Under the J-Tree stars.
August 12, as the moon went down, Sarah and I sat in a hammock and a mushroom chair and and gazed upwards. There is a lot of sky out there. Sarah had no idea so much stuff was visible up there. At 10pm as the moon sunk below the horizon, It was so dark out in the open that the Sarah’s camera though the lens cap was still on. It took almost 3 minutes of open shutter time to capture something with any light in it. We were there to watch the Perseid meteor shower.
The reports said there would be from 60 to 100 per hour. My average was one every 3-4 minutes. We saw quite a few good ones that left streaks, and I even saw one that changed colors. Others were out there for the event too, the Jumbo Rock campground was very crowded for a Thursday night. Enough to be irritating. someone was yelling or flashing lights or driving in and out, well after the 10pm quiet time. Next time we will find a more empty campground.
The worst part was my own clumsiness. After the miracle of getting my dads old 2 room tent set up in 15 minutes of dusk light, keeping all kinds of interesting bugs out of Sarah’s cooking, I guess I was due. As I got in the hammock, the soda in the cup holder launched all over me. I was soaked in soda. about an hour later, I attempted to grab my beer without getting up. not wise in a hammock. I then wore that too. The last two hours up I was laying on a bed of paper towels.
In the morning, the sunrise on the rocks was pretty, but it got hot fast. And loud. Someone had chosen that morning to beat the crap out of some kind of Tupperware with a stick, and it echoed through the rocks. We were packed and on the road with slur-pees by 10am.
Posted on August 15th, 2010 by admin
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