The Eclipse....

With grand visions we left for Nashville last Thursday after downing a Starbucks cold Doubleshot. I have found that I can drive long hours with a little help from the Doubleshot. I'm very alert and it smooths out the drive. I had a thought or two about the Eclipse and how I wanted to shoot it and I got sorta close. I had visions of 4 mirrors on the ground reflecting trees, the sky, and Eclipse. Hoping that the mirrors would transform into square holes in the ground filled with trees, clouds and  blue sky and the Eclipse.

Really not thinking of the whole picture...it gets dark during an eclipse, stacking frames may not work, and probably a few other issues I hadn't thought of. All of  this was compounded by the fact that I took a rather nasty fall from the third stair from the bottom of our stairway and really knocked the dickins out of my left hip which had been giving me painful unexpected problems previously.

Karen helped me up and we went to bed with an occasional yelp from me. Morning came and the hip seemed OK so we left on the Great American Eclipse Road Trip. 8 or 9 hours later we arrived at my sisters where we were staying for the duration in outside of Nashville. I had ordered Solar Glasses from the net and were to arrive before we left. They didn't.......that fit in real well with the hip agenda.

metric and Canada.Arriving we were met by her "show dogs" a couple of Shelter finds, and we got settled.We messed around Nashville and the surrounding and had dinner with Nephews and Great Nephews, along with other activities.  Both of my nephews are very accomplished individuals, one is the Digital Director for a major implement company, while the other is an accomplished sound engineer and traveling with major recording stars running their sound for them in arenas throughout North America and Canada.

"E" day arrived and we sent out to Cheekwood for the viewing. It is a wonderful acreage that houses Museums, a sprawling park with ponds and trails. Fortunately my sister got us entrance tickets before they ran out. Almost immediately I spotted the site I wanted and we all advanced to it. As I was basically marking my site with the mirrors the area started filling up and I bent over and WHAMMO!
My back/hip shot a bolt of lightning down my leg. I'm glad I had my cane as if I didn't I would have landed on my duff. Andy, # 2 Nephew, set the mirrors up for me and we waited.

As forecast the eclipse started and immediately the clouds started to collect. I knew it ! The only reason they were around was because I was going to be photographing it. To make a long story short and not keep you drowning in suspense......the clouds parted, disappeared, and we got our Eclipse.

ling home I listened to my wife playing her Ukulele in the passenger seat. A great trip.