The Endless Carless Summer

Less than twelve hours until I ride to see the eclipse and I'm as giddy as Indiana Jones as a schoolboy. I felt old last night when I considered that my fascination with total eclipses budded while reading about them in college, and that was so long ago that the books (published in the mid 1990s) only listed future total eclipses through about five years ago. 2017 was too far in the future to waste ink mentioning.  I've told all the people I can to travel to the path of totality at any cost and by any means necessary, with all the fervency of an evangelist on the last day of the world. That's probably related to some thoughts I had a few years ago about how a total solar eclipse is a "lively image and type" ( to borrow Jonathan Edwards's phrase ) of the incarnation, humiliation, and ultimately, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I haven't had time to dig up what I wrote back then, but the gist of it is that as no one can look at the sun with...

Well, I wound up driving a car (not mine, granted) to Emily and Nolan's wedding in Maryland. I decided to come up with a backup plan to justify Trek and Bosch sponsoring me, essentially, with three loaner batteries for the summer. And the more I've thought about it, the more I realize the backup plan is actually better than the original plan. I'm planning to ride from Rock Hill to Lake Greenwood State Park to watch the total solar eclipse Monday. Here's the route: Totality happens there at about 2:40 PM. Then the plan is to ride back, and since I won't be in a hurry to get back, maybe I'll take a less direct route:   I've had people tell me I'm a little bit crazy to ride so far on unfamiliar highways on a day predicted to have the most traffic South Carolina roads have ever seen. South Carolina is the closest point in the path of totality to almost 100 million people, so experts predict anywhere from 500,000 to 2 million visitors to the state Monda...