Highlights From The 2017 Eclipse

the 2017 solar eclipse came and went much faster than the traffic that followed the astronomical event. the moon was zipping by at 1500 mph while southbound cars on I-635 were moving at a snail’s pace long after the moon’s shadow was gone. my dad asked me to take pictures of the eclipse, but i only took mental notes & decided to draw cartoon illustrations instead. castle northmoor (pictured above) is where i watched the eclipse. it’s a 25 minute drive from my house. i was there about two hours before everything got dark, and for awhile i had the whole thing to myself– that’s when i called my folks & jenny. here are a few highlights:harlan shaver III welcomed us (he was a little drunk), and told everyone stories of how his grandfather, harlan shaver, had built the castle back in the 1980′s. by the time he came up the staircase, a dozen adults and kids had joined me at the top of the castle… including chloé mull and her boyfriend gary!one of the children standing close to us was a little girl who had a voice that should have been coming out of a middle aged woman. it reminded me of froggy from the little rascals. we wondered of she was just a really short adult until she said “someone at my middle school is going to blow a loud horn when the eclipse happens.” we didn’t hear her school horn, but someone on the ground did play the star spangled banner on a trumpet right before it got dark.the sun and moon had been playing peek-a-boo with us while we waited for darkness and crickets, but when it actually happened we were able to take off our protective glasses & see the total eclipse. it was like being with survivors adrift on a lifeboat until someone sees an island and points and says THERE IT IS!!! we only saw it for a few seconds before the clouds rolled back in. it was still cool to be with friends and strangers and share the excitement with everyone.