What The Lunar Eclipse Taught Me

So, being overly excited for last weekends Lunar Eclipse, I went to bed early on Friday night, knowing full well that being in the middle of the country might hinder my ability at seeing the eclipse. I woke up at 4 to check on the moon situation and the clouds. I wanted to know if it would be worth it to wake back up at 6 to watch. It was, and I got back up at 6:15 and headed outside to find that the moon was behind some trees. I needed to drive somewhere to a clear view. There is a plot of state hunting land about a 1/4 mile from home and thats where I headed.

I pulled into the lot and there was a truck there already, so to be polite, I put on my E brake to give the guy some darkness while he hunted and set up rather than be bathed in my day time running lights. So truck is running and warm, the lights are off, I have a good view of the moon and the eclipse is starting. I got about a 1/8 of the way through the eclipse and the moon set behind a giant front of clouds. The morning was over. I decided to leave.

I pulled out onto the main road and realized that I had left my E brake on. I only went about 15 feet, but I could not get it to release. I was stranded in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the early morning. I had only one choice and that was to call a tow truck even though I could see my house from where I was parked. I was waiting and as I looked in my rear view mirror, I could see that the moon was back out from the clouds and the eclipse was almost half way now!

I got to witness 3/4 of the eclipse before I ran out of Horizon. If I was even on the Western side of South Dakota and not Central Minnesota, I think I would of had a better time seeing it. As the moon disappeared over the horizon, the tow truck pulled up. It was great timing. It cost $100 for the tow to the dealership, but once there, my cousin fixed it for free.

What the Eclipse taught me - Don't be over ambitious on a cold morning, and if you don't use your E brake very often, it goes bad really fast, so don't use it!