2017 Stories – 35 – Our Eclipse Adventure

As the summer was coming to a close, Jake and I kept talking about how we wanted to see if we could squeeze in one more quick holiday. We went to Australia at the beginning of summer so we felt like we wanted one quick one. We thought about SoCal or Tahoe or the middle of California. But couldn’t settle on one.

And then he suggested that maybe we should go see the eclipse. I told him everything was sold out (like six years ago.) The more we looked into it, the more it became impossible to pull it off. So he suggested we email my sister in law who’s originally from Ashland to see if we can pick her brain.

As it worked out, she was going to be in Ashland and had a friend who would let us stay at his house (and he was going to be out of town!) we hemmed and hawed for a few more days but then we just decided it was meant to be and we had to make it happen.

We got up early Saturday morning and got on the road to Ashland. It took us a long time to get there, but when we arrived, we got to see how her friend’s house was absolutely amazing, at the top of a hill with deer and other wildlife around us. It was truly such a gift. 

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Ashland, with the kids playing with their cousins, and just relaxing. Sunday night we went to bed at 7pm and got up at 11:30pm so we could do the four-hour drive to Totality. We were worried about all the potential traffic so we decided to get on the road super early. We had some idea of where we might want to stop but we also weren’t sure what the situation would be like. 

As it turned out, we had no traffic at all. We got to a rest area a little before where we had intended to stop so I told Jake we should check it out since it had bathrooms and all. It was very full but we found a spot pretty close to the bathroom and with a great view of the sun. It was 3am at this point, so we tried to get some sleep (we weren’t super successful.) and then patiently waited till the eclipse. 

We got really lucky with the rest area which had a lot of bathrooms, all of which were being cleaned regularly. There was a church nearby passing out tea and coffee for free. When it came to be time, everyone ahhed at the same time and the birds flew away in fear. It was such a sense of community and a moment of awe.

I had given Jake such a hard time for wanting to see the 100%. Ashland had 97% so I wasn’t sure why we really needed to travel four hours just to see the extra 3% but I was so wrong. My very favorite part of the entire thing ended up being the one minute where I could watch it without glasses. It was an awe inspiring moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was 1000% worth it. I’m so grateful we did it.

When it was over, we’d planned to go straight home even though it was 10+ hours of driving. As it worked out, we took 7+ hours to get back to Ashland and by then it was 7pm so we decided to spend the night in Ashland instead of doing something unsafe. (especially since we hadn’t slept the night before.)

So we spent one final night in Ashland and woke up super early Tuesday to come right back home. All in all, it was a crazy, insane, magical and one of a kind adventure!

Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.