Waylon Goes to the Eclipse

Kate, Waylon and I drove about 4 hours west to the vicinity of Hopkinsville, KY to observe the solar eclipse from within the 70-mile wide band of "totality". It was ultimately worthwhile, if only because it's likely the only one I'll ever see, although there is another relatively nearby in 2024.......more on that later.

We had a nice room, a suite, in motel parlance, although Kate had to get rough with the motel to get it: Some officious motel manager had decided that our suite was a gratuitous upgrade, and gratuitously removed it, turning it into a simple room. Since Kate had reserved it as a suite, she went to battle and ultimately got it sorted out. I expect that the reason the change was made was that we were staying "on points", as frequent customers, and if the motel could sell our room for money, they could have gotten some $500 for it on Sunday night. On Monday night (we stayed over until Tuesday to come home.) prices came back to their normal levels. It was clear to me that the local motels and restaurants would be happy to have an eclipse weekly if that could be arranged. Be that as it may, the thing was kind of fun, although in 2024, I'll question driving hours and hours for a 3-minute experience. With all of that said, here are the pictures, and no, I didn't take any of them.

At one point in the lengthy waiting for the eclipse to move along, several folks, me included, attempted to sit for a bit at a couple of tables set up in the McDonald's parking lot adjoining the motel's parking lot. I say attempted, because some person in the burger shop's food chain, no pun intended, decided that wasn't appropriate, so, she came out and insisted we not sit there, those tables were for customers. She didn't like it when I then assured her that we wouldn't be eating lunch at McDonald's that day. She'll like it less when she sees the review I plan to put on Trip Advisor. You'd think that for a once in hundred years or so event, one that lasted less than a couple of hours from start until finish, they could have been a bit less concerned about business. And I noticed, throughout the event, nobody set there....you couldn't see the sun very well from there. But I suppose somebody in the shop felt they were doing their job.

The eclipse was as advertised: It got dark and the evening insects began to sing. The sun's corona was very impressive. The totality thing lasted just under 3 minutes;  I'm glad we went to see it.

Now, here's the map of the eclipse forecast for 2024:

Maybe we'll catch that one. Maybe not. Here's a story told as true, elsewhere:

" People parked in my lot with chairs, umbrellas, etc. I went out and announced that the eclipse had been cancelled, six people started to pack up and leave. One old woman said "Well, shit! all the way from Cincinnati for nothing.""

Cheers
Eric