Solar Eclipse 2017

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Roman
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Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:30 pm
Location: Kennewick, WA

Solar Eclipse 2017

Postby Roman » Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:46 pm

So we braved all the hype...

AND IT WAS EPIC!!! :cool:


This was mostly a seat of the pants/hair brained trip, but played out perfect! Lots of last minute Intel helped pull it off. A couple of alternate LZ's were discussed, but we were able to drive straight through and pulled in to camp like we knew what we were doing. And yes Nick, it was well past dark when we arrived.

So, our neighbors headed out Wednesday afternoon to secure a spot west of Austin, Or., but had no luck. With no cell service (T-Mobile) they borrowed a cell to let us know they found a spot west of Galena with plenty of room.

Due to the scheduling conflicts of late summer, we just HAD to make a turn-and-burn day trip to Silverwood Saturday, and Sveta had her usual vegi/flower turn-in event at the fair on Sunday, so we didn't get out of the house till 8pm Sunday night. Not EVER being ones to grab a nap and hit the road early, we soldiered on. The drive went pretty smooth. I considered trying to find a spot in Ukiah, but after consulting Google Maps, and considering the earlier comments we kept pushing on. We hit some light traffic after Ukiah that was starting to get thicker the farther south we got. As we neared County Road 20, we were hoping the 15'ish cars ahead of us were all headed to John Day, NOT. Only 2 other trucks peeled off ahead of us, which worked out well for early deer warning! No wildlife was harmed, and all trucks stayed shiny side up, but I'm not sure how the driver seat of the lead truck faired. :lol2

We came skidding into camp around 11:30 pm :scared: and to our surprise a few peeps were still up. After a drink and some "reminding" from the wife I had the tent and cots set up, and the little munchkin was tucked in. Time for a few more drinks before crawling into the mummy bag for the night.
In the morning we awoke to find a very nice group a hikers/fly fishers/school bus driving photo bugs joining into the festivities. We got to look through some VERY fancy solar telescopes and a cool cheerios shadow box, tour a cool former school bus, play in the river... Then the BIG SHOW!

The drive home proved just as exciting as the rest of the weekend. Considering the conditions of 395 south of Pendleton and the amount of traffic it would see Monday I decided to head East. We explored some forest roads looking for a ghost town, but Google was a little mistaken. No worries though, we enjoyed a little light trail action in the not so light camping rig. Back on County Road 20 we cruised through Austin, Or. then to 7 through Sumter and Baker City. The theory sounded good, but didn't work out on a few point. First it's a LONG way to Baker City... Also, I didn't know there's an overpass West of Baker that's down to one lane. SLOW DOWN
After clearing that, we stopped at the LA Grande Flying J to "freshen up". Before leaving a got a call from Trevor, he was in the middle of the 82 traffic jam. He said 730 to Wallula was a mess too. Guess it was North out of Pendleton! Shortly after that I got a call from my coworker Craig. He already made mutiple assaults on the Washington boarder. No luck, turned away twice. He was headed back to Pendleton to have dinner at his daughter's house.
Now I was getting worried we might not make Pendleton, but we were already on the road, so let roll the dice!
Well, we made Pendleton without too much trouble, hit 11 North and ran some interesting farm roads Southwest of Milton-Freewater/College Place. Wallula Junction was clear for us, East bound 730 was PACKED.
At that point it was clear sailing ahead and after a few beer at home I could finally settle down and call it a weekend!

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tobyw
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Re: Solar Eclipse 2017

Postby tobyw » Sun Aug 27, 2017 6:14 am

We cruised down to the Dale, Oregon area for a glimpse of the Solar Eclipse. We camped in a wide open meadow just shy of 5,000ft in elevation, and the skies were clear and bright the morning of the big show!! We could not have asked for a better view, and while fighting traffic back home was a nightmare, it was well worth it for the minions to experience such an event up close and personal without a bunch of other riff-raff around :lol:

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Yep, I've wheeled one of those, too...
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