The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

Kim won a raffle in February for entry into her first half-ironman in Rockford IL on Sunday. The original weather predictions were in the 90's and humid, not great conditions for a 5-6 hour endurance test. But they ended up with storms instead of heat.

I guess there were about 500 participants...with everyone starting the swim at the same time. There were only guys around her during the swim and she's decided guys are messy swimmers. She got elbowed in the face by someone.

She was in first place starting the bike split, ahead of the woman Pro in the race! During part of the 56 mile bike ride she felt like she was in a hurricane as the storm front came through. Then she was out in the wide open with nobody around when she started seeing lightning. She said it made her ride faster to try to finish the last 6 miles!

She finished 5th overall among the women, which should mean $200 in prize money. Might almost cover her expenses (hotel/travel), but she may "break" even by the fact that when she got home she broke her blender, dropping it when she was trying to make a smoothie (lack of coordination after the exertion).

Posted by Lucy 06/10/2008

It was immediately apparent that the $25 30 day visa in Indonesia was not long enough so we made an executive decision to stay for 31 days for a mere $20 extra. While in Sumatra we took a night boat to the remote Mentawai Islands south of Padang. There we stayed with a local Mentawai family and enjoyed jungle trekking and experienced traditional Mentawai medicine man rituals. It became apparent why all the medicine men are all so thin and wiry; the rituals go through the night and involve singing, chanting and dancing until you collapse from exhaustion. Then you repeat.

Mentawai medicine man dancing away evil spirits

Posted by nik 02/06/2009, revised 02/24/2009

Aaaalllriiight. It's been a while, eh? I've moved around a bit since the last time I wrote... I bet a lot of you didn't know that I've spent the last month in Europe. Well I did. At the end of July, I bought a last minute, on-a-whim ticket to London, and I've since spent a few weeks in Edinburgh, Scotland and a few weeks in France.

I haven't spent extended periods of time on the internet, so I've never gotten around to writing a blog about it all. But it's been quite an experience! I don't really know how to summarize the last month in this blog entry, nor do I have the energy to take on such a task, but I figure everyone likes looking at pictures, right?

So see the link to my photo album of England, Scotland, and France. Enjoy!

Me goofing around at the Eiffel Tower

My itinerary of the last month has looked like this:

• 1 night: London
  
• 2 weeks: Edinburgh, Scotland, with a 2-day trip to the Highlands
  
• 1 1/2 weeks: French countryside
  
• 1 week: Paris
  
• Currently, I have 1 1/2 weeks left in France, and I'm hoping to spend it in Bordeaux, where I have a couple friends I'm hoping to meet up with.

In 1 1/2 weeks, I catch a flight out of Paris to Bangkok, Thailand to meet up with Nik (my brother, for those of you unfamiliar with the family). Nik and I will then spend the next few months adventuring around SE Asia, eating great food, staying in bungalows on beautiful islands, lazing about in hammocks, doing some SCUBA diving, finding some great rock-climbing, and pretty much just living the life... for cheap! Yay!

So there you have it. If that update didn't suffice, feel free to email me! I'd much rather tell you more about it personally than sitting here trying to figure out how to describe the last 5 weeks for the general audience.

Posted by Whitney 08/24/2008, revised 08/24/2008