Guess who’s back. Back again. Jared’s back. TELL NO ONE!
2020 is a year that we will not forget. But fortunately Erica and I were able to get some much needed reprieve. Beach Jared lived again this year. I didn’t do much other than chill, take photos, read, and rest, and play with our friend Alison’s doggos. It was time well spent.
Will this be enough to get through to the end of the year? I don’t know, but I will say every evening had an almost magical sunset. The first night we arrived, we were greeted by more stars than I can remember seeing in about a decade.
Here are some of the photos I took during the trip. I kept a couple of the sunsets to myself.
I hope you have made time for yourself if possible. We’re not out of the woods yet.
Last weekend I travelled down to Nashville, TN with my wife and good friends to observe a total solar eclipse. Nashville was in the PATH OF TOTALITY1. The last solar eclipse I can recall was when I was in elementary school. I viewed it through my dad’s welding mask. It was neat.
Entering Nashville. They Warned Us.
We spent the weekend in Nashville with some eats and some sights. I got legitimate Nashville hot chicken234, and then proceeded to hang out in 95º F playing mini golf. Poor decision on my part. I digress…
Am I the total eclipse of Erica’s heart?
We headed to a park just outside of Nashville to avoid crowds. The park itself had a pretty large audience, but there was plenty of space and parking for all5. I didn’t really prepare to take decent photos of the eclipse. I attempted to take photos through my eclipse glasses6 and they didn’t really pan out. However with some cloud cover I was able to capture some slivers of sol. Totality hid behind some clouds until it revealed itself to the hoots and hollers of the observing crowd.
Slivers of Sol
Slivers of Sol
Cloud cover shows all.
Cloud cover shows all.
Totality
Totality
I was elated to get this shot.
The eclipse was other worldly. Photos are neat, but do not capture the true experience. I know some in Ohio were mildly impressed by their partial eclipse, and even if they had 90% coverage or more… 1 to 10 percent of the sun, is still ALOT of sun. As totality neared, it was like someone throwing on the dimmer switch of the sky, but when totality hit, it was truly amazing. It was like dusk came out of nowhere.
Day to Dusk within minutes.
And then, it was over. The partial eclipse waned out of existence, and we were poised to head home in the early afternoon. It was warned there would be significant traffic7, however we did not anticipate the true impact the eclipse had. It looks us nearly 14 hours to head home.
Gridlock into Elizabethtown, KY
We tried to work around it, taking back roads, but it wasn’t enough. The eclipse audience was nothing short than a small migration8. During our stay and travels we met/saw people from Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. As we approached midnight, and weren’t in Ohio yet we were beat. Rest stops were packed, and it was stop and go. We arrived home near 6 AM on Tuesday completely exhausted.
It’s always cool when you can experience a natural phenomenon for the first time. For many of us in Ohio, we got to experience “snow rollers” this past week. Everyone took photos of them, and here’s mine.
