04/11/2024
Mission accomplished!
I had plans to see the eclipse near Dallas, and scrapped those due to weather concerns. I then started making plans and checking the weather for seven other locations across the USA. I was absolutely determined to see it. during the last 72 hours the weather changed my location a few times. I left for Lincoln Maine on Saturday. Slept in the back of my car in a Walmart parking lot. Left for a rest stop on Sunday only to see a sign that said "no overnight parking" so I continued on to Houlton, Maine, which was very close to the center line of the totality. Slept in my car in another Walmart parking lot, with about 50 other RVs, vans, SUVs. People were showing up all night and by 6am, the lot was full.
Light clouds in the morning gave way to a perfectly clear sky.
My viewing conditions were perfect.
The eclipse was AMAZING!
I took these photos with a few different settings but didn't screw around with photography too much because I wanted to be in the moment. (cell phone pix came out terrible) I was fully aware that other people with better gear would be taking pix and the world wasn't depending on me to get good pix of the event.
Many people got in their cars and took off after the totality to beat the traffic. I stayed until the transit completed because I was replacing the spark plugs in my car when it had started so I wanted to witness what I missed in reverse.
(It was the first warm and sunny day available for me to change the plugs in weeks)
I didn't hit much traffic for the first 13 hours of my 14.5 hour trip home.
You might ask: Why did it take 14.5 hours instead of 9? Well 150 miles into the journey the red "triangle of death" came up on my Prius. When that happens you should pull over immediately and turn the car off. Luckily I had an OBDII scanner with me and the computer code showed the hybrid inverter was overheating. This could be caused by air bubbles in the inverter cooling system, a clog, a faulty pump, etc, but nothing that I could fix on a wooded highway at night.
I let it cool down. Drove it for 50 miles. Let it cool down. repeat. After the fourth time I figured out how to make a gauge to monitor the temperature of inverter, which fluctuated a lot but eventually cooled down to a more acceptable range. It continued to go from acceptable to close to bad intermittently. I was able to limp the car home.
Was it worth all the effort? Missing Goth Cruise, driving 1100 miles, sleeping in the car in 27 degree temperatures multiple nights? HELL YEAH!!!!!
I am so happy about making this trip. I SAW IT with my own eyes. I was part of it. It was GREAT. I could not have had better viewing conditions. I've been planning on to see this for almost a year and it worked out.
