2024 Eclipse Day! (Staycation)

In 2017 we travelled west to view the Total Solar Eclipse under the big Western Sky.  We were fortunate enough to be able to view it.  I noted at that time that the next total solar eclipse in North America was a mere seven years away - TODAY!  The 2024 eclipse has totality passing through our back yard.

And I am a little conflicted.  SO and I haven't gone on an extended road trip in a few years.  There are several reasons for this.  As nice as it is to be able to use home as the base, it isn't quite the same kind of adventure.

As the number of days until totality wound down, the forecasts were all over the place.  Rain, then just cloudy, then clear, then cloudy...  I did notice that the temperature forecasts were showing the cooling effect of the sun being obscured - which I thought was neat.  But this must be manual manipulation since I didn't see this in any of the actual raw weather models.

I woke up on eclipse day to wet ground but clearing skies.  The previous evening's forecast of heavy clouds most of the day was replaced with mostly sunny skies with numerous high thin clouds forming.  Almost all the weather models were in general agreement.  The biggest question was how intense the high thin clouds might be.

Right at daybreak I took the older dog on a long walk around the "block" (5.05 miles).  The morning was brilliantly clear and it warmed quickly.  I couldn't help but hope that it would stay that way.  As I approached the long stretch back toward home, thin clouds were building to the Southwest.

Back at home I spent several hours killing time.  I read a bunch about the models available on SpotWX.com and how good they are at various aspects of prediction.  I shook my head and intense "discussion" about the most mundane details.  I never came to any strong conclusion and appreciated that they were easily viewable.  I also like that Windy.com allows graphical viewing of some of the models.  While fun to learn about, it actually increased anxiety a bit.  Do we stay at home?  Or go "somewhere" - I have a long list of alternate locations as well as last minute, "Move That Cloud!" locations mentally prepared for.

I was ready with my April 8, 2024 survival kit.

I left around midday to walk the younger, special-needs dog.  She was happy to walk in the bright sun and roll around in the grass.  I couldn't help but notice clouds building, and not just wispy high altitude clouds.

Still, if we have to do an "oh crap" move, so be it.

First contact came a little before 2:00 with clouds moving through.  There was about 15 minutes where the clouds obscured the eclipsing sun, but things cleared dramatically to the west.  I'm not sure if it was due to the cooling effect of the eclipsing sun, or if it was just luck, but I was happy.

The moon munched away at the sun for a little over an hour.  A few clouds did drift over.

The light got very weird.  I heard yelling from a quarter mile away.  Then the light was gone.  The sun was replaced by this amazing, incomprehensible, alien sight.  I snapped a few pictures, but also spent time just watching it.

And all too soon it was over.  Light slowly increased along with the temperature.

In contrast to 2017 when we had thick ribeyes for dinner, we simply grilled some wild game for dinner.  Also unlike 2017, where the adventure continued, in 2024, the eclipse is followed by ... work...

But for now, having the stars align or maybe I should say the sun and moon align and being able to see totality is enough.

Yellowknife Adventure Day 5 (and 6)

There was no reason to hurry so the day started out slow.  Coffee.  Packing.  Breakfast.

After buttoning everything up there was no reason not to leave, so we headed out the door of the houseboat for the last time.  I'm not sure I'll miss the off-grid potty, but the houseboat was a spectacular place to watch the Northern Lights.  I left still thinking about the vivid display of the Aurora Borealis from the previous night.

We left - of course via the Ice Road - and headed into Yellowknife.  First stop was Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.  This is a fairly nice museum dedicated to First Nation's people as well as the overall history and heritage of the Northern Canada area and its history.  There were a lot of interesting artifacts and tidbits.  It was well worth the hour or two it took to take in everything.

From there we went to the NWT Diamond Centre.  I was under the impression this was also a museum dedicated to the mining industry and specifically the diamond mining which occurs to this day in the Northwest Territories.  While there was an informational video playing down a hallway with some pictures, we were herded away and told to go to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.  Weird...

From there we headed to the library to use their WiFi and as a home base since we had checked out of the houseboat.  Sadly, the WiFi was beyond terrible to the point I hotspotted my phone for the few things I felt needed to be done.

Then it was down the street for an excellent lunch at the Black Knight Pub.  There was only one waitress working and she was running around like crazy.  I felt bad asking for the check, but the time on the Ice Road Spark parking meter was nearly up.

We wound around to get gas in the Ice Road Spark before heading back to the airport.  Before turning into the airport SO said that we still hadn't seen the Aurora Village.  With time to kill, we headed back out on the Ingraham Trail.  We sparked down to the village, but once we got there we saw nothing but warning signs and private property placards.  It was not a very welcoming village.  We thought about driving in to take a look anyway, but were worried the Aurora cops might get all aurora mad if we did.  

