The Eclipse

After listening to a pod cast on the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017, Paul was pretty adamant on us making a trip to the path of totality!  The eclipse was actually going to be 95% visible from the Iowa City area, but he insisted that that wasn't "good enough."  If you know Paul, he's pretty laid back about most things, so after seeing his passion about the eclipse, we booked a hotel!  We made reservations at the first hotel we could find that had vacancies, which ended up being in Moberly, Missouri.  After a quick google search, we found that Moberly had a nice outdoor pool and that sealed the deal for a weekend getaway.

We checked into our one star hotel/motel combo.  The room was less than stellar and didn't end up having a cot or pack-n-play like they original told us.  No worries, we pushed the bed to the wall, and the three kids slept sideways.  

We found the outdoor pool which did hold up to our standards based on their website's pictures!  It was a true small town pool with little to no rules.  They allowed our kids to jump off the diving boards without passing any sort of swim test, which of course, ended up being a highlight.  The lifeguards enjoyed a wide range of music and held dance offs with the swimmers.  It was definitely an entertaining pool!

The next day was rainy so we had to find some indoor fun.  We snuggled and watched a movie in the hotel.

We went bowling!  And then to the movie theater for the second movie of the day, Nut Job 2, which got surprisingly good reviews by the whole fam!

Upon returning to the hotel, we found out that our room had no water and the phone lines were dead.  I asked Paul to run to the office to see what the deal was (he almost didn't want to leave us alone as it seemed like the plot to a bad horror film, but we survived!).  The water was to come back on in about an hour, so crisis averted!  The rain cleared up for a quick dip in the hotel pool.  

Then we met up with some ecplipse-traveling Iowa City friends who were also spending the night in Moberly!

The next morning, the morning of the eclipse, Ruby got stuck in the bathroom!

A maintenance man came and kicked open the door.  Quite an adventure at this hotel!

The weather forecast was not proving to be the best for viewing the solar eclipse.  We traveled to Mexico, Missouri, about a half hour east of Moberly, to make our camp for viewing!  We found a perfect little park that was hosting people for the eclipse!

And then it was time!  The kids loved looking through their glasses.  

We had a great view for the first half.  Unfortunately, the clouds did start to creep in and we weren't able to see much after awhile.  However, it did steadily get darker and darker.  And the clouds disappeared at just the right time where we were able to find it again towards the end.  I was a bit skeptical that it would get totally dark, but I was wrong!  Even though it was cloudy, totality was amazing!  The temperature dropped, it was dark as night, and the moon seemed to zap the sun away!  Totality lasted just over a minute in Mexico, Missouri.  We loved it!  

We were so very glad we made this trip!  Memories were definitely made at our one star hotel and during the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017!  The next total eclipse is April 2024.  Better start planning!  ;)