Randy’s Blog

Last week I finished reading my mega-book of Arthur C. Clarke short stories, which I wrote about recently. It took me over 3 months to finish the 1,000 pages, so it feels like a monumental achievement! The stories appeared chronologically: the first was published in 1937 and the last in 1999. I thought the writing was much better, and more powerful, in the second half of the book. However, I think I liked the ideas in the first half better. They seemed more creative. Regardless, there were many great stories throughout. 

Here are some of the interesting things I learned in the second half:

Venture to the Moon was one of my favorite stories. It was published in 1956. Clarke said the London Evening Standard proposed a commission for him to write six independent but related stories about what mankind's first trip to the moon would look like. He turned it down, saying it was impossible to write 1,500-word stories for the general reader about a totally alien landscape. But the more he thought about it, the more he thought it would be an interesting challenge, so he accepted. The stories were great, and made me wish that humans could have had a months-long stay on the moon like he described. The series was so successful that he was asked to write a sequel.

The Man Who Ploughed the Sea (1957) is about a scientist who creates a device that attaches to a ship and extracts uranium from sea water. Decades later, Clarke read in a scientific journal about a ship-borne device that did the same thing. He sent a copy of his story to the inventors and apologized for invalidating their patent!

Songs of Distant Earth (1958) was just a beautiful story that he later turned into a novel. Interestingly, he said it was his favorite of his novels.

I Remember Babylon (1960) is a mostly true story about Clarke's predictions of commercial satellites. At one point he says that long ago he learned not to argue with the Flat-Earthers. This was a revelation to me! There have been stories in the media the past few months/years about people who still believe the Earth is flat. Apparently it's nothing new; it seems people have believed it for at least 60 years.

Trouble With Time (1960) is about an ancient sculpture of a human head found on Mars. Clarke says it's a little eerie, considering the infamous "Face on Mars" that was discovered a few decades later.

The Dog Star (1962) is about the bond between an astronomer and his dog. Clarke said he could no longer bear to read it after his own dog passed away.

The Shining Ones (1962) is about problems at a Russian underwater power plant. He said that in 1962 it was quite daring to suggest  Russians were decent people!

Summertime on Icarus (1964) is about a scientific expedition to an asteroid closer to the sun than Mercury. Several decades later, Clarke had an asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union. It was asteroid 4923. According to Wikipedia, Clarke later jokingly said he was disappointed he didn't get asteroid 2001, which was named after Einstein.

The Cruel Sky (1967) features a scientist confined to a wheelchair. Clarke wonders if it was a premonition; he was confined to a wheelchair late in his life due to Post-Polio Syndrome.

Quarantine (1977) is a very, very short story. An editor he knew came up with the idea of sci-fi authors writing a story short enough to fit on a postcard, along with a stamp-sized picture of the author. He was convinced they would be a huge hit. Clarke said it was "damned hard work" coming up with a complete story in 180 words. He sent the story to the editor, and "that was the last I ever heard of his scheme."

Finally, I can't finish this post without mentioning some of my favorite stories from the second half. I mentioned Venture to the Moon and Songs of Distant Earth already. In addition:

• Death and the Senator (1961) and Transit of Earth (1971) were two of the most powerful stories in the book.
• Saturn Rising (1961) was magnificent.
  
• A Meeting with Medusa (1971) made me feel like I've been to Jupiter.
  

One of the blogs I read is about fitness technology, and the writer often posts about 5 fun things he did during the weekend. I decided to do the same, since Wendy and I just had a fun and busy 3-day weekend.

1. Back to the Field Musuem

On Friday we went back to the Field Museum in Chicago to see all the things we didn't have time for during our last visit. We saw some exhibits I'd forgotten all about, and some that I'm pretty sure we had never seen before. I was a little disappointed the Galapagos 3-D movie was no longer playing, as I was hoping to see it. But there were plenty of other things that kept us busy for a solid 4 hours, at which point we called it a day.