Back to the airport.

Unfortunately, I didn't fully recall the rental car agreement only gave us 200km and we went well over that.  So that effing trip to the Aurora Village cost me about $10 Canadian.  Not that it really amounts to much considering the cost of the whole trip, but there is a principle here.  Or maybe there isn't.

We had to have the gate agent print boarding passes since online check-in didn't give me the option of e-boarding passes.  At least they didn't cost us $10 Canadian...

Getting to the Yellowknife airport with ample time was definitely the right thing to do as the security area is very small with only one lane.  The line got arrogantly long quickly.

And so the arduous journey home began.  Yellowknife's airport is small.  And as its population moved in to go about their separate journeys, the frontier feeling of Yellowknife turned decidedly more third world.  It reminded me a lot of Hawaii - odd how two places so geographically different end up in a similar state.

The flight out of Yellowknife went well enough.  There were several people on the flight south who were also on the flight north - so about four days in Yellowknife must be about right.  Once in Calgary I deleted all the bookmarks and apps on my phone for forecasting the Northern Lights.  But before that, I checked to see what the Kp index was around the time of the spectacular aurora the previous night. 

The Kp was a solid six which does happen a few times a year.  But having it happen at night with clear skies - and after three days that already had good auroras was like hitting the powerball on the lottery.

Continuing home through two more flights, we were exhausted but very happy to be done with airplanes for a while.  I will give two thumbs up to WestJet that all the flights went well enough even with some weather and mechanical problems.

I've been thinking a lot about the Total Solar Eclipse last year and the Aurora Borealis on this trip.  The solar eclipse is definitely rarer as the Northern Lights occur very frequently.  But the solar eclipse was so defined and so short that it had to be experienced very deliberately - and the two and a half minutes made it seem like it was a rush to both watch it, the surrounding area, and get pictures, etc.
The Northern Lights are far more colorful and animated.  And with several days to observe them, there was lots of time to take pictures or just watch.  Yellowknife also offered so much other stuff that made the whole time spent so great.
I have a hard time saying one is better than the other.  I guess I'll just have to go with admitting that I'm probably very fortunate to have experienced both the Total Solar Eclipse and the Aurora Borealis within a few months of each other.

2017 Eclipse Day 4 - ECLIPSE DAY!!!!

I was able to sleep reasonably well which is surprising since I was so obsessed with the weather and the eclipse.  Awake at 3AM local time, I forced myself back to sleep before looking at the weather on my phone.  By 4AM, I couldn't stand it anymore and grabbed it.

The forecast for Alliance had improved slightly, but only slightly.  Looking at the model data on spotwx.com, I thought the forecasts were slightly pessimistic.  Still, I didn't want to risk it.
I got up and showered and obsessed a bit more about the weather on my computer instead of my phone - because that could make a difference.  I decided I should make the effort to go another hour to the west as the forecasts there looked much better and the current satellite data supported that.

I went back to my very first idea for a spot to look at the eclipse, but ultimately decided to go a bit farther to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.  Given that it didn't look like Alliance was overrun, I was hoping Agate wouldn't be too crowded.

But the drive to get there would either be really long and take me out of totality, or require a fairly significant gravel road.  Holding my breath, I asked SO to ask her sister if we could take my niece's car to view the eclipse.
My sister-in-law - being the generous soul that she is - said that wasn't a problem.  So we packed up the car and headed out along with a supply of cameras, eclipse glasses, food and drinks.

The drive there was not too bad, traffic was surprisingly light and most drivers were being well-behaved.  Most...
As we went along, I was surprised by two things - many of the impromptu campgrounds and parking areas were basically empty.  And many of the farm pull-outs had a car or three on them - some even had tents set up.  I felt a little bad for the businesses.  But it is hard to cash in on day trippers I guess.

We got to the gravel road which was also where I originally thought would be a good location to view the eclipse.  It was a large parking and staging area that looked like it is used by the local road crews.  A mini eclipse village had sprung up there with many cars, motorcycles and RV's.  People were milling around everywhere.
Given that this was how nuts it was there, I assumed Agate Fossil Beds would be even worse.  We decided to join the suburbs of the eclipse village.  We drove down the road to where there were very few people and parked behind a Prius.

I spent a few minutes getting my camera set up.  The wind had really picked up, so I weighted down my tripod with rocks in a bag.

It took a few minutes to get my camera set up.  As the sunlight changed, it was a bit of a challenge to keep it in focus and metered well.  Even with the tripod and rocks, the wind was also affecting some of the picture.

