2024 Total Eclipse

Here we go again, chasing the shadow of the moon. We last did this in 2017 in Sumter, South Carolina.  This time we are headed to Indianapolis, IN for the total eclipse of 2024. We are driving again and again planning to just stay at Interstate motels. That worked well for us last time. Fingers crossed that this will be just as successful and painless. This will be a four day trip instead of 2 since it is further away. We have booked one night outbound and one night back home in Charleston, WV as it looks like it is very close to halfway. So, countdown is at 43 days 20 hours and 56 minutes! I really like this website for planning on the maps.  It gives a good look at where the narrow band of totality crosses the US. Of course, it is never that easy. Today our first choice was along the PA shore of Lake Erie. No rooms. Then we tried Poplar Bluff, MO and there were rooms available but by the time we'd scouted the neighborhood with Google Maps, those rooms went away. Finally, we tried Indiana and found a room for 2 nights. Anyway, according to the maps of totality on The Great American Eclipse website it will be closer to 4 minutes of totality in Indianapolis and it was closer to 3 1/2 in Erie. 

We have not traveled for the pure fun of it, excepting family visits, since prior to my DBS surgery. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates again in 2024!

September 1, 2023

Post Tropical Storm Idalia it was cool, clear and breezy here in Raleigh. We were lucky and didn't even lose power with this storm. I was thinking, kite flying! Here I am at the Big Field in Dix Park. My kite is a free gift souvenir from an American Cruise Lines trip we took down the Mississippi River years ago. The Cruise Director said he got a case of them as a regular shipment from the Home Office. He thought they must be inexpensive. The tag says made in China. It is a parafoil design kite from Premier. It is very similar to this linked one. I can't find exactly what I have in what I think should be the right price range. It just rolls up, and the string spool and all fit right in the storage sack at a size and weight about like a partial roll of toilet paper. I love this kite! Best souvenir ever! Even though Clay was not thinking what I was thinking, he still drove me over and helped me launch my kite after lunch.

 Clay was thinking something else entirely. He was thinking, Zebra Cake! Maybe because his early birthday present of a replacement cheap propane grill is still sitting in the kitchen area waiting for a new outdoor cover to arrive. He saw this cake made from scratch on a YouTube chef channel but it was really heavy. I pointed out that he could do a smaller and lighter version with cake mix and a tub of frosting for us. Success! He used half a yellow and half a chocolate cake mix and saved the rest for another day. Perfect. 

Sunflowers in bloom at Dix Park

 Its mid July here in Raleigh, so the sunflowers are in bloom at Dix Park.  

The plants were not tall as in previous years, but all the flowers were a sight to see. We were there right around noon on a hot day early in their blooming season. There were very few people around.

We did see a few butterflies around .

Here is Debbie in the field.

 

Synchronous Fireflies!

It is that time of year again. The annual lottery for this year's tickets was April 8 to May 10. This is at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park outside Gatlinburg, TN. On May 10th (our anniversary!) I entered a date and an alternate date avoiding weekends. The next day, we learned we had won for June 7. Yeah, after these COVID-19 pandemic years of not traveling, we are finally hitting the road. We last entered the lottery in 2021 and did not win. We did not enter in 2022 because I was recovering from surgery on my left heel. I have finally ended physical therapy for that and this year's brain surgery, so this was our year. 

Tunnel (1 going west, there are 2 going east)

All these I-40 tunnels curved!

Bad news was the weather. There was a front blowing down from the North with Canadian wildfire smoke and rain all day Wednesday. We both thought, we shouldn't go, but did not say it because we didn't want to disappoint each other. Clay booked and prepaid a non-refundable reservation. I figured we were sleeping in that $180 a night room no matter what happened with the firefly viewing.

Tennessee had no Visitor's Center!

It rained heavily as we left the Triangle. It misted all day. We drove up in about 6 hours on Wednesday. It took about 5 hours on I-40 to reach the Tennessee border. We must have already been in National Forest or Park land since TN did not have a Visitor's Center. We got off the Interstate shortly after and took all tiny curvy roads so the last 20 miles or so took over an hour.  Coming home the last 30 miles or so took over an hour or 2 because of stop/start traffic from Chapel Hill to Raleigh on I-40.

Slow-going coming up here at the end.

Park Vista DoubleTree

Park Vista interior from 14th floor

Panorama from our #1417 balcony

We checked in to the Park Vista DoubleTree by Hilton. It sat about a 1/4 mile above the 3-ring circus that is Gatlinburg. It is a circular-shaped 15-story tower. We had a 14th floor park view room, so other than driving through town to get to and from we avoided the town of Gatlinburg. We checked a radar weather forecast for Gatlinburg and it looked like rain would be heaviest after 8:30 to about 10pm but it did not extend very far south of town. Excellent for us!

We ate an early meal of appetizers at Firefly's Lounge in the hotel and set off for the park around 6:15. It won't be dark until closer to 9pm. But our ticket is dated and timed. We have to check in between 6 and 8:15pm. Parking is first come/first served so we wanted to get there earlier rather than later. The ticket says that you must present it for scanning the QR code and present a photo ID matching the name. Clay was trying to get his license out of his wallet as we turned right at the Sugarlands Visitor Center. (Not advised. Have your ID and wallet out before you start driving!) Here we saw maybe a dozen total wild turkeys on both sides of the road. As we just passed the driveway to the VC parking lot, Clay handed me his wallet and told me to get his license out. I looked down to take it, then he slammed on the brakes and said, bear. It was literally one front paw on the road by the right front bumper and it backed up as we inched ahead. It was pretty big as it was eye level with my window. We almost hit a bear! No photos because Clay's phone was plugged into the car for GPS. We didn't even think about a photo until we were too far down the road and an oncoming SUV had stopped as the bear crossed the road from R to L and was visible in their lane by now. (I should also point out, that no one ever looked at or asked for the QR code or ID! We spelled the last name and confirmed the first and she checked us on her list, wrote the number of people in the car and off we were sent.) 

