In 2017, I convinced my college friend L to go with me to see the total eclipse. We found a campsite in the path of totality down along the border between Nebraska and Iowa. It was cloudy, but we still experienced the darkness, complete calm (it had been a windy day), and utter silence when the moon covered the sun.
Even with that disappointment, I still loved the experience and made a goal to see another eclipse without clouds. Fast-forward a few years. Eclipse 2024. One again, Emily gets a crazy idea in her head and drags G along with it...
G was skeptical if the trip would be worth it... 9+ hours of driving one way for less than five minutes of an experience? But, I really wanted to do it so he went along with my scheming. (Isn't he a great husband?)
He couldn't take more than a day off work, so this past Sunday after church we took off for Springfield, Illinois, with the intention to stay there one night, drive about 2.5h further south Monday morning, see the eclipse, drive all the way home. First half of the plan went off without a hitch! The drive didn't even seem that long. We arrived around supper time and poked around the city a bit before ended up at our hotel.
The rest of the plan was to get up early Monday morning, visit Lincoln's home, and eventually work our way south after checking the radar to make sure we ended up somewhere sunny. G had called a few wineries in the path of totality to see if they would be open. "Yes, we are, and we have a table with your name on it!" one waitress told us. It was on a first-come-first-serve basis, but we figured there would be plenty of places to choose from if one winery was full when we got there.
At the hotel before checking in, we parked behind a car with MN plates. As I waited for G to take care of things, lo and behold, a couple I recognized from Mankato came out to the van in front of us. They are members at Good Shepherd in North Mankato and actually had their kids play basketball at Immanuel for a few years back in the day. Small world!
Monday morning we made it down to breakfast around 7am. Lots of people, all of them talking about going south to watch the eclipse. We got nervous about getting a spot, so we decided to forego Lincoln's home. It's a good thing we left when we did because traffic got heavy the further south we went. I'm not sure we would've made it to our destination in time if we hadn't left when we did!
We ended up at a peaceful little winery out in the country near Clarksdale, Illinois. Very idyllic and hardly a cloud in sight.
It took about 45min or so for the moon to work its way in front of the sun. I tried to take a picture of it with my phone with my eclipse glasses in front. It kind of worked. You can see a bite taken out of the sun in the picture below.
It slowly got darker and darker the more the moon covered the sun.
It even looked a bit like sunset.
G took the pictures below with his phone during totality. The moon was completely covering the sun! You can only see a little bit of that in the picture.
It got very cold. Before the eclipse, it had been 75 degrees and I was in short-sleeves, shorts, and flip-flops. During totality, I wrapped up in the car blanket. Like the other eclipse, the wind died down. The birds didn't quit chirping though.
The total eclipse/totality lasted 4min 9sec where we were. It was beautiful. And worth the drive. Even G agrees.
The next total eclipse is March 30th, 2033, in Alaska. The next one after that is in 2044 and will be visible in the Dakotas. Road trip anyone?
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