With well over an hour to kill before first contact, I wanted some pictures of the event.  I headed down to the eclipse village, but stopped to talk to many people who were also parked on the gravel road.  The woman in the Prius next to us was an older woman that decided that this was something she had to do.  Janice was very nice.  She dutifully brought her meat thermometer to record the temperature as the sun was eclipsed.
The vast majority of people were from Colorado - I wasn't sure that half of Colorado wasn't on that gravel road, but apparently Casper, with better weather forecast, had even more.

A few more people came down the road.  Some were probably headed to Agate Fossil Beds, other stopped there as well.

With a quiet spot with no lights of any kind, it was an absolutely ideal place to view the total eclipse.  We were within a few hundred yards of the centerline of totality.  Bright, clear skies were perfect.

We could see first contact somewhere around 10:25

I spent some time watching the partial eclipse and taking pictures through partiality.  We had lots of time for excitement to build watching the sun slip away.

As it got close to totality, the weather started to noticeably cool.  The wind died down a little bit.  It got dark, not like at night, but more like right before a thunderstorm.  Near the end of the partial phase, it was downright cold with the stiff Nebraska wind.

And just like that, totality hit.  It was amazing.  The sun slunk behind the moon and I took off my eclipse glasses.  I initially forgot to take the solar filter off of the camera, but as soon as I did I alternated between getting a few pictures and just experiencing the eclipse.

All too soon, it was over.  I know totality was over two minutes and thirty seconds, but it felt like it lasted a fraction of that.

Still in awe, we spent some time watching partiality again.  People began to filter down the gravel road almost immediately.  We weren't the last to leave, but most were gone by the time we packed up and left.  I guess we closed the bar for the first time in a long time.

Back on the road we drove back towards Alliance.  There were more cars on the road than usual, but it really wasn't that bad.  We stayed near the speed limit most of the way.  En route, we filled the car with fuel - it was the least we could do.  While eclipse-ageddon may have occurred elsewhere, we avoided it.

As we got to Alliance, traffic was backing up, but a quick jaunt down a side street and we were back at the house.
I spent some time going through the pictures.  I was glad I had some, wished I had more.  But more than anything, I was glad to have lived the total eclipse.

As it turned out, Alliance had fair weather, with some clouds but enough breaks to allow good viewing of the eclipse.  The staging areas in the city had people, but they were far from packed.  Still, part of the reason I wanted to see the eclipse in the west was for the big sky.  And I definitely had big sky for the eclipse in the wide open Nebraska Sand Hills.

Dinner was some of the biggest thickest rib eye steaks I've ever seen.  They were fantastic - followed by a Flurry from Dairy Queen.

The eclipse was awe inspiring and awesome.  What an amazing day!

2017 Eclipse Day 3

Norfolk, Nebraska to Alliance, Nebraska:  341.7 Miles

I decided overnight that I really didn't like the Norfolk hotel very much.  I'm not sure why - it wasn't the worst place I've ever stayed at (by far), so maybe it was a combination of the hotel and the overall situation.  Or something.  Besides, the waffle batter was almost too thick to use, but I guess I can't complain too much about gratis hotel waffles.

I usually pay too much attention to the weather.  On motorcycle and hunting adventures I obsess about the weather.  On this trip, my obsession with the weather has been turned up to 11 - possible even higher.
Weather was converging on Alliance having significant clouds, with much clearer conditions forecast as little as 80 miles to the west.  I've pretty much decided that trying to drive to Casper, Wyoming would be really dumb.  Four hundred miles on the bike in a day is pretty easy west of the Mississippi.  But if eclipse traffic is even close to as bad as predicted, it might be torture.  I don't think traffic before would be too bad.  I do expect that after totality ends, there would be a rising tide of people leaving.  Things to ponder and ponder some more on the road.

We headed out at first light again.  It was another gorgeous morning with cool temperatures and empty roads.  As I was leaving I noted that a headlight was out on the Gold Wing - being a chronic worrier, this gave me something to think about in addition to the weather.

We took the most direct route to Alliance, I didn't figure traffic would be too bad the day before the eclipse, but there can always be surprises.  Traffic was basically nonexistent for the entire ride.  What I did notice as I got near Alliance was the out of state plates.  Between what was seen on the road and in the city of Alliance, I think half of Colorado was in Western Nebraska.  I also saw more police on the roads in this area of the country than I have ever seen before.

I love the scenery in Western Nebraska.  The sand hills region must be driven to be experienced.

Skies were nearly cloudless for the entire day.  There was only one small batch of clouds an hour or so from Alliance.  At least 137 times through the day I asked, "Why can't it be like this tomorrow?"  I'd even take the small batch of thin clouds we did see.

