Our Eclipse Experience

I don’t really blog a lot here about personal things anymore, but it was pretty amazing, the way it all went down.  We’d all taken the day off, so that we could go to Ohio to watch the eclipse.  I’d done some research, and according to NASA, the place with the longest totality event was Forest, Ohio – a tiny little place well away from any large cities and off any major roadways.

In other words, it was just what we wanted.

So we took off around 9am, walked the dog, and drove across the state on I-96 all the way to 23.  Which… was a terrible idea.  Because EVERYONE in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Bay City, etc. were all taking 23 down into Ohio.  And it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the schools gave everyone the day off.  If it’d been just half days for the eclipse it would’ve been fine, but EVERYONE was off for it… and on the road.

We sat on 23 for an hour and a half, barely moving before I about went nuts.  Because 23 wasn’t the worst of it.  To get to Ohio, we would have to go thru Toledo, and I’ve been thru Toledo.  Four times, and once was to actually spend time in it.  Toledos roads are a spiralling vortex leading straight to hell, when there was this much traffic.  And I couldn’t see a way around it to Forest.  And I was terrified of it, quite frankly.  THE WORST place to be, should the Lord have bigger things in mind for the day.

So I did what I do best:  I got frustrated and overwhelmed, got REALLY cranky… and then remembered to pray.  In that order, always, because I really do suck when it comes to reacting to things.  We got off in Milan for lunch, and decided not to get back on the expressway.  There had to be another way, and it couldn’t be worse than 23 was.  That was… impossible.  Awful to the nth.  Hideous.

The delay we’d experienced was a huge problem – there was no way we were going to make it to Forest.  I didn’t even WANT to – because there was no way to Forest that wasn’t absolutely convoluted.  And frankly, we were running out of time.  Brian just wanted to get to Ohio… that was his goal.  I just wanted to hit totality… that was my goal.  And since totality=Ohio, we were in agreement.

So I pulled up the TimeAndDate.com totality map, and decided to head WEST… and then go south.  Because nobody was going west.  The problem was that Toledo – the very EAST corner of Michigan – was the ONLY thing up near Michigan with totality… so we were kind of stuck.  My thought was to skirt around the west side of Sylvania and find the very edge of totality and just pull over in a church or school or abandoned factory parking lot, somewhere and just watch it and get OUT of there, as fast as we could.

Getting out of Milan after lunch WITHOUT the expressway was just as nightmaric… because EVERYONE wanted off the expressway, by that time.  So imagine a small town with it’s four ways and stoplights… and LINES of semi trucks congesting every road in those little car-lined streets.  I… have no words.  We just kept cutting west, and west, and west… and waiting, and waiting, and waiting…

Finally I got us on a road with only six other cars, and NONE of them were headed our direction, thankfully!  We just kept waiting for people who were heading to 23… unknowingly.  More power to ’em… we aren’t people persons, and we were OUTTA there.

I took us away from Dundee, away from Deerfield… down Rodeseiler Highway, which was a country road in the middle of freakin’ nowhere.  And it was BEAUTIFUL.  No people, no craziness… I loved it.  So we kept going south and going south on it…

But then next question was… where could we go?
We were TWENTY MINUTES from totality,
time was literally out.
So I prayed.

And my road dead-ended, RIGHT there.
Ended right on O-20… directly before a PARK.
In front of Secor Toledo Metropark, to be more precise!

Secor Metropark is an enormous park with hiking trails, an historic cemetery, birding walkways, gardens, and a beautiful community building.  It was quiet and tucked in, off the road, but with lots of open spaces sheltered between copses of trees.

And totality cut RIGHT thru the park, diagonally!
The Lord led us to the perfect place.

We pulled in, and there were no more than 25 cars there, most of the people having gone down the walks and found places in the prairies and gardens to watch from.  We used the (empty and very clean/nice) facilities, laid down our blankets in a grassy area just off our car… and it was absolutely PERFECT timing!

It was beautiful, there.  And we watched as the sun disappeared behind the moon – little by little.  Then the sky began to darken.  Darker and darker, and the air grew cooler and cooler… and soon it felt like everything was just *SILENT*.  It was so dim, the parking lot lights were buzzing as they were waking up.  There was an eeriness all around us.  It was… unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Totality.

And then the pin-prick of a sun came back, and we sat enthralled as the moon slipped slowly, slowly away.  As light crept back over the earth.  I couldn’t help but wonder if that was what it was like when Messiah was on the cross, and the earth darkened in the middle of the day… the sobriety of the event, the silence, the cold that descended on everything.  So crazy…!

When things had lightened, we had time to notice the people around us.  There were two elderly couples, two young couples on blankets here and there… there was an ENORMOUS Amish family that hired a 15-passenger van to take them to see the totality (!!)… there was an Asian family with lawn chairs up in the bed of a pick-up truck (!!!), and there was this really weird family that had cats on leashes.   (!?!?!)  I guess we were in good company – we’re quirky, too.

But it made for an amazing story.

Not only that, but O-20 heads west out of Ohio, across to Indiana, and has THREE major roads leading up into Michigan.  We just turned out of the Metropark parking lot onto O-20 and took it all the way to Coldwater, basically.  The only traffic was at the first 4-way, where a kindly cop was directing cars.  Other than that, it was fast, traffic-free travel all of the way home.  We were so relieved!!

Because “the moon hits yer eye like a big pizza pie“, we decided we would get pizza for supper.  I looked on-line for the ‘Best pizza’ in Michigan, and found Yankee Bill’s wood-fired pizza, which was kind of on our way home (if we took a detour).  They had a ‘Crab Ragoon’ pizza that was absolutely delicious, but THE BEST was their ‘Bean & Bourbon’ pizza – I think that’s the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life.

Anyhow, our adventure turned out NOTHING like we were expecting, and somehow exceeded all expectations on every level.  We were absolutely blessed, in all ways.  The Lord provided, and it went so much better than I’d begun to believe it would.

When we woke up that Monday, I’d been concerned that we shouldn’t go.  That it was a waste, that it wasn’t worth the effort, that maybe we were letting ourselves in for trouble, that it wasn’t wise… but fear isn’t of God… and that’s what drove us.   And I’ll tell ya – I’m SO GLAD that we went.  It was an experience unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed before – being under totality during an eclipse.  There won’t be another for 20-ish years, and that one won’t come anywhere near Michigan, so this was *IT* for us, and I’m so glad the Lord provided the opportunity to see it the way that we did!

I am furious with people on Facebook who have taken it as an opportunity to openly besmirch God and His plan for us.  People posting ‘leave clothes out to make it look like a rapture‘ or ‘Marked safe from the belief that it was anything more than the moon passing before the sun‘ or ‘Did I miss the Apocalypse?‘ or ‘Worst Apocalypse ever: 0/10‘.

This thing was ABSOLUTELY a sign from the Lord.  It was the herald for this next feast season, which the eclipse – the 0% moon – ushered in.  It was a sign unto the nations, and a warning for the United States, by way of numerology, locations, timing, and the ‘X’ of twin eclipses 7-years apart.  It wasn’t a joke.  And don’t be fooled:  God will NOT be mocked.  Any who do so are obviously not His, as His own would never treat Him or His portents with derision.

I am blessed to call His signs wonderful, and His power awesome, and His promises amazing.  And if this was any indication?  Things are going to be incredible, this next feastal year!