Great total eclipse 2017

After my arrival to Penn State University, I almost immediately heard about the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 bound to cross some parts of US three months later. The Physics department of PSU was organizing a trip and I instantaneously wrote to them expressing my interest for the same trip.
Months passed by and when one fine Saturday afternoon I realized that with three weeks in hand for the total eclipse, we still had not heard back from the department, I thought of chalking out an independent plan with a few of my other friends. While we had made a considerable progress in the detailing for this separate venture, the organizers from the department returned to our emails about the trip the same week and we decided to scrap our own plans and instead join them as originally planned. With probably a fortnight left for the trip, our lives were suddenly very busy as we went around making plans. The plan of the trip was that we were supposed to drive all the way to Kentucky and camp at Mammoth National Park for 18-20 August. The early 21st morning of the eclipse, we were to drive to the huge playground in a community school nearby in Adairville and view the totality. The organizers had done a commendable job of taking care of every single details right from organizing the carpool to checking the weather for perfect visibility and all we, as individuals had to do was take care of our own stuffs. The fun part was that in my friend's circle, none of us had camped. Since it was a new experience, we had to literally refer to a spreadsheet in the group that detailed all the necessities that we may need to have. Thankfully, my supervisor was kind enough to allow us borrow his two tents, along with all the nitty-gritties of laying out a comfortable camping and we were all set for the trip. Three of us (that included two of my friends – let's call them S, R and me) were supposed to travel in one car to be driven by A. There were definite hiccups around this plan since the three of us would actually not be able to help A with driving and it would be too long a distance for A to drive alone. Eventually, the night before the travel, we get the information that A has managed to find someone help her with driving and that meant we three had to travel in two different cars. After a few permutations, we decided that I would travel in another car while R and S would continue in A's car. This way, they would reach the campsite early and set up both the tents while I would reach the campsite around midnight on Friday and just crash off to sleep.

All smiles!

The next day, I left in another J's car and we drove past Columbus, Cincinnati and Louisville stopping midway for lunch at Ohio and for dinner at an extremely friendly house in Kentucky. The trip was fun especially towards the end when it had got really dark and spooky and we started talking about all the possibilities that could happen in any horror/Final desintation-type movies. Unfortunately, nothing like that happened and we reached the campsite safe. While I was spreading out my sleeping bag in one of the tents, we get a cautionary message to keep off food stuffs away from the tent lest raccoons attack them. We then hid them away in one of the car's bonnet.
I was a little scared when I put myself inside the tent. Feeling trifle claustrophobic, I decided to leave a small netted section of the tent unchained. Furthermore, I had read in a signboard nearby that there may be snakes and one ought to be careful. Amidst all these scary thoughts and overhearing arguments between R and S in the next tent about whether one can sneak a protein bar in their tent and hide them from the raccoons (what were they anyway!), I felt sound asleep!
The next morning we were up early and decided to venture nearby in search of tea. There was a grocery store nearby that took care of the necessities. We also discovered that there was a Visitor Center nearby wherein one should book the tickets to visit the caves. As we entered the Visitor Center, we realized that all the tickets for the privileged guided tour were sold out. Nonetheless, on request, we were given three tickets to view the “History Tour” that day.

Just some drama

We rushed back to the camp to get dressed and we left for the day. The History Tour started with some rote anecdotes and on the verge of entering the cave, we were giving precautionary warnings about the visit. While the rest of the warnings were general, I was a little worried about claustrophobia creeping to me in the caves but decided to try. In my mind, the worst case scenario would be that I may have to leave the tour incomplete for which I was prepared anyway.

Right: Notice a man fighting with a bear?
 

As we entered the caves, we felt a sudden chill and realized that it was probably ventilated. That was my first sigh of relief – at least I would not suffocate. The caves flaunted all their grandeur and as one enters it, there comes a sense of awe. Sublimity around majesticity. The tour guide went on describing the historical timeline of the caves substantiating his stories with engravings on walls and exploiting the fact that humans can easily associate patterns with familiar objects – pareidolia. At one instance, he also switched of all the lights – his lantern included and there was not a single speck of light anywhere. Jumpy that I am, I am glad that I survived it! The cave walls were full of scallops which are used to track the direction of water flow and somewhere inside these dark caves flows a river (where visits are prohibited) that are home to blind fish (hint: Darwin's theory). There were extremely narrow sections of the cave where a moderately framed person would have difficulty passing through. One section was named “Fat man's misery” for obvious reasons. Being petite has it's advantages, getting around the cave was definitely for me.

Fat man's misery

Towards the end of the Historical tour, we were then brought back to current time by the growling in our stomachs. We grabbed quick lunch in a restaurant nearby and for the afternoon, we joined the rest of the group for hiking along the river trails. Evidently, we came across the Green River and while the rest of them jumped in the river, a few of us decided to stay in the banks with a promise to come back another day. The three of us headed back uphill and decided to explore. After all, walking along the known trails would not justify the experience of hiking. At one point, we thought we heard a bear but decided to disbelieve it anyway. (As we continued to walk uphill, we chanced on an old dilapidated cottage which I very much like to believe was inhabited by a witch from the Disney movies). And while there is little doubt that we three were among the very few to have walked along that way, the challenge was to find our way out with no GPS and no-one else in sight. We did what our ancestors must have done: Just followed the now-dried river ways till we reached near the source from where was almost a vertical climb (oh, did I mention spiders along the way whose webs were brushing our face) till we reached the familiar terrains. Once back to the camp, we decided to celebrate S's birthday in three timezones (Indian, Pennsylvanian and local) in a traditional way with cakes and candles. By evening, two of our other friends had reached the campsite. What an end to a great day it was, when after dinner all of us explored nearby to open fields and had excellent sightings of the Milky Way arm coupled with intermittent meteor showers. Time froze by as we lay on our backs and gazed at the stars stupefied.

  

Well, looks like this way

The next day began early as well. While  loafing around the Visitor  center, we luckily chanced on tickets  to the next guided tour to the caves  as well. This time, it was called the  “Frozen Niagaras”. Needless to  mention, this cave tour was  aesthetically appealing as we literally froze surrounded by stalactites,  stalagmites. In the end, we also had a  chance to see the crickets on the cave rooftops. Interestingly again, these crickets had not learnt how to chirp (probably none cared to listen to them in the caves!). Towards the second half that day, we went hiking and exploring the other trails. We also visited the Green river like we had promised the other day. The river was not very deep (but enough to scare me) and after initial trepidation (and much more insistence) I got in the river and stayed till the sun was down. That night, we barbecued by the fire and slept early since the next day was going to be a long one.

When stalactites and stalagmites meet

The next morning was the final day of the tour and all of us got up early to pack the tents (in the dark) and head towards Adairville from where we intended to view the eclipse. We reached early in the community park and had a fun time while we explored around playing games and swinging! There were so many people around distributing eclipse glasses, pamphlets. There was also a make-shift store nearby where people were selling food at an extremely nominal rate. As the eclipse first started to appear, excitement started to creep in. We noticed the Sun being slowly reduced in intensity. Gradually it started to get eerier and the temperatures started to drop. There were a “thousand splendid suns” literally on the roads as the tree leaves formed pinhole cameras to bring the sun down to Earth. To me, it was like a science fiction (ironically) as we saw the Sun being consumed. Then the totality – cold and numb and silent. 

Totality. P.C: Jacob Luhn (PSU)

After two minutes, the temperatures started to rise. Everything was as though just a figment of our  imaginations. The hustle-bustle continued and as we drove along the huge corn fields, the Sun reclaimed it's lost glory and shone again with all it's fiery.