There were two exhibits that I found really interesting. One was the Pacific Spirits, which had really weird and interesting masks:

And really interesting slit drums:

The slit drums were surprisingly tall. There was a quote from an anthropologist who described the drums as having a "mathematical beauty" and went on to say:

A remarkable feature of the music is the way it ends. A passage is abruptly severed in the middle, producing the effect of sudden flight and unreality, as if the music had not finished but had been spirited away and would suddenly return.

We also saw a poster describing changes coming to the Field Museum this year:

• SUE the T. rex will be de-installed (this had already happened since our last visit).
• A new dinosaur, Patagotitan mayorum, will replace SUE in the main hall.
• A hanging hydroponic garden will be suspended above the main hall.
• A special exhibit, Antarctic Dinosaurs!, will open in June.

All of that sounds really cool! We may be going back yet again later this year.

2. Word Search Puzzles

The morning of our trip to the Field Musuem, I had some time to kill before we left the house to catch the train. So I pulled out my big book of word search puzzles, which I've written about before, and looked for a puzzle to solve. I found a section devoted to major cities, which included an entire puzzle based on Chicago landmarks. How appropriate! So I worked on it for a few minutes. Unfortunately "Field Museum" was not among the words to find, but I managed to find all the words by the time we had to leave, with the exception of the 8-letter mystery word.

On the train ride there and on the way back I kept trying to think of 8-letter Chicago-related words, but I didn't come up with any good ones. When we got home Wendy took a look at the puzzle and within a few minutes had found the mystery word: Illinois. Ugh, how obvious!

We then worked on the St. Louis word search puzzle together, but this time I was the one to figure out and find the 9-letter mystery word: Cardinals.

3. Festival of the Sugar Maples

On Saturday we went to the Festival of the Sugar Maples, which is an annual event run by the county's conservation district. We've talked about going to it for years, but never actually did, until now. It's held in a forest of oak and sugar maple trees, where you go on a tour to see how maple syrup has been made over the years, from Native American tribes up to modern methods. It was really interesting to see.

The basic method was to drill a hole in a tree, insert a spigot, and hang a bucket to collect the sap. The conservation district had a more advanced system in place as well, where 12 trees were tapped and connected via plastic tubing, which ran to a big tub lower down the hill that collected the sap. Then they had a big hose they put in the tub to pump the sap up to a building at the top of the hill and into a holding tank. The sap is 97% water at that point, though. A big boiler in the building boils the sap for 8 hours, until it reaches just the right consistency of syrup that will have a long shelf life.

We got to taste a sample of syrup they made a couple of years ago during the festival, and of course it was delicious! We bought a jar of syrup produced in Wisconsin, and a couple of maple cookies, which were also delicious. I'm glad we went; it was an interesting and tasty tour.

4. First Attempt at Astrophotography

Thursday evening, as I was driving home from work, I saw an enormous full moon low on the horizon as it broke through some stray clouds. I realized that in a few hours, the moon would probably be at the perfect height to view with a telescope from our deck. And a couple of years ago I got a moon filter for my telescope that I'd never used; it allows only 13% of light to pass through, so the moon isn't so blinding.

After dinner I set up the telescope, put on the moon filter, and spent a while gazing at the moon. It was cool to see. The next day I realized I should have tried to take pictures of the moon by holding my phone's camera up to the eyepiece. I've heard you can get some surprisingly decent photos that way. Friday evening turned out to be another clear night, so I set up the telescope again, and tried to take my first ever astrophotography pics. Here's how they turned out:

I am rather pleased and shocked at how well they turned out. It was hard to keep my hand steady at just the right spot, which is why some of the pics show only part of the moon. I'm glad I took the pictures on the second night, as there were more shadows since the moon wasn't totally full, which made craters along the edge more visible.

