have fun."

We camped at the Antique Show Grounds, which appeared to be a cross between a normal county fairground, and one of those old town reconstructions. It wasn't too crowded where we camped, and we had a nice southern view.

Monday morning, we got up, found the coffee truck, drove into town for a couple of errands, and came back to the camper. Then it started rain. Thunderstorm, actually - for an hour and a half. I dared to hope that it would clear things out for later in the day. After the rain stopped, we walked around and looked at some of the antique doodads. My favorite was an honest-to-goodness Burma Shave sign.





Our friend Kim drove down from Des Moines and arrived in time to watch the eclipse with us. The clouds were still thick, but occasionally there would be a "sucker hole" where we could see the sun. I used my straw hat as a pinhole viewer. We could see the growing eclipse until just before totality. We could definitely feel it getting cooler, and darker, although that didn't seem much different than when thick storm clouds roll in.



I am fairly sure I saw the "diamond ring" just before totality. Then, suddenly, it got dramatically darker. There were enough clouds that we could not see the corona, but we definitely knew that something different had happened. It was much darker than could be explained by clouds. There were still lots of ooh and ahs from folks nearby. We could see the 360 degrees of dusk, but never did see the eclipsed sun.

 

After a couple of minutes, it lightened up again, and totality was over. I told Terry and Kim, "Even though we didn't SEE the total eclipse, we can absolutely say we EXPERIENCED it."

We found out later that, had we hopped in the car and driven five or ten miles to the south, we could have seen totality. But who knew?

The good news is, the next eclipse in the US in only seven years away - April 8, 2024 - and my niece and sister-in-law both live in the path of totality. Clear a spot, ladies, because we plan to be there.

But in 2017? We DID have fun.

Learn by camping

My family camped when I was a kid. We had a fold-down camper - not one of those fancy pop-ups like we have now, with a roof and all, but basically a big ol' tent covering a trailer base and a couple of bed extensions.

You had to plan ahead for your camp outs back then. The canvas tent top was barely water-resistant, and certainly not waterproof, especially if you touched it during a rain event. To achieve waterproofing, it was necessary to paint the entire canvas with a waterproofing substance, AND give it ample time to dry before allowing rain to fall upon it. When I was about nine, my parents traded up to a new camper shortly before we were planning to go camping, and there was not time to waterproof the tent. No worries! It was July, it was Kansas, and it was hot as a pistol.

You know where this is going, right?

At two o'clock in the morning, I woke up, sweltering, to find Mom covering the bed, and me, with a plastic drop cloth. A storm had blown in out of nowhere, and she and Dad were doing the best they could to keep things dry.

This was also the first trip when I have a distinct memory of campsite shower houses. This particular spot pumped in lake water, which allowed them to have constantly running showers - cold showers. And we took those cold showers, and enjoyed them, after the initial shock. As one of my friends says, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Now, Knightstar and I have a modern pop-up camper with a roof, leakproof canvas, electric lights and refrigerator, and a gas stove. Still, when we took it out for the first time last week, we had to be prepared to be unprepared. Is it raining when you arrive? Expect to spend a lot of time sitting in the car, and dash out to do a few things whenever the  rain slacks off. No electric sites available? We travel with a battery and a small solar system. The showers cost 25 cents for every minute and a half, so open your soap dish and squeeze out some shampoo before you drop the coins in the slot.

And always, always, expect the unexpected.