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Journal : Eclipse
Aug. 24th, 2017 02:24 amOn monday, well late sunday night, we packed up the car and drove out to Nebraska to see the Eclipse. It was half planned, half seat-of-the-pants adventure. We took four of the five dogs - Tobi got to stay with Grandma, because he gets carsick. It was a crowded car, but all the dogs seemed to do alright. We napped at rest stops, got coffee at mcd's. Saw a lot of corn, and a lot of cows - the truly American experience. Though I tell you you can feel the difference between the areas were cows are the point and the corn is to support them, and the areas were the corn is the point and the cows are secondary. It's something is the logic of the roads and the railways.
Where flat-farm-Minnesota does nothing for me, I can see the appeal of the austere beauty of South Dakota. I can't quite put mt finger on what flat-farm-Minnesota lacks, though the wild turbines do a lot to improve it. lakes-and-woods-Minnesota is better, but still plagued by flatness. open skies leave me hollow. Crossing into Nebraska was... shocking. I was no prepared for beautiful rolling hills, a deep valleys and winding rivers. A landscape of surprises and desperate joy. I miss mountains as I'd miss a limb.
We ended up on the outskirts of Grand Island for the eclipse itself, pulling into a semitruck gas station and joining a line up of vehicles from all over. The semitrucks driving past honked cheerfully at the crowd. We had a perfect clear view for the totality. It's hard to describe how the light... dimmed, in the hours leading up to it. Like the different between a regular sky and one layered with a wildfire film, but without the red shifting. When it happened it was sunset without darkness, without the pink and orange. The streetlights came on, and while we were focused on the sky the pumps had filled up with trucks and all their automatic lights came on. There was something magic, otherworldly, about that fragile twilight.
the eclipse itself was... was... shattering. humbling, existential. The world drops away, the celestials dance, and the scope of the universe unfolds. For 2 minutes and change, all is finite and eternal. The sky indigo darkness, lit by silver-crowned new moon. There's no traffic, as the near-world has come to breath-held stillness. My pictures of it are not nearly as interesting as others I've seen.
Then it was over. The trucks roared to life and pulled away, our visit to fey lands over and it was time to find a McD's for some nuggets. We got back on the road right away, though we went straight north instead of backtracking northeast - to see more of the country, adding a couple hours and a few hundred miles onto our trip due to a sort of 'why not' impulse to go see Dignity. We made it to the Chamberlain rest stop right at sunset, which gave us the opportunity to see in in that shadowy eclipse-light, last rays warming the steel-silver, all lit up front and back. It was breath taking, made colossal by the steep river valley behind it. Art feeds the soul.
We slept there that night. Mostly slept - Chai had an upset tummy all night, and none of us could lay our seats all the way back. But we got rested enough to head out mid morning the next day. Back across South Dakota, through Sioux Falls, and up through the twisting back roads of Minnesota to home. I would like to go back to South Dakota someday, to see more of the black hills, and back to Nebraska too. I would also like to explore Granite Falls some time. Other things we saw - the corn palace in Mitchell(...Seanan is right...), and a park dedicated to the designer of the Higgins boats in Columbus. We got home roughly the time we left, late at night. Who knows if we could have really afforded that trip, but it was worth it.
Where flat-farm-Minnesota does nothing for me, I can see the appeal of the austere beauty of South Dakota. I can't quite put mt finger on what flat-farm-Minnesota lacks, though the wild turbines do a lot to improve it. lakes-and-woods-Minnesota is better, but still plagued by flatness. open skies leave me hollow. Crossing into Nebraska was... shocking. I was no prepared for beautiful rolling hills, a deep valleys and winding rivers. A landscape of surprises and desperate joy. I miss mountains as I'd miss a limb.
We ended up on the outskirts of Grand Island for the eclipse itself, pulling into a semitruck gas station and joining a line up of vehicles from all over. The semitrucks driving past honked cheerfully at the crowd. We had a perfect clear view for the totality. It's hard to describe how the light... dimmed, in the hours leading up to it. Like the different between a regular sky and one layered with a wildfire film, but without the red shifting. When it happened it was sunset without darkness, without the pink and orange. The streetlights came on, and while we were focused on the sky the pumps had filled up with trucks and all their automatic lights came on. There was something magic, otherworldly, about that fragile twilight.
the eclipse itself was... was... shattering. humbling, existential. The world drops away, the celestials dance, and the scope of the universe unfolds. For 2 minutes and change, all is finite and eternal. The sky indigo darkness, lit by silver-crowned new moon. There's no traffic, as the near-world has come to breath-held stillness. My pictures of it are not nearly as interesting as others I've seen.
Then it was over. The trucks roared to life and pulled away, our visit to fey lands over and it was time to find a McD's for some nuggets. We got back on the road right away, though we went straight north instead of backtracking northeast - to see more of the country, adding a couple hours and a few hundred miles onto our trip due to a sort of 'why not' impulse to go see Dignity. We made it to the Chamberlain rest stop right at sunset, which gave us the opportunity to see in in that shadowy eclipse-light, last rays warming the steel-silver, all lit up front and back. It was breath taking, made colossal by the steep river valley behind it. Art feeds the soul.
We slept there that night. Mostly slept - Chai had an upset tummy all night, and none of us could lay our seats all the way back. But we got rested enough to head out mid morning the next day. Back across South Dakota, through Sioux Falls, and up through the twisting back roads of Minnesota to home. I would like to go back to South Dakota someday, to see more of the black hills, and back to Nebraska too. I would also like to explore Granite Falls some time. Other things we saw - the corn palace in Mitchell(...Seanan is right...), and a park dedicated to the designer of the Higgins boats in Columbus. We got home roughly the time we left, late at night. Who knows if we could have really afforded that trip, but it was worth it.
