The great American experience...

"But if you can make it down to the somewhat strange swath this eclipse is going to take, do it. The next one will never happen again in your lifetime - that is if you die in the next 8 years. After that, there will be another one, this time a bit further south in the states."

Okay. Enough of the Alt-Right, Alt-Left, you wombats or whomever else. I am going to write about something that will bring us all together as a nation in less than 48 hours. What is it Bird? The Norks? A UFO invasion? What could it be? The sky. It will be the sky. Whenever we get all puffed up about how important we are, the Lord lets the sky remind us we are here, living on this wonderful rock He was created for us.

At around 1 pm (CDT) this coming Monday, we are going to see a nationwide celestial show. And this is rare. How rare? For many, it is a once in a lifetime event. This coming Monday, our Moon will blot the part or most of the sun for a couple hours. For some however, in this country, the Moon will be totally block out the sun for a bit over 2 minutes. 

Two minutes? Who cares about that? That is such a short period of time. Why is that such a big deal? Because for the first time in 99 years, the entire country is going to see it. From Oregon all the way to South Carolina. And the swath of totality will only by 70 to 90 miles wide. Day will turn to night, the nighttime birds will sing their goodnight songs, and stars will start to appear.  In that "very narrow" swath of totality, somewhere close to a zillion people will be there to witness this awesome sight.

However, that is the area of the country which will see the totality. Even where I live, the eclipse will be over 80%. That is huge! When I was stationed in northern Maine for the 1992 Nova Scotia eclipse, we only saw a partial. Even with a partial eclipse on a semi-cloudy day, the effect was mind bending.

I was doing some research on the internet about the expected crowds for this event. One state to the south of us, said the traffic would be no worse than having 20 Woodstock events state wide, staring at the same time. In other words, mid-state interstates which have never seen a traffic jam, are about to witness the horrors of Twin Cities rush hour traffic.

If you can make it down to the somewhat strange swath this eclipse is going to make, do it. The next one will never happen again in your lifetime - that is if you die in the next 8 years. After that, there will be another one, this time a bit further south in the states - this time going from SW to NE.