2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657

2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657

Seeing a full solar eclipse is an amazing experience. This was not an easy trip. It was not a short trip. There will be two parts to the eclipse podcast. The night before. The Day Of. We’ll start with the night before the solar eclipse in 2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657.

Long Wait For This One

A long time ago my best friend Steve and I set up telescopes and special projection devices in his back yard for an annular solar eclipse. We decided to recreate that experience in 2017 for this very nearly one-of-kind eclipse. Traveling down Illinois 1 all the way south to the Carbondale, Illinois area.

Searching For Totality

We’d heard this was the point of totality. That is, a line across the US where the eclipse would be total. We didn’t realize how lucky we were until we discovered we had landed in Makanda, Illinois. Find out why this is important in 2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657.

Sometimes You Luck Out

Two guys in an ambulance. Not really an RV. Primitive sleeping arrangements. A tent for Steve. Hammock inside Mobile Podcast Command for me. We rolled into a camping area. Asked some questions. Learned it was a specific place, which cost a lot more than what we thought initially.

Travel and Adventure Means Meeting Great Random People

Traveling you meet random people. Sometimes it’s good. In this case we meet Bud, who arranged for this park, in this town, for this eclipse. He turns out to be an historian, a businessman and a good guy. He joins us for 2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657.

Part II On The Way

Heading back to the Chicago area as I write this. Part II will be up as soon as possible. As a teaser to that podcast I will simply say I have heard a lot of people say, “I’ll watch the eclipse on TV”. With all my equipment and all of Steve’s telescopes and cameras, ham radios and special glasses, this is something you just have to experience. It was amazing. More on that later.

See You in 2024

The good news? Another eclipse goes right through Makanda in 2024.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

2017 Solar Eclipse Point of Totality Part 1-Podcast 657

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Podcast 400

Scoutmaster Tribute. Live from North Central Wisconsin, best friends who grew up together pay tribute to a father to one, and a scoutmaster to the other. Both friends are eccentric enough, as was the father and scoutmaster. Their conversation takes place at a rural hideaway built with anything that could be scrounged, or used. The setting sparks a conversation about what they learned in scouts. In ‘Stand By Me’ Stephen King’s narrator says that the friendship’s he forged around twelve or thirteen were the strongest of his life, that he never had friends like that again, and wondered if anybody does. Through thick and thin, on and off through the years two friendships have been the most important to me, largely because of our experiences camping with the Boy Scouts, and for me, especially because of our scoutmaster, who also happened to be my best friend’s dad. Sure he was eccentric, but he taught us all so many great lessons. Later he built a complex of crazy quilt cabins — where this podcast was recorded — which are packed with every kind of thing you can imagine, from every kind of era, and who knows where he got most of them. He never said no to anyone who offered something they didn’t want anymore — and most of that stuff is up in Wisconsin. Given the current situation, all commentary on politics these days sounds like an echo chamber. It’s nice to sit outside on a classic hot summer day in the middle of nowhere in North Central Wisconsin, and talk about things that are, or were real. Friendships that last a lifetime, friends who are as much family as they are friends, experiences we’ll never forget, and people we met over the years who were real characters. After all, aren’t friendship and family the most important things anyway. Sponsored by X Government Cars. 

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