Dave's Eclipse Stuff

Turkey, March 29, 2006

My wife and I were going to observe this eclipse (her 3rd total, my 10th) from the Casa Fortuna in the Mediterranean, but three days before we were going to leave she became ill and couldn't fly. She still wanted me to go, however, because, well, she knows... she understands.

As it happened, several days earlier I had seen a notice about a 24-hour trip from Frankfurt to Konya (Turkey), so I inquired about it and made a reservation. Then I booked a round-trip to Frankfurt, and the schedule was going to look roughly like this:

• Leave Los Angeles 6:00pm Monday, arrive Frankfurt, 2:00pm Tuesday.
• Relax, sleep, shower at hotel for a few hours Leave for Turkey 11:00pm Tuesday
• Return from Turkey 11:00pm Wednesday
• Relax, sleep, shower at hotel overnight
• Leave Frankfurt 2:00pm Thursday, arrive Los Angeles 3:30pm Thursday

Hectic, but doable.

But, alas, even this was not to be... here's what actually happened:

My flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt was cancelled, which I discovered to my horror when I arrived at the airport. After scrambling for another flight, I was booked on British Air from LA to London, then London to Frankfurt, arriving at 8:00pm.

So much for the first night in the hotel.

Then, the flight to London was late, so I was going to miss my connection to Frankfurt and would have to take the next flight, which would arrive there at 10:00pm. Fortunately, they compensated us for this delay by allowing access to their private lounge at Heathrow, WHICH HAD SHOWERS!! (That was a good thing for me and, therefore, for everyone else on the tour!)

At that point I had been up for 24 hours. I arrived at Frankfurt at 10:30pm, just in time to connect with the overnight tour to Turkey.

They were scheduled to arrive Konya at 4:30am, but there were aircraft problems and we didn't arrive there until 9:00am. We boarded buses and ended up on a rocky hill in the middle of nowhere, but almost dead-on the center line. We saw the eclipse through thin clouds. At totality it had been approximately 54 hours since I had last been in a bed. It's a good thing I can sleep on planes and buses and in waiting areas!

It was another 12 hours until I finally hit a bed in Frankfurt - slept six hours and then left for the airport to return home.

Summary:

During 67 hours round trip from the Los Angeles airport...

• Roughly 14,700 miles
• 30 hours in a plane
• 6 hours in a bed

I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

A flock of sheep passed by as we waited for first contact.  (How many people can claim to have seen a total eclipse AND a grazing eclipse from the same location??)

After being out of bed for 54 hours, my eyes WERE actually open!

We weren't actually AT the end of the world, but you could see it from there; it was just over that hill in the background...