the Grabers: Going to a party!

Friday, September 1, 2017

Going to a party!

We knew that we wanted to get left by 3 AM in order to make it to the "party" in time! Al and I slept on the sofas downstairs so we wouldn't wake up the family when we left.

We both were not sleeping deeply and finally we got up and left the house by 2:30. Our coffee pot was already packed so we didn't have coffee to start with. Jill had said we could make it on their machine, but the smell of rich coffee would have woken them up for sure. We passed Starbucks but they would not be open for another 3 hours!

We settled for coffee at a gas station. It had just been brewed by a young girl who was picky about her coffee and really, it was quite good!

When we did pop in at a Starbucks for the real stuff, we heard others talking about going to the party too. "Which direction are you going?" people were asking eachother. It seemed like everyone was headed to see the eclipse someplace in the country! We stopped at a Rest Area for a bathroom break and everyone seemed to be headed toward The Spot to see it. At a gas station for another break, there was a long line waiting for the bathrooms and EVERYONE was headed to see it.

Unfortunately, many areas were covered in clouds and so it was a game trying to figure out where we would be able to see the eclipse! Al had made a yellow line on our map of where the area of totality would be. We needed to get to one of these spots that wouldn't be covered in clouds!

I would check the weather radar on my phone and we ruled out those towns that were said to be shrouded in rain clouds.

We kept heading west. We would leave clouds and be in sunshine, only to be wrapped in clouds again.

We passed Paris.

Not this one.

Paris, Missouri

Population approx. 1220

We were going to go south at Moberly, but due to an accident - we were told a gravel truck had spilled gravel all over the highway - the road was blocked by a fire truck. We kept going. My Google Maps showed traffic tie up further on so we turned onto a dirt road.

Ok. We were in the boonies. And the area was getting cloudier and cloudier. I just knew we wouldn't be able to see the eclipse. So sad. I about cried.

We called Jill because my phone weather map was not working. I think so many people were trying to get online, it must have been blocked. Jill tried to guide us to a place where there would be sunshine.

Al made the decision to go to New Franklin. Population 1,145. Just north of Booneville.

I lLoved that it wasn't overcrowded! I do not like crowds.

Go figure, having lived in Tokyo. I dealt with these conditions as a kid.

I was happy to be in the inaka - the country - the boonies!

See those clouds? We still weren't sure we would be able to catch the eclipse, but just as we set down our lawn chairs on main street, the clouds seemed to part.

We put on our special eclipse glasses and watched in amazement at the moon shadowing the sun.

There was a guy there who had a special filter for his camera and he let us look through it at the photos he was taking.

It got pretty dark! The street lamps came on.

And during the period of totality, we took off our glasses.

And put them back on as the moon swept pass the sun

Everyone (maybe there were a dozen of us) clapped for God's magnificent display!

Then we packed up our chairs and headed south toward Booneville, named after a relative of Daniel Boone

We hit traffic! The party was over and people were headed home.

As we crawled onto I-70, we decided we were not in the mood to crawl 100 miles all the way to Kansas City!

We pulled off at the nearest exit, 4 miles down the road. Overlooking I-70.

A few other cars exited also, but we were by ourselves for the most part on the county roads.

Give me a good country road anyday! My daddy loved to go on off roads too.

You get to see things you normally don't see. And I KNOW we were on roads we probably will never go on again. Especially those farm roads north of New Franklin. But what an adventure!