5. Bike Ride

A few weeks ago I took our bikes into the shop for tune-ups. I picked them up on Saturday, and today we went on the first ride of the season! It was a short 2.71 mile ride around the neighborhood. The temp was in the mid-40s, so it wasn't exactly warm, but it was a sunny and clear day, with just a hint of spring in the air. And today was the ideal day, because the forecast says we might get up to 3 inches of snow tomorrow! 

In my last post I mentioned that Wendy's parents visited over Thanksgiving. At one point during their visit, Bill started reading an Isaac Asimov book he found on our bookshelves. When I saw that book, I suddenly remembered that tucked away in the corner of another bookshelf was a copy of The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

I got it at a company book sale over 4 years ago, but had never read it. Part of the reason why is that it is enormous! It's 1,000 pages long, and contains 104 short stories by Arthur C. Clarke. I remember being excited when I found the book at the book sale, but I also remember thinking: when am I ever going to have time to read 1,000 pages of short stories?

Well, no time like the present, is the answer. I pulled the book off the shelf over Thanksgiving, dusted it off (literally) and started reading it right then. And Bill even read some of it during their visit. Now, it's 2 months later, and I'm almost exactly halfway through the book!

I've read several Arthur C. Clarke books in the past (the 2001 series, Rendezvous with Rama, Childhood's End), so I knew he was a great writer, and that I would enjoy his short stories. But I've been amazed at just how great some of them are! It's been a lot of fun to read. The short stories are published chronologically; the first one is from 1937 (and despite it's age, I though it was really good). I'm currently up to 1954.

One cool thing is that at the start of each story, there's usually a short paragraph from Clarke with background info. I've learned some interesting things so far:

• Two of the short stories provided inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• One was The Sentinel, where an ancient artifact is found on the moon; it provided the kernel of the idea that led to the movie. He wrote this story in 1948 for a writing competition at the BBC, and it didn't even place! He said he's often wondered what did.
• The other was Encounter at Dawn, which inspired the opening sequence of the movie, where the apes discover tools. I'm getting chills just thinking about how cool that scene was.
• Shortly after his story Superiority was published in 1951, it was added to the Engineering curriculum at MIT "to warn the graduates that the Better is often the enemy of the Good -- and the Best can be the enemy of both, as it is always too late."
• The Nine Billion Names of God is about a Tibetan monastery attempting to list all possible names of God. Clarke said he got a "charming response" from the Dalai Lama!
  
• Earthlight is possibly my favorite of all the short stories I've read so far. It was titanic, and left me feeling exhausted when I was done. Clarke said he is very proud of the fact that the Apollo-15 crew gave this name to a crater, which they drove by on a lunar rover. When they returned to earth, they sent him a beautiful 3-D map of their landing site, with the inscription: "To Arthur Clarke, with best personal regards from the crew of Apollo 15 and many thanks for your visions in space."

I am looking forward to the next 500 pages, to see what other "visions in space" Clarke has had.

Wendy's parents came to visit over Thanksgiving, and while they were here we took a trip to the Field Museum in Chicago. The Sunday before Thanksgiving was free admission day at the museum, so we decided to go on Monday instead. This was a hard-won lesson that Wendy and I learned years ago, when we went to the Shedd Aquarium and encountered one of the longest lines we'd ever seen. It turned out we had unknowingly decided to go on free admission day.

Our decision to go on Monday paid off. When we got to the museum, there was a pack of wild school children running around, but they disappeared shortly afterwards, and there weren't a whole lot of people left, which was nice.

It had been years since I last visited the Field Museum, and I'd forgotten how great it is. By the end of our trip, I decided on my 3 favorite exhibits. In no particular order:

Meteorites

Rocks from space are just awesome. Really, anything from space is awesome. The Field Museum has a small exhibit of meteorites, but I always enjoy looking at them. They're from space!

Totem Poles

In the Northwest Coast and Arctic Peoples section, there's a collection of enormous totem poles. I had completely forgotten about these, but they might be my favorite spot in the whole museum. It's a darkly lit area with towering totem poles that have strange, sometimes creepy carvings. I love it.

