From: Richard.Silk@Juno.Com   
      
   This past weekend was a tad hectic, as I was "planning a possible road trip"   
   that I was basically *set on* turning into an *actual* road trip.  Plans were   
   made and directions printed out on Saturday evening (4/6/24) for a trip to a   
   Wal*Mart in "Mountain View, Missouri"  and the car was mainly loaded and other   
   things prepped, like baggies for individual dog food servings.  (I saved the   
   ice   
   chest, ice and bottled water, etc., for Sunday afternoon, right before   
   leaving.)   
      
      
   *Saturday night/Sunday morning* I had a dream / vision snippet: a flash view of   
   totality:  the ring of the coriolis of the sun surrounding the darkness of the   
   moon, set against (within) a dark background.  (It was immediately recognizable   
   *in the dream/vision* for what it was, so *that* would qualify as "clarity 10"   
   despite the sheer black & white nature of the scene.)   
      
      
   Sunday morning, I watched my local Church service (live) on YouTube (because I   
   just wasn't "geared" for going to Church *and* going on a trip) and also   
   checked   
   the DVR (digital video recording) of "CBS Sunday Morning" (possibly one of the   
   *least* offensive, least-far-left, least-sickening *nonfiction* programs on   
   CBS)   
   as I was looking forward to seeing *something* on the eclipse, and possibly   
   analyze their 10-to-20 second national weather map for the week.   
      
      
   Lo and behold, they actually had a "cloud coverage forecast" for Monday (the   
   day   
   of the eclipse) showing Mountain View (and most all the western US) had a 60%   
   cloudy forecast (and the other places were too far to drive for my personal   
   taste) and the *only* place within comfortable driving range of Middle   
   Tennessee   
   with 0% coverage was the SW-to-NE path across the State of Indiana.   
      
      
   During my early childhood, my family would go every year to Fort Wayne,   
   Indiana,   
   to visit my grandparents and cousins (and aunts and uncles) living there.  In   
   my   
   very early 20s, I drove there myself a few times, and was *fairly* comfortable   
   with the directions.   
      
   In the center of the path of totality in Indiana was/is a town named Franklin,   
   relatively small *and* with a Wal*Mart, so I switched up the plans to go, laid   
   it into the Google Maps app, and *presto!* I had a route.  (There's a   
   neighboring "Franklin, Tennessee" near Murfreesboro, so it made the connection   
   that much easier to remember.)   
      
   Oddly enough, the "shortest route" involved *toll roads* which the maps app   
   easily circumvented.  Time was not an issue, because I was driving up Sunday,   
   to   
   sleep the night in my car, to be ready on Monday (the 8th, the day of the   
   eclipse.)   
      
   Being a tad too cocksure of myself (and wanting to save paper and ink, as the   
   step-by-step directions that I'd copied from the app were a tad cumbersome and   
   lengthy) I *clipped* them at the point where I-24 had something to do with   
   another road notification.  (Possible error #1)   
      
   On the starting leg, still in Murfreesboro, I was at the intersection of Lokey   
   and US-41 (headed towards I-24) when the app seemed to be giving me a strange   
   direction (perhaps I was too anxious to be off?) so I pulled into the parking   
   lot of the nearby Hardee's (also called "Carl's" in some areas of the country)   
   to use the free wi-fi (my tablet needed a wi-fi connection to *plot* the maps   
   app directions) to re-plot the route, and avoid toll roads.  Re-set, or so I   
   thought.  (Once the route is set, the app has no direct need for further Wi-Fi   
   as it is GPS-based.)   
      
   I kept following I-24 (West) looking for the connection it mentioned.  I saw   
   one   
   exit for a south-bound Interstate (69S?) which is what I *thought* I was   
   looking   
   for, only I wanted to go *north* so I kept on driving.   
      
   On and on along I-24 West, across the Kentucky border near Clarksville (which I   
   was familiar with from a job contract I fulfilled one week at the 101st   
   Airborne   
   in Clarksville) until I came to the Kentucky-Indiana state border (the Ohio   
   River) and noticed two *different* bridges across the river.   
      
   "Huh!" I thought, thinking "*Maybe* it's been a few decades since I last   
   crossed; *maybe* they rebuilt the bridges???"   
      
   I soon noticed I was in the State of Illinois (! -DEFINITE error #1!)-  the GPS   
   app on the tablet seemed "off" for some reason as well.   
      
   I pulled into a rest area to walk my dog (Ginger) as well as myself, and found   
   a   
   pair of folk I thought to be a married couple in matching, yellow-ish T-shirts,   
   but they turned out to be the janitorial staff.  They had a *paper* map and I   
   *quickly* noticed that I-24 (headed East, back towards Nashville) made a sort   
   of   
   U-shape, and at the bottom of that U bend, in Kentucky, it tied into I-69   
   (which   
   is what I knew led into Indiana.)  I thanked them (I think!) and departed, only   
   this time, I decided to "pinch in" (zoom out) the map perspective, and it   
   showed   
   me somewhere in a relatively barren area, and I figured it was "off map"   
   (although that's not an entirely accurate description) but I *also* discovered   
   that *somehow* the volume had been dropped *all the way down* which is why I   
   never heard the audible directions heading north of Nashville.  (DEFINITE error   
   #2!  But what caused the volume drop???)   
      
   About the time I tagged back onto I-69 North, the tablet / maps app began   
   "talking to me" again, only to avoid the toll roads, it took me through state   
   routes and highways I'd never traveled before, *plus* by this time, I felt the   
   need to fill the gas tank (in Kentucky, which was a *huge* mistake- prices in   
   Indiana were roughly $1 per gallon lower! - what had cost me a little over $34   
   in Tennessee cost *$60* in KY! (Possible error #2)) and also, it had gotten   
   dark   
   (I shoulda been very nearly "there" by "then" and also never spotted "the   
   bridge" over the Ohio) *and* it began to rain- a LOT!- like,   
   following-the-headlights-in-front-of-you-time, lightning, etc., but fortunately   
   Ginger just napped out in the back of the car (2012 Toyota Venza, perhaps an   
   SUV) so *when we finally got there,* it was dark, and the Wal*Mart was *closed   
   for remodeling* but I managed to find a nice, quiet parking spot (aimed   
   *southeasterly* near the northwest corner of the lot) which was in a parking   
   row   
   ahead of an RV (from South Carolina) that was parked *diagonally* to the lot   
   stripes painted on the asphalt, roughly aimed southwesterly) when an idea that   
   had bugged me just a bit before the trip began to reform:  "What are you gonna   
   do all day while awaiting the eclipse?"   
      
   Taking Ginger (and myself) out for a late-evening walk around the lot, it turns   
   out the RV folk were well-experienced in the OTR (on the road) travel   
   lifestyle,   
   and had a small, portable fire pit (about 2' tall, cylindrical, about 1' in   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)