After leaving Raleigh, Amy & I came back to my parent’s house in Waxhaw, NC. One of our favorite “Grandma & Pops'” house activities is taking short scooter rides around their neighborhood. The boys & I had a blast doing that! I was also able to have some great conversations with my parents, and I definitely felt much closer to them after this visit.
Truth be told, I had moved the dates for my sabbatical three times. The final time I moved them was because I realized I could be in North Carolina on August 21st (the day of the eclipse). My parent’s house in Waxhaw is about 70 miles from the dead center of the eclipse, and this is much less than the 800 or so in Abilene (obviously). So our plan was to leave my parent’s house and begin our drive home on the day of the eclipse, timing everything so that we could be in South Carolina to see it (genius).
I’m not sure if eclipse day traffic was news in Abilene, but it was definitely news in the Carolina’s. Several projections predicted that South Carolina would experience the most traffic in the nation, and the interstate that we would be taking (77) would be the worst place in SC. So driving south on country back roads towards the interstate, Amy & I were keeping a keen eye out for traffic. We were both surprised that we didn’t see much at all until we got to the interstate. As we were driving over the overpass I looked north and didn’t see any traffic, and then looked south and saw that the traffic was bumper to bumper, presumably for the entire 40 miles into Columbia!
Needless to say, we decided to stick to the back roads. We ended up completely avoiding all the traffic we had heard about, and ended up watching the eclipse (it was 2:37 where we were) in an amazing spot with a hundred people or so only 1400 feet from exact dead center! It was a truly memorable experience, and everyone in the family agreed that it was absolutely worth the drive!
The rest of that day and the next was spent driving to Fort Worth to spend some time with Amy’s mom, and then finally getting back home on Wednesday evening.
All told, this was a truly awesome experience, and I am so grateful to have been given this wonderful gift! Thanks to Kris & the board, may you reap 100x your investment in me and my family!