That last picture is an entrance pole representing the spirit of the sea. It was placed at the front of the owner's house, and you would actually walk through the mouth of the pole to get inside. I tried to convince Wendy that the pole is the Native American equivalent of Castle Grayskull from the He-Man cartoon:

I don't think she believed me.

Dinosaur Hall

The Dinosaur Hall is a gigantic room, with, you guessed it, dinosaurs. There are several complete dinosaur skeletons which are really cool. But, oddly, my favorite part isn't the skeletons, it's the huge dinosaur artwork on the walls. There are these huge murals depicting prehistoric scenes of dinosaurs, and I'm not sure why, but I just love them. I went around the hall, taking pictures of each of the murals.

They were all painted by Charles R. Knight, a nature artist, who's best known for his dinosaur paintings.

Even though we were at the museum for a good portion of the morning and afternoon, we still weren't able to see everything. Wendy and I have talked about going back soon to see the rest of it. So there may be other exhibits I've forgotten about that would make my favorite-exhibit list.

John Bellairs

You might recall that a couple of years ago Wendy and I visited Marshall, Michigan, the hometown of my favorite author, John Bellairs. The town has lots of large, old, unique houses which featured prominently in his books. We got to see the Cronin house, which was the basis for his book,The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

Thanks to the fan site Bellairsia, I've learned that a movie of The House with a Clock in Its Walls is currently being filmed! It's directed by Eli Roth and stars Jack Black (as Uncle Jonathan), Cate Blanchett (as Mrs Zimmermann), and Kyle MacLachlan (as the evil sorcerer Isaac Izard). The release date is set for September 21, 2018. I shouldn't get too excited, because the movie might be bad, but I can't help get more excited the more I read about it.

Unrelated to the movie, a writer for Oklahoma's largest newspaper, The Oklahoman, wrote an article today about the creepiest book he's ever read: The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs! It's one of the few books Bellairs wrote for adults. Here's the link: Unsettling fantasy novel still gives reviewer the creeps

I especially enjoyed the last paragraph in the article:

What really makes this book a perfect read for a chilly autumn night is Bellairs' skill in creating a sense of unsettling dread and an uneasiness that can't be readily dismissed by turning on a light or laughing a little too loudly. ​ ​ If you're looking for a prime example of the Halloween spirit, look no further. Grab the book, settle into a comfortable chair and listen to the wind howling outside as the light from your reading lamp casts strange shadows on the wall. And if you start to feel like there's someone behind you, just over your shoulder, and you turn to look ...

The next morning, Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel. We had some time to kill before leaving Kearney, so we visited MONA, the Museum of Nebraska Art.

We actually got there a little too early, as it hadn't opened yet. We walked around for a few minutes to pass the time, and noticed a tall statue of a man, which was fairly unremarkable, except for the bird sitting on his head:

Then we walked through a sculpture garden behind the museum, where Wendy took a picture of me with this dude:

It turns out the sculpture is of Clifton Hillegass, the creator of Cliff's Notes! He was a lifelong Nebraskan, and donated 10% of his company's profits to charitable causes in the state.

By this time, the museum was open and we went on a tour. It was actually a pretty decent place. I was impressed. There were a number of pieces that I really liked. 

After an hour or so, we finished our tour, got some lunch, and drove back to Kansas. Once again, we encountered almost no traffic.

We visited with Wendy's parents that evening, and had one more night of beautiful star gazing. The next day we drove to the Wichita airport and flew back to Chicago.

As we were unpacking when we got home, I opened up a closet and found a pack of eclipse glasses I'd forgotten to bring! I never even noticed during the trip that I was missing them. Apparently I collected way more than we needed!

