Sunday August 20th we took a little trip down
the mighty Mississippi. Aw that's not true, but it sounds good. We
went to fulfill Christine's bucket list and that was to see a
complete solar eclipse. With Brad driving, we were on our way to
Saint Charles Missouri, riding with Christine, Katie, Sam, Clela and
myself. Oh I should include snacks. Our first stop was Springfield
Illinois where we ate and paid homage to President Lincoln at his
interment.
They say if you rub his statue noise it will bring you
good luck.
I guess that is why his nose is so shiny.Christine is reaching for her good luck.
We are now on
our way to Saint Charles where we will stay at the the Ameristar
Casino. Ya I know it's a beautiful place and so is the city. There
is an old part of the city that is a must.
There was a craft
fair/art just finishing up. Vendors lined the
street for a mile and into a parking lot behind. I think you would
need a segway to see it all. Now being time to eat, we found craft
beer place to eat before going to the Ameristar Casino.
Now I never went a Casino before, well I once went with Jerry and Diane to a river boat, but that's not the same. Our room was what I would call a suite, very large and over looking a indoor and outdoor pool. We could not use the pool because a pool party was going on. Oh we could pay a fee to join. Can you just see that two oldsters mingling with the twenty somethings. You can? It was a little sad to see guys coming up to girls making their best move, all the time with the beat of drums and load music.
Anyway we didn't need a pool we needed sleep for our exciting next
day.
We got up at 5:00 in the morning and ate at the Waffle House. If you never ate there you are missing something. We then prepared for our next phase our trip. When Clela and I looked at the map the path of the eclipse would go through Saint Joseph. We heard of states where the National Guard was called out for crowd control. We started to look at something smaller. As long as you were within a sixty miles of the path you would see a complete eclipse. We found a small community of Hermann with a population of 2000 people, not much to see, but the downtown area was flourishing with things to see and places to eat. Clela found a winery in the hills that was preparing to celebrate the eclipse with food and wine tasting. We when up there right away thinking we beat the crowd. Well we were the first ones there. They didn't open until 9:00 and we were there at eight. OakGlenn Vineyards and Winery sets on 250 acres with breath taking views overlooking the Missouri River .
Even tho we were early we quickly found out people had tables reserved, we got a table with a big umbrella, Did I tell you the temp was in the high nines and the humidity about to match. We were OK even tho we had five hours to go. We had games to play and snacks and access to drink. We went inside several times just to cool off. You know that was a real long time, but as we waited more and more people arrived. We even found people from Green Lake in the crowd.
We had
music with a singer singing old religious songs much like Garrison
Keillor. The excitement grew as time went by. Katie and Sam found
places to stay cool.
It's now 11:30, I thought that was the start of the eclipse, but nothing was happening. A woman next to our table had a camera with a thin layer of filter, to filter the sun. She gave me a small piece and some tape so I could take pictures and if needed take video. It really worked, I thought and I was ready.
It's now 12:30 and it is really staring. The glasses that Christine bought were everything you could ask for.
I took pictures but they were not the same as what I was seeing. I later found pictures online of what I was seeing. Now it's 1:15 and it is really getting dark. I could see a star in the sky, just like they said. The darker it gets the louder the crickets are singing. There seems to me there was a hush over the crowd and it's now a full eclipse and everybody is cheering. When a small light of the sun appeared in a bright glowing light I felt like it was a light sent from god. That was to me the closes experience I felt to god. This is what I saw, not what I captured on my IPhone.
We all jumped up and down like kids and hugged each other. More and more light and the day went from night to day and the crickets stopped singing.
We had some wine tasting and bought some wine and went back to the hotel.
We did some swimming, ate, and went to the casino where Christine won some money, she started with $5 and made $16. I never said we were big gamblers.
You got to take pictures, Christine, Katie and Sam.
Christine was a big winner in the arcade. Here Christine is with Brad collecting her winnings. Just fun. You never win much in the arcade.
Tuesday we went back home and that was another check off of Christine's bucket list. Thanks you for letting us share your bucket list. I will never forget that experience.
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