Seeing a total solar eclipse has been on my bucket list forever, so I've been planning this for about ten years. St. Joseph statistically has clear weather, was set for about the maximum totality you could get (2:38), and a bunch of folks from Astronomy magazine were going to be there. It was going to be a thing!

Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. It was overcast and cloudy. We got a little rain too. But, between the clouds, we did get to see totality! So it wasn't a complete bust. It's been "checked off the list", but I do want to try again. Although the weather was pretty overcast and cloudy we ended up seeing quite a good show. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the whole thing, but we did get to see a little snippets of it which was fantastic!

It started out with scattered showers and a little bit of rain. Not too much, but but enough to be annoying and discouraging. When the eclipse first started it was still cloudy, but we still had a decent view of the Sun and so we got to see the eclipse clearly for the first 10-20%. Because of the clouds, a lot of people were leaving the site at this point because nobody expected the clouds to clear out. But my neighbors and I we decided we were going to stick it out so we just hung out and waited and kept our fingers crossed.

Our persistence really paid off, because at as the sky went dark and we headed into totality, we got a couple of little windows. And in those brief moments got some beautiful views of of the corona between the clouds. It was really amazing.

The whole area became dark and you got to experience a a sunset in 360-degrees. I've seen partial eclipses before, and let me say that totality is a completely different beast. I would love to see an eclipse with full view without the clouds but even this little bit was amazing.

Of course Murphy's Law being Murphy's Law: about 20 minutes after the totality the clouds really cleared out and we got some spectacular views of about 50% coverage till the eclipse ended.

While I was in Kansas City, I also went to Joe's Kansas City BBQ (formerly Oklahoma Joe's), which is on Anthony Bourdain's 13-Places-To-Eat-At-Before-You-Die list. It was really good: the ribs were good and the brisket was even better. I also went to Jack's Stack BBQ; the burnt ends sandwich was great. I also visited Union Station and the World War 1 Museum.

Overall it was a fun short trip.

Check out my YouTube channel at Mehve's Glide Path

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St. Joseph Eclipse

Kansas City Thunderstorm

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