Last weekend I went to a meeting of the local astronomy group that I mentioned in part one. It was the first meeting post-eclipse. Everyone got a few minutes to talk about their eclipse experience, which was really interesting. I learned that Wendy and I were very lucky! A number of other people from the group were also in Nebraska, and several didn't have very good views. One lady was in Carbondale, IL, at the Southern Illinois University football stadium, and she said one big cloud covered up the sun for almost the entire totality! Depending on where they were in the stadium, some people were able to catch a glimpse of it right before it ended. A guy who went to Missouri said the same thing happened to him; he called it the "Bill Buckner cloud from hell", or something along those lines.

A common theme from a number of people is that traffic going to the eclipse wasn't bad, but traffic afterwards was terrible. Several people said the 6-hour drive down to St. Louis turned into a 12-hour drive on the way back! I think Wendy and I had the right idea by staying at our hotel the night after the eclipse. It sounds like we avoided a lot of traffic thanks to that decision.

So, our trip was a success! And for that I am very thankful.

What I remember most about Monday morning, the day of the eclipse, is the uncertainty. We just didn't know what the best thing to do was. The weather forecast hadn't changed. We went outside to look at the sky, and about half of it, from the southwest to the northeast, was covered in a layer of clouds. And there were still more moving in from the southwest. We talked to an older lady sitting outside, who shared our concerns. Then we went back inside and made our decision: in the absence of any better ideas, we might as well stick to the plan!

We packed our cooler with food and water (and moon pies), collected our eclipse glasses, and drove 40 minutes north to Ravenna. There were more cars on the road than the previous day, but not nearly as many as we expected. As we got close to Ravenna, we saw several small groups of people on the side of the road, setting up telescopes. I also noticed something completely unexpected: driving 30+ miles to the north caused the clouds to get lower in the sky! For the first time in days, I started to feel hopeful that things might work out.

We got to Ravenna, found a parking spot at the high school, and made our way to the baseball fields, where we settled in for a wait. There were several hundred people, we think, at our baseball field. We couldn't see how many were at the other one.

You can see in the pictures that some areas of the sky (to the south and east) were cloudy and some were clear (to the west and north). I was quite hopeful at this point, but I still kept my fingers crossed. A single cloud could ruin it (and did, in some parts of the country)!

We waited around for about an hour for the eclipse to begin. When the moon first contacted the edge of the sun, someone in the crowd yelled out "BEHOLD THE MOON!", which was quite dramatic and made me laugh. Then we waited some more as the moon slowly covered up the sun. To pass the time, we ate our moon pies.

There was a microphone set up, so that a radio host and a local astronomer could give updates. At one point we all sang Happy Birthday to a boy who turned 11 years old that day. Later, they announced a couple was there celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary, and later still they announced another couple was there celebrating their 46th anniversary! We also listened to a Ravenna theme song the town had written for the event, and it was surprisingly good.

Eventually, totality got close. Our shadows got sharper, the temperature dropped, and a breeze began blowing. Someone at a house nearby had a rooster, which started to crow. That made everyone laugh. And it got dark! I looked to the west to see if the moon's shadow was visible, but I didn't see it. It did look weirdly dark, though, in the moments before totality. What stuck with me most is just how eerie it felt! It was a strange feeling.

A few minutes before totality began we also started to see stars and planets. That was really cool. A few high and thin clouds also moved in right before totality, but thankfully (thankfully!) they were very thin, and we could see through them, so they didn't block the view. As I was marveling at the darkness and the stars/planets, the crowd gasped, and I looked up just in time to see the diamond ring and the beginning of totality. It was crazy! Suddenly we were in darkness, and people cheered, and I looked all around, and at the stars and planets, and at the sun's corona, and just took it all in. And Wendy and I kissed, because an eclipse-chaser said in an article that it's "super good luck" to kiss your sweetie during an eclipse. How can you argue with that?

Totality lasted 2m 35s and it went by really fast! Suddenly there was light again, and people cheered, and I realized that we had actually seen it! We did it! All of the planning and preparation had worked! It was crazy.

