On August 21, 2017, Corvallis was in the pathway of the solar eclipse totality. I was due to separate from the Air Force on September 30 and the squadron policy was a maximum of 30 days of terminal leave. I was not going to miss the eclipse, so I bargained hard and was able to accomplish my final-out on August 18. I was done by 0930 and on the road. I drove 12 hours to Lincoln, Nebraska, the first day and 13 hours to Park City, Utah, the second day where I stayed with Aly Monson's family. I woke up super early the morning of Aug 20 and could not go back to sleep, so I slipped out of the Monson's house early and started my final leg of the drive.
Ashley had arranged for me to swing by a home in Liberty, Utah, just on the east side of the mountains from Ogden. They had a litter of 2 month-old Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix puppies that they were selling for $200. There were two females left and the cuter one immediately started biting my fingers. The other one was very calm and not biting at all, making my choice very easy. I had stopped in Rock Springs, Wyoming, to buy dog supplies and I put her in the crate on top of absorbent pads. She immediately puked up her breakfast and managed to completely miss the pads. After cleaning everything up we resumed our trek. She puked between every stop and refused to urinate or defecate during our gas station breaks. She seemed very shocked and skittish. I finally pulled in to our home for good late that evening, just one day before the eclipse. My parents were there with my nephew Luke, and Ashley's college friend Jessica was visiting with her family.
Happy to be together again.
I asked the kids if they could have me pull anything in the world out of the car, what would it be? Juliet and Georgie immediately replied, "A dog!" Isaac said he was thinking the same thing. Ashley recorded the moment with her phone:
Suddenly all of the puking and clean-up didn't seem so bad. Of course, she almost immediately urinated on the living room rug twice, but thankfully she became house-trained very quickly.
The kids stayed up late spending time with her, and who could blame them?
When I sent a message to my siblings about the dog and the surprise, my brother Rob sent me this picture back and said that he became emotional just thinking about the fact that our dog was part border collie. This is a picture of Pepper, our border collie mix who was owned by the Baldersons but belonged to both families. I don't think we ever trained her to do anything, but she would come immediately when you called (and eat anything you offered her) and she would run interminable loops around us when we were playing sports in the yard or swimming in the pool. She hated being in the water and my dad would get more upset about Pepper being the pool than by our riding our bikes down the small hill into the pool. She went absolutely crazy when the meter man would come in the yard, but was very friendly with all of my mom's swimming lesson students and families.
The next morning we took her out to meet the chickens, who were still chicks themselves, having been born just a week or two after the puppy.
Of course, once Juliet was up she was all about the puppy again. Here she is with Jessica's three kids.
We had breakfast on the east-facing porch from which we could see the start of the eclipse. Jessica is on the left and Luke in the center.
I had created solar filter lens covers for my binoculars, which allowed us to have close-up views of the moon starting to cover the sun.
This is the shadow of a small colander that we had out for breakfast. As you can see, the sunlight coming through the circular holes is crescent-shaped because of the moon shadow.
Luke with Mimi.
Juliet using the glasses I constructed with solar filter paper.
Jessica's youngest, Ashley, and I all had Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon t-shirts, the final track on which is called "Eclipse". We staged this picture while I was helping Ashley to find the sun with the binoculars.
Our neighbors were out on our pond's dam since they could not see the sun from their houses, so we all relocated to join them
Merbacks watching the eclipse.
The kids with the puppy and our neighbors in the background.
Georgie with her new best friend.
Dark Side selfie
College friends selfie
Jessica and her husband Gabe
Luke and Isaac. Tanner had come to visit us in Italy while he was on his 6th grade sabbatical, so Luke got to come see us in Oregon during his. And even though Oregon may not seem like much compared to Italy, Luke got to see the eclipse totality. I was not prepared for how amazing it was. Pictures don't do it justice. It is the most out-of-this-world experience I have ever had. I can only imagine what it was like for pre-scientific cultures to have an eclipse appear out of nowhere. You definitely would have thought that the world was ending. You can hear it in my voice in this video:
So incredible.
The kids enjoying some time together before saying good-bye.
And the final good-bye!
Before they left, Jessica and Gabe had to take the requisite "American Gothic" photo with our pitchfork. After they left my dad and I got to work connecting the electrical system for the hot tub while the kids spent some quality time with the puppy.
Juliet snuggling up with the puppy.
Luke doesn't want to give her up.
Luke retaliating for Isaac's puppy theft.
Merback family mix selfie: multiple generations, families, sexes, and species.
Ashley and I went on a short walk with the puppy later in the day. I think it was the next day when I really forced the issue of what we were going to call her. I looked up all kinds of Italian dog names but nothing seemed to fit. Finally, we decided to name her after one of our family's favorite European trips to the island of Naxos, Greece. But since Naxos is a bit formal we decided to shorten it to Naxi.
In early June 2017 we drove across the country from Dayton, OH to Corvallis, OR. This will hopefully be the last time the kids move until they leave the nest. We had a great itinerary planned that would allow us to visit some our best friends from Italy and some of our closest cousins.
