Before school started last Wednesday, The kids and I squeezed one last adventure into summer and it was a doozy! We drove from Los Angeles to the Boise National Forest in Idaho to see the total solar eclipse’s from centerline.
It took two days to drive up there and should have taken two days to drive back, but after the eclipse I decided to drive until I couldn’t drive anymore and get as close to home as possible that same day. I ended up pulling the car over on Hwy 395 at about 2am to sleep for an hour before pushing through to Los Angeles.
I’ve never before driven through the night like that and I am totally shocked that I made it. I swear to goodness the eclipse itself had some kind of physiological energizing effect on me, because I just didn’t get tired. I should have been extra tired too. The night before I hadn’t slept enough because it was very very cold. We were camping at elevation and it was in the 30s. I was awake a lot feeling miserable and shivering. Nevertheless, we really only started driving in earnest after lunch at about 3 PM, and I only stopped once to rest. We rolled into our driveway at about 6:30am the next morning. The Eclipse itself did something to me. I just know it did.
This was a really awesome thing to share with my kids. Seeing a total solar eclipse’s was kind of a life-changing experience that I hope they will remember forever. The best thing about the video I put together of our eclipse experience was that my 11-year-old took a lot of the footage and his enthusiastic reaction to seeing the total solar eclipse is something I wish I could bottle and drink a little bit of every day! It is pure magic.
THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST 