My fantasies of adventure started months ago when Julie asked me if I wanted to go camping. Naturally, I said yes, despite some trepidation, as the last time we went camping, Julie broke her foot. However, this would be the chance of a lifetime.
Also, it would be a great way to test out the new all-electric camper kitchen that Tom and I built and installed last summer. That kitchen started as a simple redesign but turned into much more with my friend Tom’s creative mind. The old kitchen was dominated by a sink and two internal 8-gallon tanks; for the uninformed, I had to contend with 64 pounds of fresh water and 64 pounds of gross gray water. Over the years that I have owned Violet the camper van I have found much more efficient ways to keep my dishes and myself clean on the road. The sink and its system had become obsolete, wasting valuable space in my tiny home on wheels where every square centimeter of storage was essential.
My initial plan was to remove the sink and replace the kitchen countertop with a laminate surface. We could easily cut the laminate and install an induction burner. However, Tom’s idea was to completely rebuild the kitchen, which would be considerably more work but add practicality and storage space. We went with plan B, which involved weekends of cutting, gluing, and screwing. This would also permit us to make a custom countertop from wood we had harvested from fallen trees. Years prior, Tom arranged a deal with the Morton Arboretum to purchase fallen trunks, which we sawed and cured into wood planks. He had used the planks for his home remodel, but there was enough scrap wood to make a one-of-a-kind kitchen countertop for Violet.
I had played around with my new solar-powered kitchen, but you never know how something will work until you test it in the field. This trip would be the kitchen’s first field test.
I remember seeing my first solar eclipse in the 1960s. I was in grade school, and I recall the warnings to “Not look directly at the Sun.” I made a pinhole projection box to view the Sun as the moon bit progressive chunks out of it. I’m uncertain if that eclipse reached totality, but it impressed me enough to have vivid memories of the event decades later. I remember standing on our front lawn, adjusting my makeshift device while noting all the others standing on their cramped patches of front yard in my South Side Chicago neighborhood.
In 2017, we took our kids to Southern Illinois for that eclipse. We visited St. Louis to check out Washington University as a potential college for my daughter and then drove east to the eclipse. Every place was crowded, but we eventually found our way to a county fairground and witnessed totality with hundreds of random watchers. It was an incredible experience.
This time around, it would just be Julie, me, and Violet, the camper van. Julie had called around for lodging. Bargain hotels, like Motel 8, were being booked at almost $1000 per night. Campgrounds were starting at $250. Yikes! She found a makeshift offering in Marion, Illinois, which was directly in the path of totality. Fifty dollars gave us the privilege to park in a field that belonged to a church. We were happy to get it.
We built Violet to be self-contained. We carry water (and water purification), generate electricity via solar panels, and possess simple toilet facilities. We would be fine. All we needed was reasonably level ground to park on.
The total eclipse would be on Monday, but we drove to Southern Illinois on Sunday. We initially planned on leaving Chicagoland on Saturday to explore the region, but we wanted to attend a friend’s 65th birthday celebration that day.
Being my compulsive self, I had already gone shopping for camp supplies. The dry goods were already packed in the camper and the refrigerated items were placed in a bag in our home fridge. That way I wouldn’t forget to bring anything. All I had to do was unload the bag into Violet’s chest fridge on the day of the adventure.
Since we were only going overnight, packing was as simple as tossing a few items of clothing in a backpack. As far as Julie was concerned, all she needed to bring were her personal items, as I would be taking care of the rest.
With Violet fully fueled and her larder overflowing, we set off on our adventure. The trip to Marion was calculated at around 5 hours, but terrific winds and rain extended the trip to over six. Julie wanted to stop at Carbondale, as that was the epicenter of eclipse activities, but I was already spent and couldn’t imagine the additional hour of drive time. As Violet’s pilot, I made the executive decision to give it a pass.
The field location was obscure, so we used GPS coordinates instead of standard street directions. However, finding the place turned out to be a breeze, as well as a surprise. The Christian church was situated on acres of a neatly cut grass field. The place had it all, a massive fire pit, a pavilion with picnic tables, and…BATHROOMS!! The setting was as lovely as a dedicated campground. Best of all, we had ample space, and our fellow campers were chill and respectful. Fantastic! And did I say, BATHROOMS! When you are a camper used to camping on BLM land, bathrooms are a BIG deal.
Sunday and pre-eclipse Monday were spent quietly. Talking, reading, and a little YouTube watching. My initial test of the kitchen was simple: grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I challenged the system more on Monday morning as I made coffee in an electric coffee pot and homemade breakfast burritos using both the induction hob and the microwave. Everything worked flawlessly. Despite running my fridge, using the lights, heating the cabin with the Webasto heater, and cooking, I only used 19% of my battery’s capacity. Additionally, the 400 watts of solar on Violet’s roof had my batteries back at 100% capacity by early afternoon—a total success for a total eclipse day.
By 1:30 PM, we had our lawn chairs in position as we saw the moon slowly eclipse the Sun through our heavily tinted eclipse glasses. I took a few shots on my phone by covering its lens with the glasses with fair results. At that point I regretted not bringing along one of my professional camera rigs with me. Alas, you win some, and you lose some.
The first thing that I noticed was that it suddenly became cooler. However, the Sun had to be almost completely covered before the light changed from day to dusk. At 1:59:44 PM, totality occurred and lasted 4 minutes and 7 seconds. We went from dusk to night; the wind stilled, and the birds stopped singing. More spectacularly, the Sun turned into a black disk surrounded by a most amazing coronal ring. It was awe-inspiring and almost spiritual. When totality occurred, there was an audible gasp throughout the campground, which then went quiet. We viewed totality in respectful silence. Minutes passed, and then a tiny crescent of light emerged, then more. In about 30 minutes, the moon had broken its bond with the Sun, and life in Southern Illinois returned to normal.
We had cleaned up Violet so all we had to do was to collapse and load our chairs back into her garage. Then, the trip back home.
I have to admit that driving back to Chicago was a nightmare. The 5-hour trip turned into 7 hours and 40 minutes of stop-and-go traffic. This was no surprise, but it still sucked. We arrived home at 10:40 PM. I decided to unpack the camper in the morning, showered, and went promptly to bed.
Was seeing 4 minutes of eclipse worth driving twelve and a half hours? Absolutely!
