You might recall that back in August of 2017 there was a solar eclipse in the United States for the first time in decades. Or at least a really long time.
It cut a swath through Iowa, but in Iowa you couldn’t see the totality. It was only something like 85%. And if you are satisfied with an 85% solar eclipse, you aren’t living life to its fullest. Let it sink in and do better.
The totality was cutting through parts of Kansas and Missouri. I have some kinfolk in the area where the totality was to happen. My big city cousin Sarah was even going to come home from New York with her beau Tim to see the totality.
We made a plan to get together and watch the eclipse together. She did some research and we determined a park on the Missouri River in Saint Joseph, Missouri would be the best place to watch it. The totality was at its longest there. Plus, Saint Joseph was considered one of the top ten places to watch the eclipse because of the length of the totality and the fact that it hardly ever rains in Saint Joseph in August. People do research on such things.
Jesse and I took a couple days off to come down to see the eclipse. Another one of my cousins, Jordan and his wife Erin graciously allowed us to stay in their tall basement for the night.
We left Boone at something like 4 in the morning because I didn’t want to miss the eclipse because we were stuck in eclipse traffic. I also didn’t want to fight other people for a spot to see the eclipse. We were going to have our spot carved out a good 4 hours before the eclipse started.
We were successful. We beat the traffic and we secured a spot of real estate next to the Mighty Mo. Then it started to rain. Then rain some more. We didn’t get to “see” the totality. It was covered by clouds, for the most part. However, we did get to experience it. The temperature does drop like 10 degree. Everywhere you look in all 360 degrees looks like a sunset.
I didn’t get the picture that I wanted, but I still got an amazing experience. With some amazing people. Including my Uncle Mike and cousin Adam and his daughter Florence.
Here are some pictures from the failure:
I’m already making plans for the eclipse in 2024. It cuts across Paducah, Kentucky. I have some kinfolk that live near there!