How do I explain my path to clear skies under the moon's shadow, quickly? I probably can't...
Went with two bffs of mine. One of them, hard to get out of the house, this would be his first eclipse. My other friend has seen two with me already.
Knowing the weather in the eastern US in April, we expected a roll of the dice. We decided last year I'd fly to NJ, meet up with them (they're in NY and NJ, respectively), and drive to Memphis 2 days before the eclipse to be ready for anything.
The week before the eclipse, it was looking like the weather in Texas would be dicey, as would the northeast, except, strangely, for extreme north NY, VT, NH and Maine.
The Thursday before the eclipse we decided to ditch our Memphis plans and throw our lot in in the northeast. I flew into NJ on Friday, and we drove up to my friend's in upstate NY.
Sunday afternoon, the forecast for Plattsburgh NY and Burlington VT was starting to look a little sketchy. We decided to head out early (230 AM) for Plattsburgh on Monday morning, eclipse day.
Drove out early Monday morning. 6AM, an hour south of Plattsburgh, I looked at the forecast for Plattsburgh/Burlington and didn't like it. East of that looked better.
Vermont and New Hampshire don't have highways that allow easy east/west travel. They're kind of north/south states. I started looking at towns up in Canada, and found one, Magog, that looked like a good spot, and a fast path to get there. Totally winging it. I had no idea what the town was like.
I told my friends “guys we're going to Canada today. Gonna be another two and a half hour drive”
After resolving a bit of an...incident…with my documentation at the border, we got into Quebec and to Magog at 930 AM. A jewel of a town at the top shore of lake Memphrémagog.
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@KrajciTom @Quenby @tayfonay @Alice
We set up right on the shoreline of the lake, along with a lot of other folks. Some gauzy clouds in the southwest but an otherwise clear sky. The glittering of the fading sun on the lake right before the lights went out was exquisite. Venus and Jupiter were visible 5 minutes before the lights went out. Lovely people all around. I gave one guy my telescope solar filter because his was screwed up. A young couple next to us became conversation buddies.
My friend who was the virgin, when I asked him afterwards if I oversold the event, replied “hell no! There was so much to see, and it was over so fast!”
The woman next to us, when it was over, she realized she had tears running down her cheeks. She hadn’t expected to feel so emotional.
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@glasspusher @KrajciTom @Quenby @tayfonay @Alice
How did you even manage without my ladder?
@Biff52 @KrajciTom @Quenby @tayfonay @Alice
Pretty easy. I didn’t take my big scope.