Since I'm an astronomer, (at least I was one until I forgot everything I knew!) I felt it was obligatory that we go and take in the 2017 total eclipse of the sun. For Doreen, any excuse is fine to go on a camping trip :). This means getting Miss Travelaire to take us down to Salem, Oregon, which is the closest place in the eclipse path for us to go. So, we plan to take off Friday night, Lord willing, park in the Coho parking lot in downtown Victoria, and catch the 6:10 am ferry on Saturday morning to Port Angeles. We did this once before, when we went on a trip to California together with Eric and Sarah and kids. It was July 1st that time two years ago, and the Coho parking lot was like a ringside seat for the Canada Day fireworks that evening. I doubt if they will set off any fireworks for us this time though :( Now, the Coho ferry is completely booked; we couldn't get reservations, but they usually have some first-come, first-serve, places available. So we are hoping by getting there at 7:30 pm the night before, we will be about first in line. To cover all the bases, we have a reservation for the first BC ferry for Saturday morning, in case the Coho turns us away on Friday night. Miss Travelaire would hate to have to drive all the way around down through Seattle though.
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| Newly groomed Tanner |
The first order of business is to get Tanner dog ready. Tanner isn't coming with us, as he is getting old, probably wouldn't enjoy a solar eclipse, and in addition we don't have his rabies shots up to date. So, after a bath, and thorough combing, we will be taking him up to Chemainus to visit with David & Muriel for the duration. As I said, Tanner is getting old now. He's coming up to 13 in November; that's 91 in doggy years they say. And he is showing his age; he can't climb stairs anymore, just too weak, or the arthritis is just too bad. He has to be lifted into the car, although he has no trouble getting out! He's completely deaf now, but he's pretty good with sign language, and his sense of smell is as good as ever. Our previous Sheltie, Kelly, when he was about 13 or 14, just went to sleep one night and never woke up the next day. Tanner lately has had some really deep sleeps, and we've had more than one occasion when we thought he'd gone the way of Kelly. But so far, he's eventually jumped up out of his sleep as good as new.
We hope we will not get bogged down in a traffic jam. I read that they estimate that there may be a many as a million people come in to Oregon from out of state. Add that to the city of Portland moving down Interstate 5 about 50 miles to Salem, and there may be complete bedlam. We are hoping that will only be the case on eclipse day, and by going a day early we will be ok. We'll see; we would hate to put Miss Travelaire through being stuck on Interstate 5 with all those other awful vehicles! In any event Miss Travelaire has had her oil and filter changed and she is taking on cargo, and raring to go.
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