| 3 |
|
WEEK 34 2017
Last Week- Sun- Mon- Tue- Wed- Thur- Fri- Sat- Next Week
| Oxnard
Weather
Underground |
Lancaster
Weather
Underground |
Martinez
WeatherUnderground |
My friend got up a bit late, but went to work. I got up a bit later (I’d done the driving all the way from Elko), sorted out my stuff, showered, gassed up, hit Walmart for brake fluid (there’s a leak somewhere) and headed back about 10am.
I wasn’t feeling all that great, so I didn’t stop more than a few times. I’d planned to go to see my brother in Martinez but he informed me, that morning, that he wasn’t home. It was hot again on the 395, and I guess my head cold threw me off. I stopped for a while in the high country, and next to the Walker river, and so on. Actually started up the road to Bodie, but decided to turn around after a bit, too tired (sick,actually, it turns out). Thought about car camping, but there was a pretty good thunderstorm and rain coming down.
Got into Lancaster about 6pm.
My cat sitter was there with her kids, and we chatted for a bit before they left. She actually bought and put a small pot pie in the stove for me, then called me a half hour later to wake me up to take it out…
We basically packed before the eclipse, and just had chairs and the ez-up left.
We walked about the campsite a bit, taking in the experience.
I hadn’t seen a full eclipse before, and it was quite spectacular.
The difference between 98% and 100% is (ahem) like night and day. Somewhere online I read that even 99% was still 400X as bright as the full moon.
It’s a bit like the Grand Canyon – the pictures don’t **lie** but they don’t do justice to the experience.The jet black sun with flames (the corona) around it is astounding. The sky was dark - we could see some of the brighter stars, with a ring all the way around like a very late twilight.
I took a couple of cell phone pics, but mostly just watched it and the horizon around us, I didn’t want to get into monitoring equipment and miss anything – maybe next time.
We packed up and left when it was over. The I-15 was a parking lot going south. It was, without a doubt, the best behaved traffic jam I’ve ever been in. On the I-5 in California we have people passing on both shoulders after a half hour. Here: not so much as a horn for five hours, from Rexburg to Pocatello.
After Pocatello it was normal roads – the crowd on the I-15 south was people going back to Utah, almost 100%. The 84 west was essentially empty. We didn’t need the spare gas we'd packed along, but it was nice for peace of mind in the empty stretches.
We got into Gardnerville at 3am, and just hit the sack.
