Thanks, mark! Turns out, I went through Ennis on my gulf coast trip a couple years ago. 287 kind of skirted the town though, so I didn't really see it.

As mentioned, I have a friend who moved to N Central Arkansas last summer. That will be my primary target, it would be nice to see them and their new place. Their town is right under the path of totality.

Of course, it will be weather-dependent. I imagine somewhere in W/Central Texas is #2; pretty good chance of it being clear out there.

I’ve been thinking about scouting good locations to post up, but then realized my house actually gets 2.5 minutes of totality, so now I’m deciding whether an extra 2 minutes is worth ****ing with any potential crowds/traffic and driving an hour or so to get to the midpath

made my way to the path of totality in 2020
fifteen minutes away
well worth the effort
the reaction of wildlife is profound

I was talking to my friend's mom on her birthday earlier this week. She said they're expecting 100K people in this little mountain town.

That does not fill me with joy. Does make traveling out to BFE TX as appealing as that idea is ever going to be.

I have something that Saturday morning here in town, planning to bail afterward. Even if I don't make it all the way to whatever my target site ends up being, it should be ok, as the eclipse is late morning/early afternoon (depending on site of course). So, if I can get within ~4 hours Sunday, I should be ok to drive to the spot Monday morning.

--------------

One other story related to my trip. I had along a raincoat and a pair of nylon pants to resist water if necessary. After washing, I hung them up in the shower to drip dry, one on the showerhead, one on the water knob.

In an upset, I managed to take them out before turning on the shower the next morning.

I went to visit my uncle in Wyoming in 2020. It was great. I've been looking forward to this one ever since.

it really is worth any trouble to see it

Ran a test today to ensure that I remembered how to set up and attach my camera to the tripod, and attach and use the remote shutter release. Figure I'll want a longer exposure if I see the eclipse.

When taking the tripod out of the bag, saw that only two of the legs feet were on. Retrieved the other from the bag. When putting it on, noticed the little plastic ring that holds it on the leg was cracked.

Well, I've got a tube of super glue in the kitchen drawer. I'll drop some of that on there, and all will be good.

After prying apart the index and middle fingers on my left hand, I saw the glue I managed to get on the foot did not, in fact, repair the crack as I'd hoped.

Sigh. Went with electrical tape instead, it'll be fine.

I figure the glue residue will wear off my hand in a day or two.

Got any acetone lying around?

Nope. It's fine, residue seems gone now.

missed your chance to rob a bank and not leave fingerprints
maybe next time

Aha! Now I have a plan!

There's a chance I'll roll through Jesse James country on the (extended) way back from the eclipse, so that would be kinda appropriate.

good high school friend came from family owning red clay oklahoma caves with jesse james heiroglyphics carved into the walls
seen 'em with my own eyes but didn't think to make a crayon rubbing to prove it

Here's what the mountains looked like after the recent storm.



In the 60s and sunny today. I love living in Colorado.

land of perpetual john deutschendorf soundtrack
for good reason

So I did this today.



A disappointing outcome.

I decided to break up the long drive into two days, which put me at Paxton, NE (and Ole's Big Game Steakhouse for dinner, which I like. A pleasant day for a drive across Colorado and Nebraska. Stayed in middle Nebraska, then came over yesterday.

On the plus side, there's a Quaker Steak and Lube near my hotel, which I miss since the location near my house closed. Also went to the casino after checking in , and won a nice $115 at 1/3. Ran good, found a couple nice spots to bluff. Made one terrible call to cost me ~$40, but overall a good session for as little as I play.

Unfortunately, my friend that lives in Omaha got a work call that night and couldn't go for dinner, but I was able to connect with my friend who was my co-manager for the team at Drake, who also came in town for the games.

We went to both sessions, saw Duquesne upset the Mormons and Illinois take apart Morehead State in the afternoon. In the evening Iowa State dismantled South Dakota State, and then the Pups lost to Wazzoo.

ISU looked really good. Illinois too, probably a step below.

Neither Drake nor Washington State played particularly well. Very choppy game, they just had more at the end.

Sad dog. I'll start heading back tomorrow, before the snow starts, so that's good.

For something different, I decided to come back across I70 instead. Just out of Council Bluffs, went over 20,000 miles on the odometer.