In short order we made it to Alliance and to SO's sister's house.  We unpacked and talked for a little while, before my niece gave me a ride to Napa Auto Parts.  Two H7 bulbs were purchased and quickly installed.  The still-working bulb was nearly ready to pop before replacement.  One less thing to worry about.

SO and I took a walk around Alliance, scoping out areas to view the eclipse.  I was ruminating on whether it made sense to stay in Alliance and risk the clouds - expected to be near 50% at totality - or risk traffic and head west.  Even if Casper was not a realistic possibility, some place closer may be.  Still, I would not want to be stuck in traffic for hours on a blazing hot afternoon in full motorcycle gear.  And yet, I just rode 1200 miles, shouldn't I make the effort to go just a few hundred more?  How many other people will have that same idea?  How many more bodies and vehicles will day trip to totality.  Or leave areas that look cloudy for clearer areas nearby?  Hmmmmm.......

I found a few good potential locations.  If the forecast improves significantly, I found some spots that likely wouldn't have too many people.  If the clouds are worse than expected, I want the catharsis of the crowds.  Or will I got to Jay Em, Wyoming?????

SO's sister took us on a drive around Alliance.  I was expecting more mayhem, but it really wasn't that bad.  I didn't see evidence of a painful amount of people ... yet.
There was considerable traffic around Carhenge.  But even there, it was moving pretty well.

What was somewhere between funny and interesting was all the impromptu campgrounds being put up.  Some were nearly empty.  Others were full to capacity.  One way or another, this was going to be an event.  It already was.

Back at SO's sister's house, we had a great dinner of smoked ribs and chicken.  They do a mean smokin' in Alliance.  That alone might be worth the 1200 miles.
The day ended with a few rousing games of euchre before turning in for the night, still unsure what to do in the morning.

2017 Eclipse Day 1

I dropped off the dogs after work on Thursday and started to get ready to head out.  I was trying a new place to board them, and I know they'll be fine.  But I hate leaving them.  Thursday evening came with some torrential rain - I don't want to have to mow right away when I get home!

I hate being home without the dogs...

Home to Keokuk, Iowa:  414.8 Miles

I woke up and bumped around the house for a while; finishing getting ready for the trip, reading a magazine, doing other stuff that probably didn't need to be done.  I was not terribly excited for the adventure which is very unusual and not too pleasant.  I knew that whatever funk was going on would be gone soon after hitting the road.

We left right at first light, heading west on two-lane roads.  Temperatures were cool and humidity was high.  There was some light fog, but it was really nice being on the road first thing in the morning.

There was big construction on my usual route to I-74, so I took a slightly different way.  Thankfully, getting around Indianapolis was pretty easy this time.  Rush hour was nearly over by the time I got there.

Once through Indianapolis, I stayed on I-74 for a while.  I prefer two-lane roads, but I-74 had the usual low amount of other vehicles, so it was actually a nice drive.  The amount of wind turbines seen was staggering.  Somewhere, massive wind generation capacity must be being built up.

I also saw some of the automated traffic signs warned of the upcoming eclipse:  

Total Eclipse August 21  

Be Prepared for Heavy Traffic Through August 22

I'm not sure that the traffic mayhem will extend as far north as central Indiana, but who knows - this whole thing is a big unknown right now.

Even though the interstate was fine, I was glad to be off of the interstate, getting on US-136 for the bulk of the remainder of the day.

US-136 through Illinois isn't terribly interesting, but it is an easy drive and nearly devoid of traffic.  The only "excitement" was when three wind turbine blades turned onto US-136 in front of us.  We had to pull over while they made their way through the intersection.  No problem - it was a beautiful day with warming temperatures and humidity dropping through the morning.

We stopped for lunch at a Dixie Diner at a truck stop.  Nothing better than a greasy burger for lunch on the road...

We crossed the Illinois River at Havana.  I enjoyed the brief trip to Cuba.

After meandering out of Cuba and back into Illinois, we crossed the Mississippi River.  While approaching the river, I tried to remember how many times I've crossed it on two wheels, and I just can't remember anymore.  It is a lot though.

We stopped for a few minutes to watch the River laze by.  Even after all these crossings, I still enjoy it.

We had hotel reservations in Keokuk.  Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but again, with the eclipse, who knows.  This made for a shorter day of riding than I would have liked; there are pluses and minuses to making reservations ahead of time.  It was starting to sprinkle as we found the hotel with threats of heavy weather later in the day.  Regardless, it was time to stop.

Stopping early may not have been a bad idea as rain was billowing in from the west as evening progressed.  After resting for a bit and eating a great dinner at a nearby brew pub, the night was capped off with some ice cream.