Nature Rules

August 21, 2017  1 AM. I wake up with the memory of the night before the Appomattox Surrender reenactment and day long activities on April 9, 2015.

On April 7,  I met some folks from town who graciously invited me, a total stranger, to stay at their home right in town. Since the events the next day began at 7:00 and my hotel was a 40 minute drive away, this was a great gift that I was happy to accept.

The  evening of April 8, I  attended a reenactment at a site that had just been documented recently. AFterwards we were all to go to Appomattox Court House to listen to Ranger Patrick give a talk. But near the end of the reenactment, it started to rain. A Heavy rain, enough for us all to scurry to our cars. We were told that the talk would still happen, but inside the visitors center instead of as an outdoor tour.. As it turned out, a 45 minute talk turned into several hours as the knowledgable attendees asked question after question. Partrick was in his glory.

During the night the rain turned into one of the worst thunderstorm I had ever encountered, made worse in my mind perhaps by the 2 year anticipation of this culmination of  my journey. I wasn't imagining the power of this storm. This was not a slight rain that could just dampen the next days events. This was a violent thunderstorm that could literally cancel them.

 6:00 am The rains stopped. Silence. A beautiful silence.

7:00 am  on this foggy morning as the last battle of the Civil War  unfolded with Union cavalry lined up on the hill ready to charge, and more from the Army of the James to the left  surrounding the last gasp of Lee's exhausted army, Patrick opened up the morning by stating

          150 years ago at 7:00, the roads were muddy and fog moved across those fields
                 
I was reminded of that story during the night of August 20 knowing that the weather report for Charleston was for thunderstorms and the closest area without too many clouds was hours to the west. So in my imagination,  this trip that depended on nature's whims, would be thwarted and there would be no place that was clear enough to see the eclipse anywhere within driving distance.

 5:30 am We forged ahead the next morning with Plan B: the beach.

At 6:15 or so we packed up as if we were going out for the whole day. Food. Towels. sheet to sit on.Newly purchase beach umbrella. Water. Eclipse glasses.

The sunlight was evident when we made it to the water, but- oh my- enormous billowing clouds hung over the water obscuring the sunrise. The weather report called for storms in Charleston.

Let's go. We needed to change to plan D: We were to become eclipse chasers!