Plan B

We actually had a Plan B. But by Sunday afternoon, it became Plan C.

The weather forecast for Monday didn't look promising for Eastern Ontario. Our original plan (Plan A) was to spend the morning with our friends, in Spencerville, kayaking on the South Nation River. Originally (our pre-Plan A), we were going to kayak through the afternoon, witnessing the total solar eclipse while floating on the river but as the the excitement grew for this celestial event, I decided that I wanted to be on firm ground, with my D-SLRs secured to a tripod, to capture the moments.

So Plan A was to kayak in the morning, drive to Prescott for lunch, and then set up at the Battle of the Windmill National Historic Site to experience the eclipse. And that was the plan until the weather reports started putting that site at risk of missing the eclipse due to cloud cover.

We decided that we would keep Plan A until first thing on Monday morning and then make a call. If the weather called for sunshine and warm weather, we'd risk kayaking and stick to the plan. But if the weather was still too cold (we got up to 16°C on Sunday and were supposed to see that again on Monday), we'd still head down to Prescott if sunshine was in the forecast.

As Sunday wore on, skies weren't looking good for this area. We were preparing ourselves for Plan B, which was to move our kayaking to the afternoon, in the same spot. While we would have clouds obscuring the sun, we'd still experience darkness, and we thought it would be cool to be on the river for this condition (I'd also have my 360-degree camera attached to capture this experience).

As we discussed our plans with our friends, we all decided that seeing the eclipse was more important than kayaking, which we can do any time, and that we should look into where the forecast called for clear skies. That meant looking east.

Way east.

And so, Plan B became Plan C.

Montreal was predicting a slight chance of clouds but the chance diminished the further east you went. We wanted to limit our range of travel to a four-hour drive, maximum.

We looked at Granby, Québec. Our new Plan B.

Granby is a quaint French town that's three hours away from us. It's home of the Granby Zoo and at an intersection near the old train station, a giant, pink elephant welcomes you.

I love to drive so I didn't mind being behind the wheel for the six-hour round trip. DW and I knew of a quaint bistro, where we could have lunch, and so we aimed for that spot, not only to eat but to also set up for the eclipse.

We were metres away from that pink elephant.

Granby also offered an extra 30 seconds of total eclipse, compared with Prescott. That made me feel better, as I was worried that I'd spend so much time getting shots that I wouldn't have enough time to just watch the eclipse, through my own eyes, and take it all in.

This was our new Plan B. No kayaks. Just a road trip that was purely about seeing a once-in-a-lifetime event with good friends.

We felt we needed a Plan C for the possibility that the weather wouldn't cooperate, no matter where we headed. If that were the case, where we were faced with overcast skies, we decided that we'd return to our plan of kayaking through the total solar eclipse. I'd record it on video and we'd all awe in the nearly two minutes of darkness on the South Nation River, near Spencerville.

We made the call with our friends at 7:30 yesterday morning. We went with Plan B.

Clear sky. No regrets.

I'll have more photos, tomorrow.