Last week there was a "very deep partial lunar eclipse" visible over most of North America, South America, Africa and Europe (sorry Asia and Australia). The scientific description is that the full moon passes through the Earth's umbral shadow, causing the light on the moon to dim and then the moon to turn a slightly reddish-orange color. Here in Arkansas, the eclipse started at 8:23 PM, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 11:12 PM.
I wanted to get pictures of the eclipse, but there was one tiny problem. I had purchased tickets for my wife and I to go see Hamilton, which was playing at Robinson Center in Little Rock that night. The play started at 7:30, and then ended around 10:30. So after the play, I hurried home to drop off Caroline and then grab the camera. And then I hurried to head back downtown to try to get some pictures when the eclipse was at its peak. It was late, and there wasn't much traffic out. But I somehow managed to hit every single red light between my house and downtown Little Rock.
I ended up at the State Capitol, and quickly set up the tripod and the camera.
It was quiet at the Capitol. All the politicians and state workers were gone, and only a few bored security guards were around.
Over the last few years I've spent a good amount of time playing the Legend of Zelda video games, so I was a tiny bit wary of seeing a reddish moon rising in the sky. Luckily nothing like this happened that night:
Earlier this week we actually got rain - probably the first really significant amount of rain in weeks. And the rain and clouds helped keep the temperatures down that day, resulting in a rare day this summer that wasn't over 100 degrees. Honestly it felt like a miracle to be able to actually go and enjoy being outside again.
To celebrate the rare break in the ovenlike summer temps, I headed out around sunset to try to get a few pictures. On my way to Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, I drove by this stretch of old buildings and got a few pictures:
I went to Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, but was soon kicked out by the NLR Police. Apparently the park now closes right at sunset, which it used to be open later. Not sure when or why this changed, but it does get in the way of people taking pictures down there now. So instead I headed over to the Junction Bridge and got a few pictures there instead.
Maybe instead of closing the parks early and getting the police to remove people from the park, the cities should fix all the lights on the downtown bridges instead?
From the Junction Bridge I headed across the river and went to the old Baring Cross Bridge. This is the oldest railroad bridge in Little Rock, and the only one that is still used by rail traffic. In fact I didn't have to wait very long for a freight train to slowly make its way across the bridge.
And with a loud squeal of breaks, the train rolled to stop. On the other side of Cantrell Road there is a small bridge over the tracks, which has a nice view looking up towards Union Station and the State Capitol. The train was still stopped, but there was a slow stream of freight trains making their way to the bridge on the other track.
The old Hawthicket church has been abandoned now for several decades. It sits, seemingly alone and forgotten, along a little dirt road that leads to a small cemetery. Pasture land surrounds it, so the only company this church routinely sees are the occasional cow on the other side of the barbed-wire fences.
Time (and the lack of maintenance) is starting to catch up with the church. The church and its roof are still standing, but who knows how much longer that roof will hold.
On our visit last week, we stayed past sunset and waited as darkness crept across the sky. Then I set up the camera to take pictures over the course of two hours, capturing the slow movement of the stars. This is the result, showing the stars moving high above the lonely old church, the pastures and the cows.
It has been so hot and muggy lately that I've just not been inspired to leave the air conditioning and go take any pictures. But the other day I was out in the backyard with the dogs when I spotted this little visitor slowly making its way across the yard. I grabbed a quick photo with the cell phone, while it ignored the puppy barking at it.
From Amarillo, we continued east across the Texas Panhandle. And along the way I saw these really cool old grain silos, so I exited the freeway and stopped to get a few pictures. They sit along the interstate access road, which was actually Route 66 back in the olden days.
The silos are probably all that remains of the town of Boydston, which was a little farming community that only ever had a population of 40 people.
The silos used to sit along some Rock Island train tracks, which connected El Reno, Oklahoma and Tucumcari, New Mexico. The tracks, and the little town that they once passed through, are all long gone.
After that we drove to the small town of Shamrock, where we stopped for the night. Shamrock is home to one of the most iconic buildings along Route 66 - the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn. The art deco structure was built in 1936, and was a gas station and cafe.
It stayed open for decades, until the 1990s. But in the 2000s, it was fully restored and reopened as a museum, visitor center and cafe.
It was a quiet night in Shamrock, except for the fireworks. It was the Fifth of July, and there were plenty of people out shooting off their leftover fireworks.
The Tower Station and U-Drop Inn was the inspiration for one of the buildings in the town of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars. Here it is shown as Ramone's body shop:
The next day we continued driving east, heading towards home. We were eager to get back, so we didn't make any stops along the way (besides gas and food, of course). One really nice thing about this road trip was having the World Cup going on - we were able to listen to a lot of the games while we were driving. It really helped break up the time spent in the car. On this last leg of our trip, we listened to Spain play Portugal.
We crossed into Oklahoma, and then back into Arkansas. It started pouring down rain as we reached Little Rock, and it turns out the worst weather on our road trip hit once we were almost home. But we made it. We drove through six states for a grand total of 2,665 miles (and one flat tire).
