Road to the Sun - Eclipse 2017

Wednesday, August 23, 2017   Lake Lurleen State Park, Coker AL All we really did today was move from Tennessee to Alabama, but we passed the neatest house on the way.  On our way up to Cedars of Lebanon Park, we had seen two turrets rising from the mountainside on I-65 between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.  It looked like a castle so when we saw them again, I googled it and found an article about Castle Gwynn.  We were too far away and moving too fast to get a good picture, so I will insert one from the internet, as well as some info on the fascinating story. The following information is from an internet article on the castle.  Mike Freeman, the owner, and his wife built the castle a little at a time, as they had the funds. Castell Gwynn is the realization of Mike Freeman's dream, one begun in 1970 in a high school architecture class, in which he drew the first sketches of his dream house. With the help of parents Joe Paul and Bessie Freeman, ...

Tuesday, August 22   Cedars of Lebanon State Park, Lebanon TN Today’s main focus was checking out the trails at Cedars of Lebanon Park.  As we learned in the Nature Center, there are no actual cedars in the park.  At one time, cedar trees were abundant in the county, but logging took care of most of them.  There are still a few scattered around the county, but the trees here that we refer to as “red cedar” are actually a species of juniper. We lathered up with sunscreen and bug spray, and set out to find the Limestone Sinks and the Hidden Springs trails.  According to the signs, the Limestone Sinks trail was developed as an Eagle Scout project.  It is supposed to be a self- guided trail.  There are numbered signposts all along the trail and I assume that there is or was at some point a printed guide to accompany them.  We weren’t sure what was meant by the “sinks” but there were quite a few rock outcroppings and places where wat...

Monday, August 21, 2017    Total Solar Eclipse We pulled into Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Lebanon, Tennessee a little after noon yesterday.  Didn’t do a whole lot yesterday except prepare for today.  Today was the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse!!  The park here is directly in the path of totality and we had made reservation a year in advance.  The weather was almost perfect, with only a few clouds at the beginning of the eclipse, which lasted from 11:59 to 2:54 CDT.  The park had an area set up in an open field with music, food trucks, games, and LOTS of people.  But we found a primo spot just behind the check in station where we had clear sky, shade, and a platform where we could set up our chairs.   Since this is the “stage” where they perform “Music in the Park” from time to time, we also had electricity, which meant we had a fan!! We actually moved all of our equipment and set up around 9:45 so no one else coul...

So we decided a year ago (no kidding - I made camping reservations in August 2016) to make the trip up to Tennessee to view the total solar eclipse.  We are headed up to Cedars of Lebanon State Park, which is in the path of totality.  Rather than just drive straight up there and back, we stopped at Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama, one of our favorite parks.  On our way home we spent a couple of days at Lake Lurleen State Park outside Coker, Alabama. Saturday, August 19, 2017  Oak Mountain State Park, Pelham, AL We came in last night after about a 9 hour drive.  It probably would have been about 8 hrs but we misjudged the turnoff and ended up going about 20 miles farther than necessary and had to double back.  We didn’t trust the GPS because the last time we came through this area it took us through a mall parking lot to get to the park.  But we made it.  Bailey was very upset the entire trip.  She never lay down like she usually doe...