Etiquette sign

We wound up in the Appalachian Clubhouse parking lot. ( If you put Appalachian Clubhouse in the map's search window, it will show where we were.) This was convenient to the Jakes Creek trail viewing area. It was not as close as the Jakes Creek Trailhead parking lot, but had the advantage of a building with toilets and running water (not port-a-potty).  In any event, the closer lot was full when we arrived and we were the first car to park by the clubhouse. Looking at the map, we walked between the 2 lines of black dots to the Jakes Creek trailhead and walked a few minutes before setting up overlooking the creek. Walking uphill, that was on our right. It turned out the majority of the fireflies were in the heavy woods to our left. Easy enough we just turned our chairs! We really lucked out with the weather. It misted but no heavy rain. No thunder heard. The ground wasn't even muddy!

We made it! About 3000 feet roundtrip.

Bob's waiting.

The synchronous firefly display was amazing and crazy! It was magical and just unbelievable. We were both so glad we sucked it up and went. We got no photos even though we tried with the phone set to no flash and night setting and the phone inside a red cellophane bag they were handing out. The flashlight and camera flash etiquette around us was so atrocious that no one noticed us because we were following instructions and trying not to disrupt the fireflies. Here are some park service photos. Here is a YouTube video. 

Morning view from #1417 balcony

We left the park about 10:15pm. Clay took a shower. It was after midnight before I got to bed. We slept in a little comfortably late and checked out around 10:15am. The weather had cleared overnight and we did have some good views! A bear (?) had pooped on the aisle where we parked the car last night! We got that photo.

That big poo wasn't there last night.

Clay's 74th Birthday

 For my birthday, I made red chili pork tamales for the first time. 

The pulled pork I used was some I had smoked earlier this year.  The red chili sauce was made using 4 ancho chilis, 3 guajillo chilis and 1 arbol chili. It had only mild heat.

My cake was black, both the layers and the icing. I used black cocoa powder to get the color.

I am now 74 years old.

NC's COVID-19 state of emergency ending

 After 29 months, our state government's pandemic footing is at last changing. The linked article gives a pretty good look back. It isn't over and maybe things will never return to the old normal. But things are looking better.

Overdue Update

I haven't posted in a long time, but it has been a mostly unpleasant several months. Here goes. We did drive down to Florida for Christmas at Mom's. That was a good visit. Prior to that trip I had x-rays of my long painful left heel and a visit to an orthopedic surgeon. The diagnosis was Haglund's Deformity. Mine also had a line of calcification up the Achilles tendon that was debrided and a nerve ganglion that was excised. I think the surgery went well but my recovery was delayed by the giant bloody blister and wound left behind by my tremor working against the splint I had to wear for the first 2 weeks. Mom had ridden home with us and stayed most of January and February to help us while I was on one leg. I used a kneeling walker for a couple of months. I had a large pediatric aircast to wear when up and about for a few months too. Waiting for the big wound to heal before they ordered me to physical therapy caused a 2 month delay. I've now had 17 of my insurer's allowed 20 visits, which is 3 fewer than the surgeon ordered. In the meantime, Clay's employer changed health insurers and we have been in a coverage hole, so that was the end of PT. I have a follow up visit with the surgeon next week. I don't have full mobility restored but the last time I was at PT, the therapist said I may have gone as far as was possible. I think that means that they've broken up all the excess scar tissue that they can and the PD rigidity is working against a full range of motion. I am out of the boot and walking without a cane. The pain is mostly tolerable without daily Tylenol. Unless the surgeon says otherwise this is probably what my finished recovery looks like. Coming down stairs leading with my left foot only. I am back to cycling with the machine 30 minutes a day. I have also returned to doing an earlier PT-designed LSVTBIG series of exercise that takes 15-20 minutes each day. I do achilles tendon stretches after every exercise session! 

In March, I had a bad mammogram. That bought me a sterotactic breast biopsy on the left side. Now this is sometimes called a needle biopsy, but I'll tell you it felt and sounded more like a dentist's drill. It was cringe-worthy and it made me cry. I was in pain overload for a few days. Good news the anomalies they removed were benign. 

We've each had 2 booster COVID-19 shots since I last posted. The global COVID pandemic rages on with the virus in about the 5th or 6th worldwide mutated variant. I think we'll still be needing at least another vaccine that addresses the latest variants probably in fall or winter. 

I have changed neurologists since I last posted. I was refered by my Raleigh neurologist to one at Duke in Durham. The deal is they offer DBS surgery to people like me with drug-resistant PD. Especially now, I am not looking for more surgery, but I am moving forward with the screening process to see if it is actually an option for me.

The impetus for finally posting today after my long hiatus is pictured. Year 2 for us of Dix Park Sunflowers. If you scroll down a few entries, you'll see last year's flowers were twice as tall and therefore twice as impressive. Not sure what happened between years! 

 That just about brings me up to date. Between my condition and COVID-19 we are continuing to stay close to home. Travel is still too uncertain for us at this point. So, our Global Entry expires soon and we decided not to renew it since we didn't feel we got value from it already, and it would require making another interview out of town to renew. Instead we are applying for TSA Pre-Check status. We can have that interview here in town. We are both scheduled for next week. So, we'll see how that goes.