Total Eclipse of the Sun
My best friend, Julie, is amazing. She’s a widow like me, and we’ve shared a house for almost ten years. We always have fun; the house is filled with laughter and joking.
Julie is a retired firefighter for the Austin Fire Department. She spent 24 years rescuing people from danger. I’ll be writing more about her in a separate post.
When Julie retired, she decided to become a photographer. She does landscape and wildlife photography as well as shooting photos of the Milky Way. So in 2017, when we heard there would be a total solar eclipse, we looked at each other and said, at the same time, “Let’s go!”
The eclipse would be seen from Seattle to Tennessee. We decided to go into Nebraska and get great photos. We rented a Lincoln — comfort on a road trip is essential. We ensured we had the all-important road food and were off.
We stopped for a night at the home of a friend in Kansas, then we headed for Kansas City; we were going to stage in KC and then go to Beatrice, Nebraska, for the eclipse.
When we got to Kansas City, we were staying with another friend of a friend; we’d never met before. It was awkward, to say the least. The friend first said, “I hate British television.” That was a non-starter because both Julie and I love British television. It went downhill from there.
The next day, we went into Beatrice to find a good spot for shooting the eclipse. It’s a pretty town, quaint in a Midwest way. We found a good place just outside town on a road where there wasn’t a lot of traffic (Beatrice didn’t have a lot of traffic anyway). We even went to a construction project my husband and I worked on years before.
Then came the news that it would be raining in Kansas City and into Eastern Nebraska on the day of the eclipse. Oops. Julie and I looked at each other, and the decision was made — to Wyoming, we go. No chance of rain, and we’d see more of the eclipse for longer.
Nebraska is just miles and miles of miles and miles. The main feature of the drive is corn fields. So we turned on the satellite radio and cruised across the state to Torrington, Wyoming.
I’d often been to Torrington when we lived in Deadwood, South Dakota. It’s another quaint Midwestern town on the edge of the Black Hills. You must drive through it to get from Denver to Deadwood, a familiar route.
We tried to find a hotel room in Torrington, but there were none available. What to do? We had brought a foam mattress, so we went to our meeting hall in town and slept in the parking lot in the back. Julie slept outside on the mattress, and I slept in the car. It was crazy, but we slept well, knowing we were safe.
The next morning, we made our way to McDonald’s to get breakfast, but it was packed. As we were leaving to find a convenience store, we met a gentleman who told us to come with him; he was a local and knew the best places. On the way to the store, we talked about having your small town invaded by thousands of people, which happened in Deadwood during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
He invited us to his house to join him and his family to watch the eclipse on a 2000-acre ranch. Sure! So we followed him to his home, where we met his family and a guy he had met on Facebook who lived in his truck.
We left the house and ended up driving the Lincoln on graded roads and up through fields, 4-wheeling it in a non-4-wheel drive car. It was madness. The view was amazing when we got to the plateau on the ranch. Where we were was flat, but you could see a herd of cattle off to the right. We set up a tent, put out the chairs, and Julie set up her cameras.
Viewing an eclipse is a truly special experience you’ll never forget. The sky turns lavender — not a sunset-type sky, but a soft lavender with pink edges at the top. The cattle we saw started moving toward the fence when they saw another car pull up and park; it freaked out the people in the car. The cattle figured it was time to eat since the sun was down.
The eclipse lasted only about 2 minutes, but I’ll remember it always. Watching it with strangers who had become friends that morning added to the experience. They were so kind and just really nice people.
Afterward, we headed back to Texas but changed our route to go through Eastern Colorado. If you’ve never been to Texas, it’s impossible to relate to how big the state is. We spent the majority of our 18-hour trip home in Texas, driving through Lubbock on the way to Austin.
Julie and I always travel well together, having also been to Portugal, Spain, Yosemite, and the Texas coast, to name a few. Fun is always on the menu.
The next total solar eclipse will be in 2024. Central Texas and the Hill Country will be in the bullseye of the eclipse, with it lasting an estimated 4 minutes. I’m not sure if we’ll head to Fredricksburg to watch it, but I know we’ll be able to see that lavender sky from our house in Austin. Can’t wait!