Based on advice I'd read, I didn't take any pictures during totality, but I did set up my phone on a small tripod and recorded a video to get the crowd's reaction. Here's the relevant portion, about 3.5 minutes long:

A number of people took off immediately, but we stuck around for a little bit longer, soaking it in. I used an astronomy app on my phone to identify the stars and planets I'd seen. They were Venus, Jupiter, Procyon, and Capella. After a while, the radio host tried to get everyone to do the moon walk, to "set a record for most people doing the moon walk after an eclipse". We felt that was our cue to leave. We walked back to the car, and drove back to our hotel. I kept thinking of how weird it felt the moments before totality when it was getting really dark. That was a very unique experience.

We spent the rest of the day at our hotel, relaxing, texting and calling our families, and writing post cards. Of course, I also ate my delicious, delicious celebratory sweets!

The next day was Sunday, the day before the eclipse. We packed up our things in Wichita and headed north to Kearney, Nebraska. Google Maps said the fastest route was to take the back roads, so that's what we did. We had no idea how busy the roads would be, given the dire predictions of "hurricane-evacuation level traffic". Fortunately, there was absolutely no traffic at all. We drove through very pretty parts of Kansas I'd never seen before. For lunch, we stopped at a park in Osborne, KS and had a picnic, thanks to a cooler we borrowed from Bill and Beth that we filled with food and frozen water bottles. We also filled up with gas every chance we got, because, again, dire predictions.

We made it to our hotel in Kearney without any problems and filled the car up with gas as soon as we got there (that was one of the tasks on my to-do list). Apparently everyone else had the same idea; the gas station was packed and we had to wait in line, but only for a few minutes.

When we checked in to our hotel, Wendy asked if they were completely booked, and to our surprise, they said no, there were still a few rooms left. They gave us a free gift bag of eclipse-related items, including two eclipse glasses. They were also giving out free moon pies, so we took a couple. After we got settled into our room, we worked on completing another task on my to-do list: scouting out the roads to Ravenna.

Our hotel was directly in the path of totality, so if nothing else, we could just step outside and experience 1m 50s of totality. But I had planned a second option: if we drove 40 minutes north to the town of Ravenna, we could get 2m 35s of totality, which is only 7 seconds shy of the maximum totality possible. Ravenna was planning a big eclipse-watching event at two high school baseball fields, and were selling tickets for $10 per person. I had purchased tickets for us online a few weeks prior.

So we drove to Ravenna and located the baseball fields. This turned out to be a great idea for two reasons:

1. We learned the main roads to Ravenna went through the downtown area and had some busy and tricky traffic intersections. Now we knew we should try to find an easier route.
2. Ravenna was having a festival at the baseball fields that day. We were hoping to gauge how big the crowd would be for the eclipse by how big the crowd was at the festival:

As you can see, there were a good 10-20 people there. We were amused and relieved. There wouldn't be an apocalyptic number of people. It was just a small town; there would probably be small-town-sized crowds at the event. We headed back to our hotel, but via a different, and much easier, route. The trip had been worthwhile.

Back at our hotel room, I focused my attention on something completely unproductive: worrying about the weather! It still wasn't looking great; the weather forecast now called for, at best, 50% cloud cover throughout the state of Nebraska. It was all coming down to a coin toss, essentially. Not great odds. I did consider whether we should drive to Wyoming, which would have improved our odds, but we had no place to stay once we got there, and it would mean a 7-hour drive there and a 7-hour drive back, if traffic was perfect. So we stayed put.

When we bought supplies at the grocery store in Kansas, I bought a bag of Hershey's kisses and a bag of Andes chocolate mints. I told myself they would either be celebratory sweets, or morsels of misery. It was now the night before the eclipse. We didn't know if we would be able to see it. Uncertainty loomed large, and I had already begun mentally preparing myself for disappointment. I opened my bag of morsels and started eating...

