Detroit Lake, OR, and The Total Eclipse of the Sun

We got up early to hit the road out of Idaho. We’d been watching for weeks and then days and then hours about all of the expected traffic delays, lack of services, and warnings about emergencies as tons of people descended upon Oregon for the eclipse.

Rich kept saying he had a feeling it was going to be like all of the Y2K hype when everyone was on high alert for all sorts of problems that never materialized.  Well, at least from our standpoint, he was right.  We had minimal traffic along the way.  I think we had one slow down at a bridge where there was construction and we all had to merge into one lane, but that would have happened regardless.  Here are a couple of pix I took on our route.

 

See, no worries!

Rich’s nephew and girlfriend live in Portland and we originally planned to stop over for the night but found out that they were going to somewhere near Salem for the eclipse and wouldn’t be home anyway.  Plus, by this time, all of the hotels and VRBOs and campsites were sold out or had exorbitant prices due to the big event.  Rich talked with his nephew and we were going to try to meet near Salem on the way but then we were worried about traffic (before the fact) so decided that they might be willing to drive to Detroit and meet us.  Anyway, after much back and forth and changing of plans, we never did get to see them.  Another time!

We had a pleasant drive to Detroit, including many miles of very narrow one lane roads through the forest which scared me a few times when cars came barreling around the corner from the opposite direction. Wowie, you’d think people would be more cautious or maybe it’s just me!

It was mid afternoon when we arrived at our rental house and our friends were out in the yard waiting for us and waving us in.  They’d all been here since Friday, again concerned about the traffic and other issues that never materialized.  We met Judy & Dennis and Linda & Ed on our big Australian cruise a few years ago, which also included a total eclipse seen from onboard ship–quite an experience. We’ve stayed in touch with several people from that cruise and actually ended up on a cruise to Italy with Dennis and Judy a few years ago (quite coincidentally) so we got reacquainted a bit then.  Linda and Ed met us once when we were in Seattle and we spent the day together, so we felt pretty comfortable signing on to rent this house together when it came up.  Judy and Dennis live in CA and Linda and Ed in WA and they are all of the liberal persuasion, which makes talking politics a whole lot easier!  🙂

The first night we enjoyed sitting outside and catching up, had a cookout, and chatted the night away.  Monday was the big eclipse which we were fortunate to be able to view from our own backyard.  Many people have seen a partial eclipse of the sun but as Rich keeps saying, the difference between a partial eclipse and a total eclipse is “night and day.”  It’s really quite amazing to see the sun totally blotted out by the moon, with a huge ring of sunlight shining behind it.  If you ever have a chance to see one, don’t miss it.  In fact, the next total eclipse in the US will take place on April 8, 2024 and Dallas is right in the path of totality.   Party at our house!

 

In the last couple of days, we’ve taken several walks around this tiny little town, visited two marinas and a state park nearby, and Rich cooked dinner last night (fresh halibut with risotto, asparagus and tomatoes) followed by bananas foster for dessert. We were all stuffed.  Mostly we’ve just enjoyed the downtime and the company.  Thankfully we have all had a lot of fun and there haven’t been any issues sharing a house with two other couples we didn’t know ALL that well.  We’ve had lots of great conversations and it’s nice to be with people who are not superficial and can intelligently discuss many topics.  Here’s to friends!

Tomorrow morning we leave for California.