Our trip from the Maritimes back home to Alberta, with stops in Connecticut, the Creation Museum and Ark Experience, and a total solar eclipse!
August 9 – Moncton NB to Medway ME
Said our final, tearful, goodbyes to my family and headed off for the US border just after lunch. Uneventful road trip and, thankfully, an easy border crossing.
August 10 – Medway ME to Quaker Hill CT
Right around Freeport Maine, the trip counter hit 10,000 km!
Got stuck in traffic near Boston, but eventually made it to Naomi’s cousins. Kids are supper excited to hang with their kids!
August 11
Family visit with Naomi’s cousin and her family, and a trip to the Mystic Seaport which was way bigger than we expected.
August 12
Saying goodbye and hitting the road.
August 13
We started our week and our day by finding a church near our campsite and had a good time of fellowship with the people of Milton First Baptist Church. A visit to a church and off on our way again. A short drive this time and a relaxing time at a very nice Rose Point Park Campground.
August 14
Made it at last to Kentucky! We were able to get a spot at Big Bone Lick Campground, a State Park. It is conveniently located between the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum, about 30 min either direction. Everyone I talked to, and many of the people I saw, was going to these places!
On the way there we found a Sonic Drive-In. We didn’t do the drive in (kinda hard with the trailer sticking out) but the kids now have a new top 5 restaurant.
August 15
Ark Encounter! This was a great stop on our trip that helps give a sense of scale to the immensity of the Ark. We were joined on our visit by Steve, a good friend who worked for awhile with us at GoodSeed. The kids really enjoyed the Ark. Make your plans to visit!
This is also the furthest south that we get on our trip.
August 16
Creation Museum! We were able to meet up with a schoolmate of Naomi’s from her time in Papua New Guinea whom she hadn’t seen since 1998. Her family has a life-time pass that she was able to share with us!
After our day exploring the museum, Ethan took a ride on the zip line. This is something he had been saving up money for for months and he was so excited to be able to do it. A bit nervous at first, especially once he climbed the tower, he nonetheless stepped off into nothing and soared above the pond! Brave young man. Adelaine had saved up too, but was too short to do it! We bought tickets for the high ropes instead, but that would have to wait until the next morning.
August 17
A quick return trip to the Creation Museum so Adelaine could do her high ropes (it was kinda on our way) and then we hit the road. We had two days to get to Wyoming so I could have a day to get ready for the eclipse. Because of this, we decided to not camp but get a hotel room instead. Saves a lot of setup and tear down time!
Beaverlick KT to Preoria IL
August 18 – brief update
Many busy days and little internet connection as of late means that I haven’t had a chance to do many updates. Currently, we are in Peoria Illinois. We have had visits with Naomi’s cousin and her family, toured the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky where we were joined by some friends on each day. We are now ready to make the final push to get to Casper Wyoming where we hope to see the eclipse on Monday!
Right now the forecast for Casper is looking clear!
Today’s leg will take us to Nebraska
August 19
Another long day on the road trying to get to Wyoming. We had crossed the path of totality several times going through Nebraska. There were lots of people getting excited and I talked to a few people at some of our stops about the upcoming eclipse. Soooo close!
We also passed by Cabela’s international headquarters in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska.
I have never seen so much corn in my life.
August 20-21
Eclipse!
!!!! Sun’s corona and the star Regulus
It was awesome! We had a fantastic time viewing the eclipse. I have too much to add to this blog post, so to see our pictures of the experience, head over to www.troyandnaomi.com/2017/08/eclipse-the-shortest-2-minutes-and-22-seconds-of-my-life/
A total eclipse probably shouldn’t happen. I say “probably” because the probability is too small. After all, we are the only known planet that has a moon just the right size and distance to provide a perfect total solar eclipse where the moon just barely covers the sun, allowing the viewer to see the corona and prominences. It also happens to be the only place where there is someone to see it.
The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it is also 400 times closer, making them roughly the same apparent size in our sky, depending on eccentricities of the orbits. This has allowed us to discover so much about the sun, moon, our own planet and the universe long before we had the technology of modern telescopes and spacecraft. If the size of the sun or moon, or the distance to the moon and sun were off even a bit, a perfect total eclipse would be impossible. Yet, perfect total solar eclipses happen because of this perfect combination. This alone should give us pause as we watch in wonder. But not only are they astounding and awe-inspiring for this fact alone, total eclipses are strange and beautiful and they are wonderful to experience!
We finally got on the road around 4pm and had almost no traffic. There were predictions of traffic chaos, but we were heading north and since we stayed onsite until awhile after the end of the eclipse, the traffic had evaporated. A lot of people cleared out shortly after totality, but we stayed for the whole show, of course.
Late in the day start for driving, made it as far north as Billings, Montana for the night.
August 22
After six and a half weeks, and 16,026 km ( 9958 miles) on the road, we are HOME!
Lets see, if we averaged, say, 90km an hour (mostly highway driving, but lots of slower stuff too) then that would mean roughly 178 hours or 7.4 days in the van.
When we left, school had just gotten out, crops were growing and canola was in bloom. We return with only a couple weeks before school starts again, and the crops are being harvested!
On the ride home, as we got closer to Calgary, we noticed more and more haze, then finally we could see the smoke from BC wildfires. The sun set through that, then set for real on the mountains. From the side the smoke looked quite thick, but as we began to drive under it it became less noticeable.
We had a few problems the last couple days of the trip as we noticed that the brakes on the trailer were no longer working so we had to drive more carefully. Other than that and a bit of maintenance done on the van, we (thankfully!) did not have any real problems with the trailer or van.
Getting home we did see some damage to my car which was parked in our driveway. It seems that a passing storm dimpled by car and cracked the windshield some with heavy hail, as well as put a few holes in the greenhouse’s plastic sheeting. Other than that, it was so nice to get home.
As for my health, the bouts of vertigo and dizziness have been a challenge almost every day of the trip. This calendar shows a red x whenever it was a big enough problem for us.
This certainly made some parts of our trip much more difficult. Naomi had to do most of the 16,000 km of driving, as well as more work with the kids. I’m so thankful for my wife, who is loving and patient. The problems became a bit more manageable after the first two weeks of travel, but were still pretty debilitating, often requiring at least a few hours of laying down somewhere or trying to sleep in the van. Later this month I have another appointment at the Neuro-vestibular Clinic in Calgary and we hope to find some more answers. At least having my own bed to sleep in should help get some rest!
Speaking of rest, did I mention that it was good to be home?