My interest in this year's total solar eclipse started in the spring of last year, when I joined a local astronomy group that meets monthly. At each meeting someone would usually say something about the upcoming eclipse. So that put it on my radar. 

Also, for years I've read an astronomy magazine called StarDate:

One of the issues last year mentioned a soon-to-be-published book called Sun Moon Earth: The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets. I put the book on my birthday wish list that year, and Wendy got it for me. The book was great, and ultimately it was the thing that convinced me I should try to go see this year's eclipse.

Fortunately I read the book about a year in advance, so I was still able to find available hotel rooms. Based on historical models of cloud cover, western Nebraska looked like an ideal spot, with typically sunny days in late August. I aimed for a hotel in the North Platte area, but didn't find any reasonably priced rooms, so I wound up reserving a room in Kearney, which is in central Nebraska. We reserved a room for 2 nights, planning to arrive the day before the eclipse and leave the day after. With that done, I just had to wait an entire year.

A few months before the eclipse, we made our flight reservations. We decided to fly to Wichita so we could spend a few days visiting Wendy's parents. Then we could drive north 4.5 hours to Kearney for the eclipse. Afterwards, we'd drive back to Wichita for another quick visit, and then catch a flight home.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, I made lots of lists, trying to plan for any eventuality:

• What if there was no cell phone service? No problem, I downloaded offline maps on both of our phones. 
• What if I lost the paper maps that showed the exact time and path of totality? No problem, I took photos of the maps as a backup. 
• What if it was cloudy? I collected links to weather forecasts of cities in the path of totality all across Nebraska, even into Wyoming and Kansas.
• What if the airline somehow managed to lose our suitcase on a direct flight? No problem, I packed half of our eclipse glasses in our carry-on.

I had a list of things to pack before we left our house, a list of things to pack before we left Wichita to head to Kearney, and a list of things to do once we arrived in Kearney. I was determined to be PREPARED!

Finally, the day of our trip arrived. We packed everything up and got ready to drive to O'Hare. When we turned on the car, the song Total Eclipse of the Heart was playing on the radio! What an auspicious sign, we said!

Our drive to O'Hare and flight to Wichita was remarkably stress free. We picked up our rental car (a Toyota Camry), and headed to Bill and Beth's house, with a quick stop at a grocery store to buy some supplies we'd need for our trip north (I had a list of what we needed, naturally). Finally, we got to their house. I'd forgotten how peaceful and quiet it is there, and how beautiful the night sky is! I went outside to star gaze each night we were there. 

The next day was Saturday, and we decided to visit the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. Somehow, despite visiting the Wichita area dozens of times, I'd never been there before. It's a fantastic space museum, with all kinds of space artifacts. According to its Wikipedia page, it "houses the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside of Moscow, and a collection of US space artifacts second only to the National Air and Space Museum." It was really a fantastic museum. A few notable things:

• There's a beautiful SR-71 Blackbird hanging from the ceiling in the lobby. At first I thought it was a life-size replica, but later learned that no, it's a real plane that's been flown.
• There was a plaque towards the beginning that said there were 65 years between the Wright brother's first flight and humans landing on the moon. I was amazed by that! How did we make so much progress in such a short time, I wondered.
• The next exhibit answered my question. War is how we made so much progress. The museum had a German V-1 and V-2 rocket on display, with lots of fascinating and sobering stories about them. It said the V-2 rocket was one of mankind's greatest technological leaps, and we wouldn't have gotten to the moon without it.

We were at the museum for probably 3 hours, and there was more information than I could process in that time. I started to run out of steam by the end. It was a very cool place, and I'll have to go back at some point.

The whole time we were visiting Wendy's parents, I kept a close eye on the weather forecasts for the eclipse. And I was heartbroken with what I found. It was not looking good. The forecast called for cloudy skies over the entire state of Nebraska. I found an online forum of amateur astronomers, some of whom were also storm chasers, and I read their comments and followed the weather links they posted. I learned that the local branches of the National Weather Service publish not just the weather forecast, but a meteorological discussion of the forecast. Hastings, NE was the closest branch to Kearney. I read their weather discussions, and my hopes hung on their every word. At one point, the meteorologist wrote:

Although all hope is not lost, to be quite honest, I'm becoming concerned about the possibility of seeing the eclipse in central Nebraska.

