Assignment: Team Blackout

/ Richard R. Barron / 2 Comments

2017 update: this assignment was completed successfully (link)!

You all have an assignment for five years from now.

This map shows the eclipse path bordered by blue lines, with the center of the totality marked in red. Park Hills is circled in yellow. (Burn this map after memorizing it.)
This map shows the eclipse path bordered by blue lines, with the center of the totality marked in red. Park Hills is circled in yellow. (Burn this map after memorizing it.)

As many of you might be aware, there will be a total eclipse of the sun visible in the heartland of North America on August 21, 2017.

I have never seen or photographed a total eclipse, and this one will pass close enough that Abby and I can drive to a position beneath the path of totality in a day. While I was researching this, I discovered from the NASA Google map plot that the area of totality will cross my mother’s home town, a place that no longer exists, Flat River, Missouri. (Flat River merged with three other towns in 1994 to become Park Hills.)

Your assignment, should you accept it, will be to infiltrate somewhere along the route of totality, experience the eclipse, photograph it, and successfully exfiltrate without undue difficulty.

Recommended road music for this trip:

  • “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin
  • “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash
  • “Radar Love” by Golden Earring
  • “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson
  • “King of the Road” by Roger Miller
  • “Low Rider” by War
  • “The Long and Winding Road” by The Beatles
  • “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac
  • “Take it Easy” by The Eagles
  • “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne
  • “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane
The use of other road music is approved.

Upon returning you may share the results of this assignment with the rest of the world. And don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.

This color slide was made by my grandfather Richard Batten at his home at 8 Maple, Flat River, Missouri, Oct. 1943; this will be the scene of one of nature's most amazing sights 74 years after this image was made.
This color slide was made by my grandfather Richard Batten at his home at 8 Maple, Flat River, Missouri, Oct. 1943; this will be the scene of one of nature’s most amazing sights 74 years after this image was made.

2 Comments

  1. Can I borrow your “officious business only” sign? Also, my “Richard and Abby’s Wedding Roap Trip, Volume I” CD is nearly identical to your list. I’d recommend adding Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, doing “Don’t Fence Me In”.

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