"A Steemit Post is a lot like a fine wine." -The Author
"Thanks-be it's not a fine Scotch Whisky from the cask, we'd STILL be waiting for the story." -Everyone Else
Who IS That Handsome Sphere In The Foldachair-Waiting For The Sun To Go Dim?
One Year Anniversary Of The Solar Eclipse
Author's Note:
This article was first published last year, after having a bit of an adventure chasing the eclipse around the countryside. The story was started, then theoretically "continued", though I never actually said how LONG it would take ( :
(I left town on a 2 week trip after installment number one, and by the time I returned, all the excitement had died down, and it just felt like it was a bit too late to continue writing about it).
And now? I thought I would finally FINISH the story, on the anniversary (more or less), of this momentous event. So...WITH further ado, here is the first post about the adventure, and the continuation of: The Eclipse Chronicles-August 21, 2017
A Grand Event, But Too Much Bother?
The solar eclipse in August of 2017 was touted by many as the event of the century, and ended up being quite the hoo-haa in the news and other areas of discussion that summer. At least where I live. But for some reason, I was not that swept up in all the ballyhoo going on all around me. I think the impending doom and gloom predicted by most of the internet/news outlets finished off any of the personal interest I may have had for the event.
"Hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS " of people - flooding to the state from outside the coveted 'line of totality', to have a closer look at this rare event. Driving all over lawns, gardens, and much worse, in rented cars, if a rental vehicle of any sort was to even be had at the eclipse-mad, bulging-with-nutso-traveler, airports. The expected mayhem went on and on and on in the news, In dire detail.
Hotels overbooked and price-gouging for $1400/night. Cell phone coverage dead because everyone will be jamming the towers, calling home to report what they see. Long lines and gas shortages at the pumps for rental and personal vehicles. Shelf-emptying runs on the grocery stores. Forest fires, smoke, vehicle accidents, fisticuffs, bad disasters, more mayhem, with some discomfort thrown in at the last moment. Way too much for me to deal with, that's for sure.
The plan from within my head was to do nothing for this once-in-a-lifetime event...except go out in the back yard at about 10 o'clock in the morning, look up, enjoy it, then go back into the house and get back on Steemit. I didn't even buy any of those coveted, cheapo cardboard glasses, to allow me to look up safely. (Not sure WHAT my plan was for that part. I DO have #12 welding glass, but evidently needed a #14 for full-on safety. ) I guess I just figured I'd buy the glasses at the last minute, like everything else I do in life. As it ends up, there are MANY, MANY people in my town that 'plan ahead', just like me. More on that later.
I suppose one could call me a major bah-humbug'er, bordering on a big-time pooh-poohist regarding these huge events. But in self defense, I just don't like dealing with all the nutty people in these larger-than-life situations. It erases a whole lot of the 'fun factor'.
- § -
An Idea Pokes It's Small-Plan Head Out Of The Sand
Like all planning phases of life, things can change very rapidly. A friend called about a week before the event, and a new, 'great idea', was laid ...and then sat upon to see if anything might hatch forth. It WAS simple, in a complex, simple-plan sort of way. She sounded very excited on the phone..."We'll go to Eastern Oregon. Go early, and camp out on public lands. Get ahead of the crowd, hide out in some corner of nowhere, and watch it from there." Seemed like a good idea, as most last minute ideas spelled out on paper go.
We just had to leave early enough, get ahead of the throng of crazy eclipse watchers, view the eclipse, then hunker down in the 'wilderness' until they all drove their rent-a-cars home the next day. Bring enough warm clothes, food, water, shelter, food, beer, snacks, and whatever else we might need to survive in the desert, and wait it out. The kickstand of mental planning was in the 'up' position, and we were moving forward with gusto. Yes, a phenomenal plan indeed.
Smokey The Bear Had A Different Idea
One of the major joys of the summer in the western US, is massive forest and grass fires. In just about every corner of our world. And BESIDES the bad idea of getting burned up in one of these fires, there is the whole smoke thing. A LOT of smoke. Smoke so thick, you can't see the skyline, let alone the actual ball of the sun. And last summer was no different. About a week and a half before Eclipse Day, things were getting nasty. The smoke was incredibly dense, and seemingly EVERYWHERE. With a new fire popping up almost daily. The combination of major human wackiness and not being able to actually see anything ABOVE the wacky, was just too much.
