So a BIG THING happened here on August 21st! Cascade, Idaho was in the path of TOTALITY! Hubby and I were both glad that we would be able to see a total eclipse. Up until the week before, I was going to be at work and would miss the total but would get to see a partial. Fortunately, the hype was so big that no one wanted to schedule an appointment and get caught in the traffic. Word was, you needed to have a two-day supply of water and food in your car if you traveled anywhere. We were told that we would see a huge amount of people traveling up to our area just to see it!
Hubster and I could not believe that people would travel so far just to see a total eclipse. We had both seen partials before and thought they were neat but nothing to drive long distance to go see. (Boy were we in for a surprise.) As the weekend before came upon us, we noticed a smaller number of cars coming up from down south than usual most weekends. In our little town a concert had been set up for the horde that would descend upon us. There was a beer garden and the ball field was all set up for a huge crowd for the concert that was going to take place on Saturday and Sunday. They had even set up 20-25 outhouses (not KIDDING!) On late Saturday afternoon we drove by on our way into town and there was only about 8 people sitting at the concert. Same thing the next day. We felt bad for the people that had gone to all the trouble and expense to set it up.
I did profit a bit from the eclipse because a friend of mine asked if she and her guy could bring their camper up and park it in our yard the night before. He was really excited about it and did not want to miss it. I said sure! When they got here she gave me a pie and a bottle of red wine! We had some good friends in McCall that came up for breakfast and then we all gathered out in our yard and driveway.
We had our chairs, our snacks, and our cameras but most importantly we had our eclipse glasses. They are strange! In the middle of a sunny day you can not see a dadgum thing through them EXCEPT the sun if you look directly at it.
Cute Glasses
And so it began… We did not know it until someone looked at the sun and noticed it was blocked out a tiny bit. Then began the waiting and watching… someone brought a colander and someone else a vegetable steamer to see if we could see the crescents the sun made through the holes. We did see it a little bit but was not THAT exciting. We continued to watch and wait. We live right off the Cascade airport and the runway goes right by our house. We noticed that several planes were landing. They just kept coming, every few minutes there would be another one.
Left Side of Airport
Right side of airport. So many planes.
Picture taken at about 1/2 eclipse.
Before too long we noticed that it was getting cooler, it was strangely dark in the house and before too long people were getting their jackets on. Closer and closer it grew to a complete eclipse. I had done some research on things to look for during a total eclipse and one of the things was “snake shadows” that were explained to look like long wavering shadows that move in the same direction. I was watching closely to see if I could see it happen. We were standing on our road all together as it got close to total and I was just as busy looking down as up and THERE THEY WERE!!! I called out to everyone to see it and most everyone did. They were moving out and away from us up the road and it was crazy. (Right after eclipse they came back this time moving towards us and across the road!)
When the total eclipse came our group gave a shout and we could hear people at the airport and people parked on the road cheering with us. We could take our glasses off and look right at it! AND it was cold! There was a sunset appearance on all horizons. It was pretty dark. We were stunned and amazed and so excited. We supposedly had total for 1 minute and 58 seconds but the time went so quickly it felt like 30 seconds! In that small window of time we all felt the mighty presence of God and his amazing ability to align the sun and moon and the planet earth in such a way that we got to witness this stupendous sight. (It was disappointing how the pictures we took just don’t even give an idea of how crazy it was!)
Shortly after, when the sun’s first ray of light came back it felt like a spot light shining down on us! We noticed a mama deer and two babies had come out during the eclipse and had come down to the river. Soon they were heading back to their bed in the trees. Other then that there was not much crazy animal behavior. I did hear several dogs barking over at the airport.
Before we experienced the total eclipse, Hubs and I would comment that “we would not be willing to travel very far to see a total eclipse” but we changed out tune after we were a part of one. We are so thankful we got to experience that for the first time and we would travel again (not sure how far) to get to witness that again. What an amazing gift it was!
Pic taken through eclipse glasses.
Cool white balls when taken through eclipse glasses
This is a picture of total eclipse. We could not see any light around the sun with our naked eyes although some people commented on the “corona” shooting out. (I think that is what we are seeing here!
We are so thankful for our Almighty God and his handiwork! When it is on display in a HUGE way it thrills my heart!
Kimmy
crazycascadecountry 