Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Path of Totality

I had good intentions (don't I always?) of finishing up my second post about the trails at Von Holten Ranch over the weekend to run yesterday. Obviously that didn't happen, haha. Hopefully later this week! My weekend was a bit off kilter because DH had to put in unexpectedly long hours at work because our local sheriff's department let an inmate escape -- super fun. But I digress. At any rate, my day yesterday was spent in a much more fun manner -- watching the solar eclipse!
Literally all of my shitty cell phone photos turned out like this, so I promise this it the only one I'll torture you with. If you live in a cave and were unaware of the eclipse, go find a much better professional photo.... haha.
My little corner of the boondocks just so happened to be in the path of totality. Because Missouri was expecting more than a million out of town visitors, both DH and I ended up with the day off (well, Mondays is normally his day off, but recently he's been working them, so it was nice for him to get time off). My mom is also off on Mondays, so we decided to watch the eclipse from the sandbar. My mom's friend drove out from St. Louis with a jet ski (our boat isn't really designed for more than 3 people), we loaded up multiple coolers, and took off!
More coolers than people in the boat? Check.
I was a little worried about traffic (because that's all the news had been talking about for DAYS), but luckily where we were heading was out of the way. The boat ramp parking lot was full of eclipse watchers, which was actually a bit annoying, because it was kind of complicated to put the boat in the water with that many people milling around with their cars parked in the way, but we managed, and then we set off! DH was also worried that the sandbar might be crowded, but thankfully, it wasn't too bad. We set up a canopy and a grill, and just vegged out in the sun.
Everyone else had the same idea (although no one else had a canopy, haha), and so we hung out and chatted with people and petted lots of super cute dogs. One of these days we'll manage to bring a teeny dog to the river -- gotta test out that cute lil' life jacket I got! The eclipse started around 11:40 or so and and the totality was at like 1:20 (and then obviously it kept going until like close to 3 but nobody cared about that portion, haha). We all had eclipse glasses, and it was super cool to check the progress every 10 minutes or so. We all tried with varying degrees of success to get photos, but obviously as seen above, mine sucked.
I did finally figure out how to take panoramas on my phone #fiveyearslate
These were taken about 10 minutes apart
The actual moment of totality was so insane -- it got dark enough to see stars, the temperature dropped, and it was eerily quiet. I really am disappointed none of my pics turned out, because it was such an experience to see the sun blotted out by the moon, with just edges of light trying to peek around. But alas, it was over too soon, and the world came back to life.
We tossed our food on the BBQ, and finished up a relaxing afternoon. DH and I got to take some turns on the jet ski (which of course led to him frantically shopping on Craiglist last night, so we'll see how that goes). Despite regular application of sunscreen we all got a little bit of color. Finally it was time to pack it up and head in for the evening.
DH made this grill out of parts he had at the house, after deciding $25 was too much to pay for one at Walmart... haha. But bonus, now we have a "sandbar grill" for future outings!
When we got home, all the animals seemed fine -- no one went blind from staring at the eclipse ;) hahaha. So enjoy this recounting of my non-horsey day on my horsey blog. Sorry not sorry!

32 comments:

  1. The bf had some clients that were trying to fly out to Missouri for the eclipse but ended up going to Tennessee instead - I heard it was a madhouse! The way you guys planned for it sounds much cooler (and fun)

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    1. Thankfully we mostly avoided the madness -- but it was definitely a really cool way to enjoy this experience!

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  2. Very cool! My eclipse experience was very lackluster. I'll have to plan better for 2024.

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    1. I need to check the maps for 2024 and see where we fall! I'd love to do something similar again!

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  3. We only had 75% here. I'm determined to go north for the 2024 one. Everyone's posts about totality make me want to see it for myself!

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    1. It was incredible. Initially I thought the people driving hundreds of miles to see it were insane, but now I think I get it. I don't know that *I* would drive hundreds of miles, but I'm glad it happened in my area this year!

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  4. That sounds like a perfect way to spend the day!

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    1. It was pretty amazing, even if there were no horses involved! Haha

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    1. It was definitely awesome, I'm so glad the weather cooperated!

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  6. Your outing sounds like the most fun of all I've heard.

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    1. I had some friends who went trail riding, but I couldn't get everybody on board for that haha. But it was still a fabulous day. 10/10 would do again.

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  7. Sounds like a good day. We were only in the partial eclipse zone and it was at 10:15 in the morning so there was no real fun to be had.

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  8. um can i come hang out with you guys next totality? talk about doin it up in style!

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    1. It doesn't even have to be for the totality, I would bust out this set up for any blogger visiting when the weather is warm! Come on by! 😉

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  9. That's so awesome. You definitely picked the perfect way to enjoy the eclipse! We only had about 68% here, but it was still really cool to see. There's one in 7 years and my brother's place will be in the path of totality so I'm gonna have to invite myself up there!

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    1. Yeah I would definitely recommend hitting up the path of totality if it's anywhere near you! We talked to people from all over the country and while I applaud their initiative, I am not that driven, haha. So I'm glad I had one in my backyard!

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  10. We also were in the path and it was awesome!

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    1. So fantastic! I looked up the path for the 2024 one and I could probably see it with a little effort, it'll cross a few hours south of me. We should do an epic blogger eclipse meet up hahaha

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  11. WOAH WHY did I not just book a ticket to come visit you for totality?!?! Sounds like your party was awesome.

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    1. Bloggers welcome any time!! 😋😎 It was a pretty fab time. And our motto is always the more the merrier!

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  12. That's so cool. We weren't anywhere near totality for this eclipse and it kind of just happened without notice. You took some beautiful pictures even if the darker stuff didn't turn out!

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    1. I kind of wish I'd been more on the ball and had the necessary filter to use my "big camera". But even without, it was a super cool experience!

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