The eastern Oregon plan was scrubbed, and the whole idea tossed out with the bathwater. The western part of the state was then promised by those 'in-the-know' as THE place to be for viewing, and also predicted to degrade even MORE into a human zoo. All those MILLIONS of people originally heading to both the east and west, now ALL converging on the west.
The predictions went from dire to worse. Every narrow, two lane road jammed tight with cars and people. All that craziness discussed previously, was still going to be the same, only magnified, and shifted in this new direction. "Don't Even Go There!!", was the general gist of the news. And this didn't even account for possible weather changes. Eclipse events like the one I read about on-line a week or two earlier. Some poor guy has made 14 attempts to view the eclipse, worldwide. He's only seen ONE eclipse. Total. Not the kind of odds I'd like to bet on.
Summer Smoke-The Stuff Finally Got Ridiculous
September 5, 2017 @ 7:41AM
One If By Land, Three If By...River?
There is a saying from somewhere or another, that I've pretty much patterned my life after, that has served me to some degree of success over the years. It states: "If you don't plan ahead, doing something at the last second means you don't really need to HAVE a plan." This whole eclipse thing was soon to take a turn in this direction.
The solar eclipse was predicted for the 21st of August. On a Monday. This was Friday, the 18th. And at 9:00 in the morning, our eclipse plans were completely canceled. Too crazy out there. Back to square one. Step out the back door on Monday in joyous solitude, look up, enjoy the event, wait ten minutes, then go back in. No, it wouldn't be along the Line of Totality, but just fine with me. Simple is as simple does.
But then some more information surfaced on various friendly telephone calls from my compatriot to the south. Later in the day on Friday, three days ahead, it all started: "Hey, a new idea. Canoeing! The Path of the eclipse goes RIGHT ACROSS THE WILLAMETTE RIVER! Why not get in the canoe, paddle down the river, and camp out. RIGHT ON THE LINE OF TOTALITY!!" ALL I could say was "YESSSS !" and "BRILLIANT INDEED !!!!"
Scurry Scurry, Toil and Worry...Dig All The Stuff Out, In A Big Old Hurry
This WAS a grand plan, on paper. But it had a few potential kinks, in that dumb-stupid reality realm of...well...reality. What if the other 70,000 boaters of the area came up with the same idea?
There are only so many places below high-waterline on the river one can camp. Both physically and legally. It's just how rivers are put together. What if ALL these folks show up in their boats, in the same place, at the same time? That coveted ground zero, where the river crosses the sun's path. Talk about watercraft wackiness.
Plus, this is a river. They tend to flow in one direction. Downriver. You can float DOWN all you want. But you need somewhere to park your car where you 'put in'. And somewhere to get OUT when done boating. And THEN have a way to get BACK to your car, that is now miles upriver, so you can take your boat home. Those pesky, minor details...they always get in the way.
This sort of thing is a logistic conundrum on a good summer's day. A day without thousands, if not MILLIONS of people added to the mix on the narrow, two-lane country roads, camping grounds, put-in's and everywhere else in-between. All monkeying up the works for those of us with the most perfect plan. Something HAD to be done.
- § -
Getting Up Before The Sun Usually Solves The Problem
After about a gazillion phone calls to officials running the public land areas around the river, the whole thing was finalized. Google Map was consulted and xeroxed, and all was complete. We would get up before the crack of dawn on Sunday, the 20th. Park the car at the County Park put-in, paddle down the river, set up camp, watch the event, then some poor sucker would have to walk back on the country roads to get the car, parked somewhere 5 to 10 miles up-river at the park. Seemed highly do-able. As long as I wasn't the one 'volunteered' to walk back to the car on the shade-less, sole-melting black asphalt of August.
