Well, you know there was a big ol’ solar storm on Friday, right? I found out about it on Friday and wondered if it would be possible to go out to the lake and see them in the night. We’ll, it had been a pretty rough week at work, so I asked Lloyd if he would be up for camping.
He was! It was a pretty abbreviated trip – we ate at home and didn’t leave the house until 7. We set up the tent and settled in for the evening.
It was peaceful and pleasant. We had a huge flock of low-flying ducks fly right overhead and the sound was astonishing – like several small fans going through the sky. I saw a couple of bald eagles, which is always my favorite.
The plan was to sleep until 2, then get up to see the lights during their predicted peak time. We started to go to the tent and wondered why the sky was still so bright so long after sundown. Lloyd said, “Um…. I think they’re happening…”
Yep, they were. Now, the photos look so much more colorful and amazing because of the one exposure on the phone’s camera, but it was different. Think ‘slightly overcast evening with a city’s light pollution, and some of those sky spotlights that need new bulbs’. But the camera photos? Super cool.
We took a bunch of photos for half an hour, then went back to the tent. I moved the rain fly so we could see out from bed.
In the middle of the night the alarm went off, and I looked out the window. It was just overcast, so I was going to give up. I sat up and looked up to see a whole munch of stars. It wasn’t overcast, it was the lights. We are so dumb.
We got up, and saw many more ‘curtain’-style lights.
In the morning, I made fire and got breakfast ready. Lloyd’s chair had a pan of coals underneath to keep him toasty warm, and he propped his feet up on the fire ring.
Later, when I was getting ready to pack up, I saw the soles of his boots smoking. “Your boots are on fire.”
He just looked at me.
“YOUR BOOTS ARE ON FIRE.”
He pulled up his foot to look at the bulging, smoking sole of his boot. I told him to GET UP AND WALK ON THE WET GRASS. This photo was taken after he had walked on the wet grass for a while. Still smoking a bit.
All in all, it was soul-restoring, and we were home by 9.
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