Solar Eclipse 2017
School had only been in session a week for the new school year, and of course the mathematics of the universe had to schedule a solar eclipse just one week in with total disregard to the school calendar. To make matters worse, we were in driving distance of being in 100% totality, so what did we do? Decided to get the MostPerMile of this opportunity and miss a day of school to enjoy a road trip to Kansas and Missouri!
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Road Trip
The journey began a little different as always. While my husband still had shifts at work as an airline employee, the girls and I had the flexibility to hit the road early. We went to see grandparents in Oklahoma one night, and I had also printed out
four Junior Ranger booklets so they could get a head start on completing some of the activities while we were on the road. Interstate 35 can get a little boring at times! Once arriving to our first stop in Oklahoma, we involved Nana in helping with some questions our younger one had on one of her Junior Ranger
booklets while our older one got busy with cereal boxes to make homemade eclipse viewers. Strategically choosing four different sizes of boxes, we wanted to see if that impacted the viewing of the eclipse or not when that time came.
Educational Stops
Along with potty breaks, we specifically chose to stop not at the typical roadside stops, but rather at National Park or
National Historic Sites as we were learning while on this road trip. Our first stop was in Kansas at Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve. We spent time visiting the exhibits, but were too late to sign up for one of the in-park bus tours to go see the bison. This particular location also had several additional patches that could be earned by Girl Scouts, or a scavenger hunt to partake in, but since we were here as a family and not as a part of an organized Girl Scout troop event, we did not work towards those stewardships programs. After all, learning about and experiencing the prairies of Kansas was our primary focus, which we can learn about and appreciate without adding another badge to the Girl Scout vest.
Something else happened here: we received the official Junior Ranger Eclipse Explorer booklet. While we had already printed this out prior to the trip and worked on activities along the way, the viewing glasses we had ordered over a month prior were now deemed to be unsafe with an advisement to not use them. The National Park Service had created this Eclipse Explorer program, which had disposable glasses inside that were deemed safe! We were so excited to have a safe pair of these for each of the girls, as it had been a disappointment earlier in the week to learn of our recall of the solar glasses we had purchased well in advance.
Venturing further in to Kansas, we made sure to drive by the state capitol building (after all, we had just seen the Oklahoma state capitol the previous day!). Our next stop was the visit Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. While this had absolutely nothing to do with the solar eclipse, it was not too far of a detour out of the way of our hotel, so we made sure to learn about this important part of history in getting the MostPerMile out of this roadtrip. Once again, there was a very informative Junior Ranger program that we did on-site as it was not available to print in advance.
We finally made it to the Kansas City area, where our last stop was to be the Harry S Truman National Historic Site. This was just over in Missouri, so that marked the third state to drive in for the day for this momma traveling solo with the girls. What made this visit very
unique for us was the face that earlier in the month, we had been in Japan visiting Nagasaki and the Peace Museum. This was the timeframe when President Truman was in office and had to make the decision to use a weapon that could potentially end World War II. We had first learned of the second dropping of the atomic bomb when in Japan, hearing the 11:02 chimes playing, seeing the remains of various items, and reading survivor stories. However, now we were able to complete an activity in this Junior Ranger booklet that had a different perspective of the atomic bomb. It gave not only our daughters an opportunity to see two sides to the story, but for myself as well. Between each of our stops, we would be discussing our next stop, what we would be seeing, what we already knew, and connecting it to prior travels and learning opportunities we
have experienced. If there was any example so far in getting the MostPerMile in our educational travels, this was it! When a 10-year-old can verbalize the feelings of the Japanese people yet share how an atomic bomb still probably saved more lives, seeing it from both perspectives, understanding humanity as we had previously stood in front of the unclaimed grave hearing the 11:02 chimes play, that showed me right then and there how amazing the world is as a living classroom.
Meteorology and Navigation
Driving solo and later picking up Curt at the Kansas City airport, I placed a map in the
hands of my girls in the backseat. Yes, one of those old-time paper maps you pick up at the visitor center when crossing the state line. I knew where I was going, but put it back in their hands. I didn’t go so far to have them calculate approximate arrival times, but did have them use a highlighter to plot best roads to take. We had a learning opportunity on which road to take that may save some time using the mileage markers, but we made it. A bonus was we never ran out of gas! The girls would also take pictures from the backseat, such as this place in the middle of nowhere.
After spending the night in a Kansas City area hotel, we waited on further instructions from our friend we were meeting from Branson where he was headed. He had a telescope with the correct solar filters. And not just any telescope, but a BIG one! He had also been following various message boards on where the prime viewing spots would be. He had three in mind, and was awaiting the morning cloud cover forecasts so they would be the most accurate in making a decision. It was decided to go to a spot in the middle of nowhere. Yes, middle of nowhere. Cell phone reception would be zilch. Roads would not be paved. The GPS in the car may or may not have everything we would need, so we were also given latitude and longitude coordinates where we did screenshots on the phone prior to getting out of coverage. Where was this perfect place? The Ben Branch Lake Conservation Area. Getting here, we were able to drive past the Missouri State Capitol building, so that just added another checkmark on the road trip fun being our third state capitol building to pass in three days! What made this place remarkable was the pristine nature of the area. When we hit totality, and started hearing nocturnal animals emerge with their noises, we right here in the middle of it all… in nature! Another excellent way of getting the MostPerMile of the viewing spot!
Anticipation
Knowing we would not be near a restaurant wherever we ended up, I made sure to pack for
the day with plenty of water, Sun Chips, Eclipse gum, and the trusty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At times the girls kicked back to relax, or re-read their literature about the eclipse, but we made a full day of it. This also afforded an opportunity to visit with the other 15-20 vehicles in our area with others who had also driven quite some distance for this event. Our children were practically two of just very few children there, but they were able to socialize with the adults around us.
Totality
My personal expectations of this solar eclipse were not that great. I do remember standing in the backyard as a kid, squinting to glance at the sun for a brief moment and see what was going on. However, this was phenomenal. Our friend brought some cool homemade viewing pieces made out of rectangular cardboard and solar film, and we compared what we could see from those, our homemade cereal boxes, and the eclipse glasses from the National Park Junior Ranger booklets. As we reached the countdown on the phone, a whiteboard was also set up to watch for the shadow bands.
To be honest, before this day, I had never heard of shadow bands, so we were all learning in this experience! But once we hit that last 1% and ventured into 100% totality, wow. Just wow. We were all mesmerized! Heck, I didn’t even get to give my husband a kiss! The sounds started emerging, we definitely felt the temperature change, and seeing a 360-degree sunset was amazing!! We had all taken off our glasses and looked around in awe – it was so neat! For some reason I am unable to upload my video here (maybe due to size) but I hope to get past that technical glitch and upload something later.
These photos below were taken with an iPhone 5 as seen above, although our friend had an amazing camera hooked to his telescope that can be seen linked here in these four photos (A), (B), (C), and (D) by Eddie – spectacular shots where you can see the solar flares! Below are the iPhone 5 pictures, but his are much, much better linked previously.
After totality, we packed up and headed back to Texas. Having missed a day of school, we knew school would be starting bright and early Tuesday morning, and we would have just put over 1,000 miles on the car, earned four Junior Ranger badges, and experienced something so phenomenal by using the world as the amazing classroom that it is. What an excellent way to get the MostPerMile not only with the solar eclipse and National Parks, but also bonding first as mother/daughters and then as a family after Daddy arrived. We have already marked the next solar eclipse in the domestic US on our calendar for 2024, and look forward to that day as well!
As far as TEKS go for correlating to Texas curriculum, there were so many with this road trip including a variety of subjects! Take a peek here, and happy learning!!
