My boy and I have a history of space adventures together. The last one involved us both being too scared to journey down a pitch black, dead-end county road to watch a meteor shower.
“I don’t want to go here, Mom! It’s like Halloween!”
A lightning storm concluded the evening.
This year, after recently turning 5 years old, my son opted to journey with me to Idabel, Oklahoma, to watch the Total Solar Eclipse. My husband and VNN co-founder stayed home with our foster daughter.
I have always had an affinity for “The Great Beyond”. A proud Irish American, perhaps that is where my love for astronomy comes from. Irish people have looked to the skies for thousands of years. From what I’ve read, the Ancient Irish are believed to have welcomed and celebrated eclipses.
My son is Irish American, Muscogee Creek and Cherokee.
I researched my son’s traditional Native culture, and found his tribal lineage is pretty contrasted. One side (Muscogee Creek) traditionally refrains from viewing eclipses and stays indoors. The other side (Cherokee) traditionally will make a lot of noise to scare away the frog that is swallowing the sun, based on the eclipse’s origin story.
Traveling down to Idabel the night before, traffic was very light. I had booked us a room at the Hochabel Hotel a few months prior, paying around 5 times as much as a regular night. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us Oklahoma-rooted stargazers, after all.
The next morning, we woke up to a blanket of thick clouds across the whole sky (oh no!) and I began to doubt my space adventure investment.
My mother, set to watch totality from her home in Vermont, said they were experiencing perfect blue skies. I imagined it was similar to the perfect weather Oklahoma experienced just one day before.
Traffic began to pick up a bit at the hotel. Likely because our hotel restaurant was apparently the only place open for breakfast. I started looking up local weather reports to gauge our level of cloud doom.
After seeing there was a possibility the clouds would go away, I became cautiously optimistic. We packed up our stuff and set up shop in the parking lot. A woman asked if we needed glasses, but for some reason my son and I had six pairs. I did give her one of my smart phone solar filters, though.
An hour or so ahead of totality, the sun made its first appearance. The eclipse had officially begun for us.
“The frog’s eating the sun, Mom!”
Clouds rolled back in, blocking the sun completely, only for the sun to reappear moments later. The dance continued, but what would happen at 1:45 PM CT? It was an additional bit of melodrama I had not anticipated on this adventure.
We chatted up a gentleman next to us from Sedan, Kansas. And, listening to him talk about his past travels, I thought just how natural, how pleasant it is to share experiences with other humans, even strangers. I heard another man thank the woman I was talking to earlier for the pair of glasses she gave him. As the moon continued to eclipse the sun, even if the clouds did steal the big show, we were all in this together.
Thankfully, the clouds kept their distance during totality. And watching my son’s jaw drop made the whole trip totally worth it.
Yes, he was captivated for a mere 30 seconds during totality and then he started playing with rocks, but the awe and wonder were there.
It was a very quick five minutes for me. Now that it was time, I tried to force my constantly spinning brain to be still and be one with this incredible experience. This was the moment! Be present! Be present!
I perhaps did mildly better than my small child.
As totality ended, watching the sun break through again was probably my favorite part. An arrow from space, straight to my heart. Absolutely stunning.
Then, honestly, I grieved a bit. The next time the US experiences a total solar eclipse, my little boy will be 25 years old. Did I make the most of this moment? Should I have spent less time trying to get my kid to watch it? More time praying? I prayed before and after, but not during. I’m a terrible person!
Luckily, those thoughts didn’t linger. The clouds came back, and I focused on the beautiful pictures in my mind, and on my phone. We slowly made our way back north.
Traffic was significantly heavier on our return journey. People were driving crazy and, as a mom with precious cargo now asleep in the backseat, I did get some sick pleasure watching OHP pull people over.
Brittany Harlow, VNN Co-Founder and Self-Proclaimed Space Adventurer