Neither the Unicorn or I are morning people, and this was not working in our favor, but thankfully I was prepared. I spent a majority of Saturday resting and reading while I kept a running list in my Google Keep of everything I couldn't pack yet (because I needed it out) but that I didn’t want to forget for our trip.
Sunday morning arrived EARLY!!
The Unicorn got in the shower while I dealt with the last-minute packing and caffeinated myself to 2/3'rds capacity.
I was done packing about the time that I was hearing frustrated groans coming from the bathroom. The Unicorn has been trying to learn now to make a proper ponytail that rests more towards the top of her skull instead of just pulling her hair back at the base. So I went in and helped her.
No one's ever taken the time to teach her how to do a proper ponytail before.
She's got it down now. It still comes out kind of sloppy when she does it, but she can do it!!
Right! So, everything was ready and I looked at the clock. It was almost 8 am (when I'm normally hitting my snooze button like a slug instead of getting up). I told the Unicorn that we should grab our stuff and go down to wait for the Blue Falcon.
We weren't even down the stairs and he was already parking.
We'd remembered everything except for the binoculars!! OMG!!
Thankfully he remembered.
And off we went.
We took breaks to stretch our legs every once in awhile as we headed south.
I was completely unprepared for how beautiful Iowa is.
There were areas with these great cut fields of rolling hills of different greens. If I'd taken a picture and DIDN'T say it was Iowa, people would have said it was Ireland! It was THAT pretty!
We stopped halfway for a packed lunch. The Blue Falcon had packed us some burritos that were good cold and he had a prickly pear soda that he wanted the Unicorn and I to try. They both thought it was way too strong, but I really loved it!
I don't remember where we stopped for the night, but it was this really small farming town. The hotel was not the greatest. The beds were rock hard and the pillows were too soft. There also weren't enough pillows, which is common for a hotel, so I'm glad I planned ahead on that one and brought one of my memory foam pillows. I also had my stuffed animal with me.
I know, it's silly, but I can't sleep unless I'm cuddling something. I used to cuddle a pillow, but at some point, Bran decided to just help me be two years old and he got me a stuffling. An elephant.
His name is Cas. T. Elephant.
Anyway.
I was sleeping next to the Blue Falcon because he doesn't roll around a lot and the Unicorn sleeps like she's being attacked by bees.
We got to our hotel a little bit before a good dinner time. So we moved in and showed the Unicorn some trailers. It was her final choice on the movie for the night. She picked Spirited Away. Good choice!!
There was a Pizza Hut in walking distance. One of the bigger ones that are also a sit-down restaurant. It was a good choice because we could each get something we wanted. None of us like the same things on a pizza. The Blue Falcon brought some soda's to share with the staff too. He's so sweet.
After dinner, it was movie time, but the Blue Falcon was also worried about our original spot that we'd planned to see the eclipse. There was a better than 50% chance of cloud cover and we were going to miss it.
He had maps and weather reports and CLOUD MAPS like you wouldn't believe. He had back up plans and back up plans for the backup plans. He finally found a secondary (tertiary?) site for us that looked promising. It was going to be another 300 miles out of the way from our original position though!!
So, again, we had to plan to be awake super early.
We got up at mother fucking 5:30 in the morning.
OMG.
But, I got my coffee and repacked while they showered.
They took breakfast of the free waffles downstairs while I mostly grunted at them.
And then we were on the road again.
The Unicorn got a little car sick, so I had to ride in the back a bit.
One thing that the Blue Falcon forgot to pack was a place for me to sit… so when we got to the center of Columbia Missouri he looked around on the map for a park in hopes that we'd find one with seating. We found a good one with picnic tables and took a quick packed lunch there. More burritos. :)
There was a playground nearby and there was this giant boulder kind of thing in the middle of it. The Unicorn climbed to the top of it and that was HER SPOT. She was able to lay back and watch the whole eclipse from there.
They both had binoculars with solar filters. I was kind of stuck with eclipse glasses, but that's okay. I was doing this more for the Unicorn than me.
We were THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE!!!!
As much as the Blue Falcon warned us about packed crowds and everything. No one else showed up at our location. It was actually kind of sad. The Blue Falcon has packed a lot of extra gourmet soda's just to share with other eclipse people and there was no one else around. He was so bummed!
And then it started to happen.
We started to see the moon cover…
Then the sun looked like a banana in the sky…
About 15 minutes before the totality the temperature around us suddenly dropped by about 15 degrees and everything started to get dark. Then the bugs around us went completely ape shit.
Picture an ordinary night with cicada's singing? Then multiply it by about 10! They were LOUD and just going out of their minds.
When the totality hit… it was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen. It was like someone had taken a giant hole punch to the sky and the aura of the sun's corona could be seen perfectly.
The Unicorn and I did magick then too.
I'd looked up what the celestial importance of a total solar eclipse is, and it turns out it's a great time to do banishing spells. So the Unicorn and I traded problems. I wished to banish her anxiety while she wished to banish my writer's block.
She was also charging her crystals the whole time too.
They were both watching the totality with their binoculars and would have missed the diamond ring if I hadn't started shouting when I saw it… and then it was just done… it was over… so beautiful and so fast.
We packed up the car and raced for home.
We did stop for an oil change and some dinner along the way. But mostly it was just driving with occasional leg stretches.
My ass hurts so much.
I slept most of yesterday and got a full night last night…
I'm so glad we did that.
It was truly amazing.
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