Blog du Wren

A Whirlwind Eclipse Adventure

I can now say I've seen a total eclipse and it was pretty freaking neat. In fact, it was more than pretty neat; the experience of seeing day turn to night all of the sudden was far more powerful than I expected. The 360° sunset, the drop in temperature, the surreal image of the corona peeking out behind the dark moon—these are the things that people talk about and for good reason. And while the experience was powerful for so many of those reason, I imagine the reason I broke out into tears was more because I was thinking back to the I watched an eclipse and lamented having to do this little adventure by myself.

But you've probably heard a report of this cosmic ballet a bunch already, and I surely don't have any decent pictures to do it justice nor the poetry skills to share it in any meaningful way. I can, however, share something that perhaps I am more well-suited for which is to recount the crazy adventure that led me to that Hardee's parking lot in Leadington, MO to have the experience at all.

I was out in New York for my annual pilgrimage to the Crossword Puzzle Tournament (which I didn't end up getting a ticket for, but that's a whole other story), so I figured I'd hit up the eclipse on my way home. And since I have the flexibility with my stand-by flights to make a game time decision, I waited to get reliable weather reports before deciding on my plan. The catch, however, is that that left me behind the curve of planning things like rental cars, beating traffic, etc. What ensued was perhaps one of my craziest days of travel, spanning a multitude of transit modes and more travel hours than probably should be attempted in one day. Here's the run down:

3:22am EDT:	Subway->subway->bus to airport (on literally zero sleep, as I wasn't able to fall asleep knowing my alarm would go off in 2.5 hours.)
6:30am EDT:	Standby flight to STL (plenty of seats, so I got a window!)
8:30am CDT:	Light rail->bus to car rental place. Given an electric car with 160 miles of charge for me to do my 120 mile trip. Nail biter! (Bonus that I don't have to refill the tank upon return, so free gas!!)
9:30am CDT:	Head out to totality, a supposed 1 hour drive that takes a nail-biting 4.5. Occasional reroutes to try and duck traffic with Saxtor's remote help.
1:54pm CDT:	Arrive random Hardee's parking lot inside totality zone with 4 minutes to spare. Bask in eclipse (and get some Hardee's for lunch.)
2:10pm CDT:	Head back to car rental place, hoping the charge holds out and that I make it before closing time.
4:05pm CDT:	Arrive car rental place, 5 minutes after they close. I leave the keys with the service department.
4:15pm CDT:	City bus blows by me at the stop, so I'm forced to Lyft->light rail to the airport
5:20pm CDT:	Arrive airport for my 6:15 flight, closer than I like to cut it. But it's full, so I catch a 7:35 to Phoenix.
*9:00pm MST:**	Haul ass through Phoenix Sky Harbor because a delayed flight makes the connection tight. But I make the 9:30 flight to Seattle.
12:45am PDT:	Arrive SEA. Lyft to my car and drive to Anacortes.
3:00am PDT:	Arrive Anacortes and fall into bed exhausted but please with the epic adventure of the day.

Not my photo, but exactly what I saw and _tried_ to take a picture of

Totals
Flying	9 hours spanning 3 flight legs
Public transit	3 hours spanning 2 subways, 2 light rails, 2 buses
Driving	8.5 hours more than half of it at < 20mph due to a traffic jam equal to the epicness of the event
Lyft	2 rides totaling $23 (I had some half-price coupons :-D)
Airport waiting	3 hours

When viewed by the numbers, it seems crazy even to me this little adventure—a lot of work for what amounts to a brief 4 minute payoff. But there's adventure in the journey, for sure—driving through the back rounds of rural Missouri, hearing the other Hardee's parking lotters ooh and ahh over the spectacular, driving an electric car in earnest for the first time, the satisfaction of successfully riding a new public transit system for the first time. Yes, I'm glad I did this. But now I think I'll take a nap.

Tuesday April 9 2024

File under: travel

Toggle Comments (3)

comment?

on Tue 09th Apr, 2024 11:42 pm CDT Mom said:
I'm out of breath just reading this adventure!
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on Fri 12th Apr, 2024 02:44 pm CDT Andrew said:
No boats?
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on Sun 14th Apr, 2024 02:33 pm CDT Horge said:
Pretty cool! My fam had the luxury of being able to see it from home, or in my sister´s case at her in-laws. Too bad for my brother, out in Utah for a long term gig so missed the eclipse in Big D :-(

On the other hand, definitely keep your planning open: I see northern Spain gets one in Aug 2021 - ¿Camino del Santiago 2.0? - and Aug 2027 ¡¡here in southern Spain!! Plus an annular eclipse for us ¡here in southern Spain months later in Jan 2028!
I've already added all 3 to my GoogleCalendar so I don't forget!
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