Friday, December 21, 2018

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Idaho Falls - August 19-21, 2017

I first heard about the 2017 eclipse probably back in 2010ish.  When I heard that it would pass by close to home, then I added it to my calendar with a reminder 1 year in advance to book a hotel.  When the reminder came most of the hotels were already booked, or if they weren't they were super expensive trying to capitalize on the eclipse mania that would sweep the nation.

One Sunday at my parents I was looking for an airbnb and mentioned it to the family when my brother offered to let us join them at Morgan's sister's house, which we gratefully accepted.


This was our first real trip in our Tesla that we purchased in March.  Here we are charging in Pocatello.


We drove up on Saturday morning (the eclipse was on Monday).  On Sunday after church we headed to downtown Idaho Falls.


Checking out the Snake River.


This bench caught my eye as a fitting tribute to the gem state (although all of the good gems had been kifed).


Playing games on the kindle with a crowd.


Dinner.


Lyla and Avery.


The moment we've all been waiting for. 


The moon is slowly passing in front of the sun.



Of course we took a picture with our latex heads.


Totality selfie.


The kids.


We took off on the back roads right after the eclipse.  My car was nearly fully charged and we wanted to avoid I-15.  It turned out that one of the roads was a dirt road, which really sucked the juice from the battery.  We ended up finding a spot in Logan to slow-charge for a bit to give us enough juice to make it home. 

We drove through soda springs just as the geyser was erupting.


This was interesting.  Even in North Salt Lake the eclipse covered 90% of the sun or so.  As you can see from the performance of our solar panels, there was a substantial dip in production as the moon crossed in front of the sun.

Next up: Vietnam and Thailand!

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