Nothing like a camping adventure to make a Solar Eclipse Totality even more epic.
Since this past January, I'd been planning to travel to the path of totality for the Aug. 21 eclipse. My love had been planning to join me ever since then, too -- since before we were engaged, let alone married.
But being married made it a lot simpler, in a sense: Only one tent meant just enough room in the Miata to go camping in it. Again!
You might recall a previous camping trip where I experimented with packing everything I'd need into the tiny Miata trunk. That experiment proved successful, but I wasn't entirely sure if it'd work for two people. More things and a little less space to pack in, right? Can't stick the picnic basket on the passenger seat this time!
And then it got even more complicated -- I'd start the journey without him, picking him and his gear up on the way. He was bringing the tent and an additional sleeping bag, not to mention his backpack of clothes.
WOULD IT FIT??? Or would we end up with something essential on the passenger's lap -- or worse, LEFT BEHIND?
Pshaw, I said. I didn't work three summers in a school supply shipping warehouse for nothing. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's packing more into small spaces than you'd think possible.
So we figured on splitting the long drive to Totality over a couple of days and parking the car in a campground along the way.
Short story short, all I had to do was guesstimate how much room I'd need and leave that space empty. Easy to do since I knew the backpack he was bringing. It fit, no sweat, and we were on our merry way.
 |
| The best campgrounds are attached to epic hiking trails. |
 |
| And have a lot of spiderwebs along the trails. |
We'd figured that after a day of lying back watching the eclipse, we'd be rested enough to drive most of the way back in one fell swoop - at least enough to get to my relative's house near the airport, where I'd ship my love off again the next morning. Theoretically, it would have worked extremely well that way.
And then there was .... traffic.
My love at the wheel and I armed with my trusty smartphone and Google Maps, we navigated our way on normally lonely state highways and byways to avoid the redlined interstates. I think we avoided the worst of it, but we did get stuck in line at a Subway for supper. I'd never seen so many people lined up to get sub sandwiches.
Let me tell you, though, southern Illinois is a very, very... very... boring drive. My love kept a running commentary on the passing vehicles for about 2 hours because that was literally the most interesting thing happening out the windows.
Comments