The ‘once in a lifetime’ event(yet there’s another one coming in 7 years) they have hyped all month, happening right over my head. And honestly? ..The hype was real. Hardly any clouds, and we were in the path of totality.
Now yesterday I said we (myself, my father and his brother) were going to head to near Hopkinsville. Instead, we were heading to Gallaton, TN (a small town just outside of Nashville, yet still in the path of totality). Woke up around 7:50am to a phone call (though I barely got any sleep as my heart was going “OMG OMG OMG SO EXCITED!!”) and it was my father’s brother to ask if I was going (and to wish me a happy birthday, which was nice of him).
We had to wait another hour (9am) until he arrived, then we hopped in his car and headed down I-65. I felt like a canned sardine in the back seat. Could barely move my legs. Had to wiggle them here and there to attempt to get rid of the cramping I was feeling. Father wasn’t any better, being sandwiched in the front seat.
Almost to E-Town, my father’s brother saw heavy backup on his phone ahead, and we went on US 31E pretty much the entire route there. And wow, that route. So much scenery, and also seeing a simpler life of farmers (passing by several crop fields(and of course cows and horses). We also passed (three times) over the ‘fingers’ of Barren River Lake. One of those had several boaters looking like they’re doing some sort of race, heading right for the overpass. Pretty wild.
10 or so minutes after crossing the Kentucky/Tennessee border, we stopped at a gas station/food mart, outside of a small town named ‘Westmoreland’ in Tennessee to refill the car (and our bellies). Though, eating dinner on the go earlier from Wendy’s (which I usually eat dinner at 6pm.. but it was 10am) made me slightly sick (but I still felt alright to go get a Slushie or something from the food mart (named ‘Sudden Service’)). Father was talking to this guy who was filling up their car next to us, telling him that our destination has got a lot of people to see the eclipse.
We debated if we should either continue south or stay here. Seeing how it would be just two seconds off of the longest totality time in Hopkinsville(2 minutes and 40 seconds), we decided to go to the nearby church just to the North of the gas station, to see the entire thing.
It was about 25% covered when we put down our chairs to watch it. I was quite surprised it was happening at all. I honestly felt NASA was wrong about this, but here it was..happening right over our heads.
And there we waited as the moon slowly covered the sun. About 20 or so minutes, I notice it was getting slightly dark(freakin’ wild), and this continued until…total darkness. That final 10 seconds before totality, there’s some light, and then…nothing. The ground gets pitch dark, lights are coming on, I feel a cool breeze. And all around is a 360* view of sunrise and sunset at the same time.
Then when you look up, what was the sun is now a small black dot with a huge ring of fire around it. We were officially in totality!! 😀
I was freaking out, as usual, holding my phone to capture everything I was seeing. I even bravely pointed my phone up to see the total eclipse right over my head (and tried to zoom in to hopefully see the sun’s corona.. sadly my phone’s zoom isn’t that powerful).
And within 2 minutes and 38 seconds later, night turned into day again as the moon slowly started moving away from the sun. I even saw the diamond part of the ring as the sun’s light started peaking out! What was so cool is looking to my East, I could still see the Moon’s shadow in the sky.
We stayed there for awhile until it was time to pack up and head home.
And getting back home, was pretty hellish (of course, the warning came out before the day happened to “expect heavy traffic”). The roads we went on before, were backed up for miles. We attempted to use bypass routes(such as SR 101), only for them to get clogged with traffic too. But we made the best of it, stopping by my great-grandparents’ grave (and going through the heart of Cave City, Kentucky).
We needed to get back to E-Town(and to I-65 to get back home), which was where a lot of Northbound eclipse traffic was also going (and clogging up the roads for miles).
It wasn’t until 8:33pm when we finally got home (and I started writing this). So I got to see two sunsets in one day! HAH!
What. a. ride. I really enjoyed going down there(and even back home). It was so scenic going down US 31E. I’ve seen things that I’ll probably never see again in my life (outside of Google Earth, of course).
Going to sleep like a baby tonight, and get my lost sleep back.
The only thing that bugged me about the entire trip, was I couldn’t listen to my music why I was down there. I had my earbuds. I had my smart phone. What I didn’t have was cell phone service. It seems T-Mobile’s ‘coverage’ isn’t that great. Almost wants to make me go with Verizon (or even add phone service to my cable modem bill).
My father’s brother even gave me a battery phone charger (that he used for his). Was quite nice of him, though since the only time I use my phone is to listen to Pandora, I don’t really need it. Still, it’s a nice after birthday present. Hell, the eclipse was the best (for all of us).
But, here’s to hoping I live another seven years (would be 47 years old) to see the next total solar eclipse in the US (in 2024), this one is going to happen over Southern and Central Indiana (where I live, I’ll be too far south from the path of totality, but I would be pretty close(99.3% coverage here)). But at least getting up there (somewhere close to Indianapolis) and back home wouldn’t require a nearly all day drive. Plus, my father claims the duration would be even longer (4-5 minutes of darkness).
I also do hope to do more with my father and his brother (traveling wise). His brother actually wants to visit Dallas, Texas next year (mainly to see where JFK got shot). I’m all for it(because yay adventure), though I don’t think my mother is.
Plus, how I forgotten the ‘fun’ I had being exhausted walking through Washington D.C. in 2004 (and being ‘scared’ of being on a plane). I’m sure she will bug me to hell and back over both things.
But who knows what happens between now and then? All I do know, is it’s going to take some time for my brain to feel that everything’s back to normal. Guess it’s the car lag (similar to jet lag, but without the sickness).
Really needed this trip, though. since this, I feel I’ve been wasting my life infront of a computer, when there’s just so much to see and do before I die.