Things were set in motion. The eclipse adventure was on. Not without trepidation...regarding the MILLIONS of people that might be in the way, but the plan was up-shifted from 'N ' to 'D ', full, canoe-steam ahead. There would be three of us on the trip, and life was finally looking good, from this angle of view.
Even Though Also Bleary-Eyed, The Moon Still Promised To Get In The Way On Monday
Blood-Red Moon Taken Through Smoke
Please Spare Us The Details, Sir
I could go on into lengthy discussion about what it took to get all this completed, in one day. But we need to get to the pork and potatoes of this whole adventure. Suffice it to say, it was a LOT of running about town on Saturday, to make all of this happen in that one day.
Starting off with getting river maps at the Whitewater Outfitting Store. (Including a large, UH OH! moment, when the woman behind the counter piped up: "I think a bunch of boaters from the area already have the same plan as you. We've seen a LOT of them in here this week. Buying maps, gear, and getting more info for the trip!!") Hmmm...
Undeterred, I then moved on across town to the next steps. Gathering and buying and digging out the foodstuffs, camping gear, water container, fishing gear, more foods, liquid imbibe-ance-es, canoe permit, camping info, Google Map map for someone's walk back to the car, eclipse viewing info, paddles, life jackets, throw bag, cooler, blah, blah, blah, on and on, blah blah blah. A full days worth of work. And on into the night. And the wee hours of the next day. I didn't get a WINK of sleep from Friday night until departure time, way, way too-early Sunday Morning. Too much important stuff to do.
The Subaru-Patiently Waiting To 'Launch' Down The Driveway
"Can you tie it a bit better?"
"Not at 2:58 A.M., I can't!!"
Onward, Outward, and Awayward--And Down To The River
The big plan was to drive off the driveway at 3:00 AM, and we finally left at about 4:30. Not a bad start, as my trips usually go. It was a fun drive up to the put-in for me. I slept most of the way. (No, not driving). But once we got about 5 miles from the park, and the rays of the sun started peeking out from below the horizon, I awoke, and pondered our next, highly iffy part of the plan.
The nice woman on the County Park's telephone on Friday had told me that there were 7 official parking spaces at the park put-in, and there was "some overflow parking, down by the river, but NOT much. "
I'm usually not a Negative Ned about these things, but I figured there had to be at LEAST 7 other boaters in this part of the state with such a phenomenally wonderful plan as ours for eclipse viewing. And if the lot was full...we would have to drastically change this plan. No matter how hard you try, a Subaru will NOT fit in a canoe. We would have to find another place to park and launch our boat. Not an easy task, with all the other MILLIONS of people crowding the only other 2 or 3 'put-in's for miles and miles around.
"There Ya Go, With Them Negative Waves"
Plan B looked much worse, even when viewed in GOOD daylight. The less-than-desirable possibility that we wouldn't even make it onto the river at all, and end up stuck by the side of the road with a canoe and all the water-accessories that go along with it. Then spend the rest of the day and evening trying to find a patch of ground to park on, followed by spending Sunday night sleeping under the upside-down canoe.
Such a fun thought...awaken Monday morning all super-refreshed and ready to go for the eclipse viewing, eating breakfast while sitting in the canoe in some farmer's field, or in a dry, roadside ditch. We were hoping against hope this joyous scenario would not unfold before us.
We drove on into the waning dark, undaunted and unable to do a thing about any of this, and finally arrived at the put-in parking lot as the pale, yellow-orange light of day crested the trees beyond the river. "Holy Mackerel, will you look at that!", was the uttered reply, from the three very bleary-eyed canoeist's, crammed all around and between the gear in the Subaru. The shock when we drove into the parking lot was downright palpable...
~ NOT Finto ~
~ To Be Continued ~
Thanks for stopping in and viewing the Re-Hashing of the start of the Eclipse Chronicles. If you have any thoughts about the sun and its interaction with the moon, canoeing, driving to a spot through massive traffic for an adventure, finding an absolutely classic new friend-Wilson² in the Wilderness, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.
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-- There's a whole lot more...
Posted: 08/24/2018 @ 12:24
Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat
Fact Number 90