Adventure is out there, Seize the opportunity!

The stars have been etched into my soul. I grew up in the country and during the summers my mom and I would grab our sleeping bags and head for the back deck where we would look at the starts until we finally drifted off to sleep. This is where I learned about the Pleiades, the Big and Little Dipper, the Milky Way Galaxy and saw my first meteor showers.

Fast forward a ton of years, and now I’m living just outside of Cleveland. I think in my 11 years of living here, I have seen a total of maybe 10 stars from my back yard, and honestly when I think about that, I truthfully want to cry.

Needless to say when I found out about the Lunar Eclipse in 2017 , I grabbed the computer and mapped out exactly where the best viewing spot would be. My husband and I looked at each other, and grinned. Road Trip!

We bought our viewing glasses off of Amazon, loaded up the kayaks and headed out!

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The best viewing spot within a 7 hour drive was Center Hill Lake in Tennessee. It was a bit of a drive but seriously, so freaking beautiful, I want to go back to there!

The Lunar Eclipse

The morning of the eclipse had an electric charge. People were buzzing around their campsites, talking about what kind of cameras they had and their hopes of capturing some good footage. I remember grinning. I had brought my knock off Go Pro but had never used it before…..(Nope didn’t get one good shot with it)

Anyway, there is a small island that we could see from the campsite and decided that’s where we would watch it. The hubs grabbed our cooler of beer, our innertubes, tied them to our kayaks and we paddled out.

Note to self: Styrofoam coolers full of beer are not easy to drag behind a kayak!

We bobbed up in down in our tubes for abut an hour before the eclipse began. Fellow enthusiasts joined us on the island and yachts from the boat club around the bend joined the party. As the eclipse began to take place one of the boats blasted “It’s the end of the world as we know it” and every single person on that island sang it at the top of their lungs, I was no acceptation. The excitement amongst the crowd was intense.

Bobbing in my tube, with my glasses on, I was in awe as I watched the moon begin to cross the sun. It got cold and then the bugs came out, and then the bats! They were clearly confused as to what was going on. I looked away from the moment and looked around me to see everyone gasping as they were watching it. I remember tearing up, and realizing how just very cool this was. The moon continued crossing over, and I caught myself holding my breath. It was absolutely unlike anything I had ever seen. It seemed to last for hours, and then it was gone as quick as it had came. But, just before it was over we saw the ring! I had heard about the ring in an eclipse but seeing it was another story. The beach was absolutely silent. It was incredible, standing their in the water, amongst a group of strangers with beers in their hands, and not one peep from anybody. As soon as the sun came back out there was cheering and many of us had unexplainable tears running down our cheeks. Someone lead a toast to which we all held up our beers and yelled Cheers! Strangers came up to us and introduced themselves with a hug, and it was just the most awesome feeling ever. It was that sense of community. We may not have known each other but we were all there, sharing that exact moment, in that exact place together. It was surreal.

Yes, I had forgotten to wash off my mascara before we paddled out and yes, my hair is a hot mess, but those smiles say it all. It was an incredible once in a lifetime opportunity.

Remember folks, wanderlust is real, and adventures are all around you as long as you make it a priority to look for them. This is something I will never forget!

Take me back to Center Hill Lake!