Several months ago I watched a news program on the FNX TV station (FNX stands for First Nations Experience. It's the Native American PBS channel that I wrote about here). It had a segment on Indian mounds in southern Wisconsin. These are mounds of earth built by the Woodland Indians between 500 BC and 1200 AD. They were used for rituals, and were often built in the shape of animals. There used to be lots and lots of them, but most have been destroyed; the few that remain have been designated historical sites.

Then, a few weeks before my birthday, I encountered the topic of Indian mounds again. This time it was an article by Gregory Little, who's written several books on the topic. The article mentioned some of the major mounds in the U.S., including Cahokia in southern Illinois and the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio.

When it came time for my birthday last month, I wanted to do something fun and unique. So, based on the events above, I decided to explore the mounds in southern Wisconsin. I searched online until I found a review (here) of the Wisconsin mounds that were worth checking out. Of the 4 it recommended, 2 were only a short drive away! And according to Google Maps, we'd drive by another mounds site on the way to those two.

So on a sunny Saturday after my birthday, we packed a cooler with food (crackers, egg salad, pimento cheese, and sugar snap peas) and drove north.

Effigy Mounds Preserve in Whitewater, WI

This was our first stop. It was a small forested area right next to a subdivision. The mounds weren't very big, and were somewhat hard to make out among the vegetation, but I think this was my favorite of our stops. There was no one else there, and the area was beautiful and peaceful. There were markers next to each mound with more information. And there were signs from the Ho-Chunk tribe saying this is a sacred place, and to "Please respect this area as you would your place of worship."

A couple interesting things I learned from the markers:

• Some of the mounds were aligned with celestial events, like the rising of a star or constellation on a certain day. One in particular was oriented to Polaris, the North Star.
• The soil used to make the mounds is not from the area. It was carried there in baskets, from other sacred sites.

The only downside to these mounds was the mosquitoes. Fortunately, I put on bug spray before going in, so it wasn't too bad. Wendy didn't, though, and she fled to the car shortly after we started the trail.

Aztalan State Park

Our second stop had the fewest, but by far the most impressive, mounds. Since it was part of the Wisconsin State Park system, we had to pay an $11 out-of-state fee, which seemed excessive. But I suppose it is for a good cause.

The first thing we did was find a picnic table and eat lunch (the egg salad was delicious!). The whole area was wide open, and there was a nice breeze. Afterwards we walked all along the trails, and climbed to the top of the mounds. There was also a large, reconstructed log fence, which apparently had shielded the public from religious ceremonies.

One of the small mounds nearby, which was excavated long ago, contained a female skeleton with many ornate beads and shells. It was dubbed the "Princess Burial Mound". For a while, the skeleton and beads were on display at the Milwaukee Public Museum, but apparently the exhibit was taken down due to sensitivity over Native American burial rights. I've read that some Native Americans have demanded the remains be re-buried at Aztalan.

Koshkonong Mounds

This was our third and final stop. There were a dozen or so small mounds in the shape of various animals, although most of the shapes didn't look much like an animal, to be honest. The brochure did say that the best way to view the mounds is from above. Just like our first stop, there was a sign from the Ho-Chunk tribe saying this is an ancient burial and religious site, and to please respect it as you would your place of worship.

Unfortunately, this was the least enjoyable of our stops. The mosquitoes were out in full force, despite our bug spray, and we were getting tired. We took a quick hike along the trail, snapped a few pictures, and decided to call it a day.

That was our mounds-exploration trip. Overall, it was a decent way to spend a beautiful day. I would consider visiting mounds further north in Wisconsin, but definitely not during mosquito season!