The Native Iowan

It’s starting… that weary, tired, ragged sorta jet-laggy numbness of the head.

We were up and running closer to 3am than 4, then on the road to Brisbane, then a 8am flight, only a short hop across the “pond”, to Auckland.

And here we sit. The lounge is comfortable, the morning has gone with out a hitch, we wait for our flight to Santiago.

Grace staying warm in Auckland…

She looks happy with her seat assignment…

It’s easy to be patient when you know you have hours of waiting ahead …

We sit for three hours, which is easy. Then we hop on an eleven-hour flight, landing in Santiago only four hours after our departure from Brisbane.

I call it all “time-travel”. Travelling west-to-east, running from the day. Honest to goodness time travel.

It was chilly this morn at 4am.

It’s “winter” on this side of the planet. Not the winters all-you Iowans know. More like a northernCali winter. And where we’re heading is going to be even more wintery…

We are heading to Chile. That long, lean mountainous land of ancient lives and modern fun. Our primary aim for the trip is to view the Solar Eclipse on the 2nd of July.

This will be my second “adult” eclipse, Gracie’s first. The path of totality for this eclipse is narrow and touches little land. I think we’ll get well over 2 minutes “in the shadow”.

It does not sound like much, “over 2 minutes”. But when it comes to the most spectacular and rare sky-show known to man… well, hell! Two minutes is as much as is possible this year. And it’ll be very, very cool.

I got to view the 2017 eclipse from a great location in Idaho. The event was put together by an eclectic group of eccentric people. A comfy camp in the middle of the mountains for a couple days with interesting people. Our time in totality was a bit under 3 minutes.

And I got kinda hooked.

While in Idaho in 2017 there was talk of an event in 2019 in Chile. This one was going to be a hard-one, a difficult one to get a decent amount of view time. It was going to be remote. It was going to be costly. It was going to be a pretty special event… So when I received an invite months and months ago, I jumped in with both feet. And Gracie.

So we fly in a bit early and go visit a bucket-list-location… Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui.

We’ll spend a few days visiting that ancient and mysterious island. I’m keen to have a look around. Ever since I was a kid I have been enthralled by the sightless stone guardians raised in a time lost by peoples unknown.

On the 26th we’ll fly back to Santiago and join up with the group of “eclipse-chasers”. 50 total, we’ll spend 3 days being tourists, then head high up in the mountains to “Camp Eclipse” for 3 days of dry-mountain-cold…

And the beat goes on… with that floaty, jet-laggy feeling…

More later