TOTAL ECLIPSE, zero visibility

So day two of our trip started with us bright eyed and bushy tailed in Joplin, MO.  Our hosts had a busy day planned for themselves; especially Torrie, who taught Astronomy at a local university.  However, they were fretting over the cloud cover and were avidly watching the meteorologist's report on the morning news to see if the skies were to clear in enough time for the lunchtime solar eclipse.  We left, to head to St Joseph, thinking that perhaps the sky was clearer there.

That was not to be, as it became increasingly clear to us that the cloud cover was there to stay for at least the day.  The sky was a solid sheet of grey, the sun did not even peep thru a bit.  It was overcast for the entire drive along Kansas and Missouri, north to Kansas City.

Along the highways were huge digital signs announcing "SOLAR ECLIPSE TODAY:  NO STOPPING ON THE ROAD OR SHOULDER".  At the exits, many trucks were parked with people sitting in their lawn chairs in the truck bed, wearing their special glasses, gazing up at the cloud cover in vain.  The roads remained fairly empty of city traffic, which was eery, as I've been thru Kansas City during lunch hour and it's no picnic.

But this was like a stroll in the park, just as easy as a breeze.  There was us and then too I think there were several large rigs and a smattering of law enforcement.  So as we neared St Joseph and I could tell our cloud cover was not going to clear off, I gestured to Jerry to keep driving.  If you didn't know there was an eclipse happening, you'd think that there was a bad storm brewing; the sky darkened and we hit the lights for about half an hour.   At about 1:06, the dark deepened and a few minutes later, the day began to lighten again.

Our Shaded Noontime was rather anticlimactic.  But we made excellent time to Lincoln, Nebraska.