Drove down to St. Joseph, then SW to Topeka. After seeing the state capitol



(Colorado's still better), picked up I70. Considered going to see the Drake women play CU in Manhattan when I went by. Decided I didn't want to watch both sides lose to PAC 12 teams, and I was tired, so I passed.

Stopped in the middle for a burger in Russell, KS, which was the boyhood home of both Bob Dole and Arlen Specter. Small city out on the Kansas plains produced two US Senators.

Just plowed across, got back to Denver just after dark. Supposed to be nice out today, maybe wash the Subie.

Next trip to see the eclipse in a couple weeks, weather permitting.

Other things from the trip:

1376.8 miles driven. Mileage ended up at 30. Strong headwind across the plains Wednesday really hurt that.

I'd forgotten how much religious content there is out there. iPod quit working a while back, so now I'm scanning the FM dial. Lots of Christian stations. Some Bible-thumping preachers, some religious music, but lots of stations. Next up, country, or course. Except for a small stretch across Colorado's plains yesterday evening, I could always find something to listen to. You know, "classic rock for the tri-state area" sorta thing.

Bad outcome and poor play by Drake. 6/14 from the line. Grrr. Quite a few simple physical/metal errors. However, as we were leaving the arena, I pointed out to Mark that, not that many years ago, Drake fans would've killed for any tournament bid. It's great to be competitive in the Valley again.

I kind of feel like this was their chance to make some noise. Their big guy, Brody, is out of eligibility. It seems like a big drop-off from him to the next guy in line. Should still have good guard play, all of them are back. Unless the portal comes through, not much of an inside game going forward, and I don't think the guard play is good enough to overcome that.

We did get to see some really good games, though. Only the Drake/WSU game was pretty clunky.

Driving across the plains, saw 4 Trump displays, and 1 Biden bumper sticker. Not sure what to make of those numbers, but there you are.

Good to see Mark again, spend a day and catch up.

Mark got us tickets for the first session, I got the second session passes. Oddly enough, independently, we bought the same seats.

Not sure who I'm with now. CU, I guess, they're kind of my hometown team. Cyclones looked quite good, possible final four type team. Tough road through Illinois and UConn though. I guess I'm second on them, know a lot of ISU people from my time back there.

Oh yes, one other thing: Omahans came out to the games. Lots of Creighton gear in the arena, even though they're in Pittsburgh and playing the same days.

I can see why the NCAA likes Omaha for a sub-regional: centrally located, lots of local support, kind of a bigger city, the arena's near a popular bar/restaurant scene in the Old Market, quite a few walkable hotels.

Apropos of nothing, it recently occurred to me that I'm now older than my father when he died.

I'm also the oldest surviving male, so I guess in some weird way, that makes me the patriarch of the family (despite me never having, or having interest in, children).

More to the subject at hand, I looked at the 10-day forecast for the areas I was targeting for the eclipse. Looks like rain and clouds for Monday the 8th.

I'll keep an eye on things, but at this point, I'd imagine I'm not going.

OTOH, I bought the winning ticket for tonight's ~$935M powerball drawing, so that should assuage my disappointment somewhat.

Or maybe I'll charter a plane to be above the storms after the win.

fffffff... can't tell if that is a good sign or puts you in a dark place

congrats?

I went to the 1999 eclipse in Cornwall, but the day was overcast and it sucked. The people I went with sucked too. The Scilly Isles were nice, though.

Learned on yesterday's local weather that in 2043 (?), there will be a total solar eclipse right in Denver.

Of course, seeing that implies I'm still living here, or indeed, still living.

Watched the weather for my friend's place in AR last week--they were saying cloudy with rain Monday as of Saturday. So, I thought, "I don't want to drive ~900 miles each way to have a chance to see the eclipse."

Just talked to my friend's mom. She said they had nice weather and had a great view. Sigh.

As part of that conversation, I put out the possibility of me taking a trip this summer and stopping by to see them and the new place. She's going to check on their schedules and let me know. Initially, we were talking about late May/early June.

So, that's the next travel plan as of this moment. We'll see.

We were supposed to have bad weather too, but turned out great. We had a low level of thick but spotty clouds that were worrisome and a high thin layer that didn't make much of a difference either way. Mike got some really good photos.

OK, now looking at early July to head east-southeast.