Tuesday, August 22, 2017

driving to see...

...the Great Eclipse in totality in South Carolina on Monday, August 21, 2017. Which also conveniently happened to be Grandparents Day, so it was a true pleasure to spend it with my pen pal who lives in Greenville. He is 93 years old, and sharp, amusing, remarkably spry for a geezer... and would probably be delighted to be called that!

I'd read about the 'GE' in his farmers' almanac back early in the year, and told him I wanted to come and visit, to be a witness to the event on that day. So we marked our calendars and planned to observe. All those months ago, I had not the first inkling it would be such a well publicized occasion, with people coming from all over the world to view the disappearance of the sun. Lots of media coverage: we started looking at the television soon after noon, watching as the shadow of the moon covered the sun from Seattle, Washington to Charleston, South Carolina and and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

I had the proper eye wear, with darkly shaded lens for viewing, and would periodically get up and trot out into the yard to gaze up at the solar disc as it was gradually covered by the lunar shadow. For some reason, as I would tilt my head back to look nearly directly overhead, I would find myself having the sense of loosing my balance, nearly tipping over backwards. After doing this a couple of times, I learned to hold onto the fence, a tree, something to help maintain an even keel, and keep my footing.

My cousin, who lives in SC, within the area that was designated as 'totality' warned me to stay away. Saying the crowds and traffic would be such that I would not care to be in the midst of certain chaos. I had been planning to go for months, and not easily dissuaded. Surprisingly there was not an excessive amount of traffic when I was driving north on the interstate. I generally want to get up early, and leave the congested streets and highways of the metro. area before there is a high volume of traffic. So I was up and driving at 5:30, anxious to be out of town, and well past the dense, high-speed traffic.

I had to stop and buy gas. Wishing I had done that before I left home, as it is always high in the metro, usually twenty cents or more than I would pay closer to home. But anxious to get on the road, and desperate to feel like I was making progress towards my goal. I pulled up to the pump at the curb store, and inserted my plastic card: it was declined. I thought: 'hmmm... maybe me? I will try again', and reinserted the card to have it denied a second time. I went in the store, pulled out cash, and paid for $10 worth of gas. Quickly accessed the interstate, heading north, and made my way towards Carolina. There was really not much traffic that early in the day: hardly anyone up and driving the streets of Decatur. A strange experience to be cruising major thoroughfares that are usually very congested, and not see another vehicle in either direction.


An hour up the road, after the sun came up, I stopped and called the credit card company to see what the problem could be. The response is the computer deciding to put  a hold on a card is not unusual, when the cardholder travels outside the normal circuit. If you go someplace beyond your normal activities, they assume your card has been heisted, and will stop it from being used to protect the cardholder. Well... thanks for that. But it is surely inconvenient to not be able to use the card I am so diligent about paying in full each billing cycle. Problem resolved after I answered several questions to the satisfaction of the fraud protection people, telling all the appropriate secrets to a total stranger.

I made a couple of stops, to prevent arriving before my friend was up and ready for guests. Planned to get there around 10, which is the usual time for me to get to his house. Uneventful travels, and surprisingly little traffic. There were a lot of people out there, sitting at the rest area, welcome center after crossing the state line, under the trees, in their folding camp chairs: waiting for something to happen.

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