After two solid days of travel we arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota, at the home of Megan and Greg Trifilo. We had spent four years in Italy with them and flew across the pond back to the US with Megan, their son Griffin, and their dog Yorba in July 2016 (Greg flew separately with Verna, their other dog). We met up with Greg outside the airport in Baltimore then said goodbye, but only for a short while. Greg spent a few weeks at Wright-Patterson AFB and we were able to spend more time with him there while we were settling in. But then he made the trek out to SD in mid-September and we had been feeling very Trifilo-deficient for about 9 months.
Seeing people again with whom you were very close previously can be awkward, but I felt like we picked up right where we left off. The Trifilos made us dinner and we had a great night hanging out and reminiscing.
The next morning Megan dropped Griffin off at a babysitter's and we hit the road to Crazy Horse.
Merbacks and Trifilos, together again!
Crazy Horse is a massive mountain sculpture in the Black Hills, MUCH bigger than Rushmore, that was started in the mid-20th century and is nowhere near completion as it relies solely on private donations. Once a year they open up the trail to the top to the public and you can hike up right to his face. It happened to be the very day after we had arrived.
Here were are imitating the profile shot of Mr. Horse. Greg has got his position of attention DOWN, and Ashley is striking the "contrapposto" pose of il Renascimento sculptures ("Renaissance" is French word, and we all know that it was an Italian phenomenon). Also note that Georgie is taller than Isaac at this time. When finished, Crazy Horse will have a flowing mane of hair, will be pointing his finger out towards the lands of his people, and will be riding a horse. If I were betting the over/under of when it gets finished, I would take "never", unfortunately.
A more traditional shot. Just for comparison's sake, Rushmore's four heads could fit in the rectangular flat space just to the left of Crazy's face.
This face is at least twice as tall as the Rushmore faces, and we got to walk right up to it. What better way to commemorate the moment than to pick a good'un. Georgie is obviously not pleased. We were able to walk out onto his future "arm" as well. The whole experience was very cool, but again, I had a dark feeling of foreboding that this unfinished sculpture will serve as an "Ozymandias"-type monument to future generations of intelligent life on this planet.
After Crazy Horse, we picked up Griffin and hung out at the splash pad in downtown Rapid City, walkable from the Trifilos cool old house. We got lunch and then ice cream, a throwback to all of the times we got gelato with them in Italy.
Griff is on the left with his Dad.
That night we left Isaac in charge and walked back to downtown for dinner & drinks, reliving our three date weekends that we had with the Trifilos to London, Sevilla, and Lisboa. It was just like old times and it made me sad that our time living near these great friends has almost certainly come to an end.
The next morning Megan had to take Griffin to an appointment, so Greg, having taken the day off to hang out with us, drove us up to South Dakota's number one attraction, Mount Rushmore!
I had a picture of Rushmore with the Thunderbirds flying past in my room growing up, even though I was never really into either one of those things. I was prepared to be underwhelmed but it was actually fairly impressive.
After Rushmore we packed up the car, said goodbye to the Trifilos, and headed down to Cheyenne, Wyoming to see another that we missed desperately from Italy, the Joneses!
I didn't get a picture of their house but I should have. It was this enormous turn-of-the-century mansion with servants' quarters in the attic, horse stables in the basement, and a servant's staircase in the back of the house that led to the kitchen. It was beautiful and supposedly haunted. The first night we just hung out and at dinner, just enjoying being with each other again.
The next morning Tann took us to the base archery range to shoot. The kids loved it.
At first there wasn't any marshall there so we had free reign and had to keep the kids from shooting each other.
Then we headed down to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum, which is actually much more interesting than it sounds.
These kids didn't miss a beat being back together. It was so much fun to seen them all together again. First in Oklahoma, where we added Juliet and Jacquelyn, and then Italy, where we added Kate, and now in Wyoming.
Payton and Landon (pictured) have always been the little brothers that Isaac never had.
And Jacquelyn the little sister that Juliet never had. Jacquelyn's outfit in this picture is a hand-me-down from Juliet, appropriately enough.
Here is Payton hard at work at the typewriter.
After the museum we caught a ride in a horse-drawn carriage and took a tour of Cheyenne's historic district. Also something that doesn't sound too stimulating but was actually very interesting!
That night we left the big kids in charge and drove across the border to Colorado for a true back-country steak dinner.
Those are the faces of two people who are about to eat deep-fried Rocky Mountain Oysters for the very first time. I couldn't stop thinking about Chevy Chase in "Funny Farm". "Lamb fries!" "39!" "Sheep balls!" "38!" They are very rubbery and chewy, kind of like calamari, but they were good!
The next day Angela took us to the base climbing gym and the kids climbed all over the walls.
I made Juliet and Landon stop to take an engagement picture while they were running around playing. Landon was Juliet's first crush! You can kind of appreciate the splendor of their side porch in the background.
I walked out to the car at some point and found this infant antelope lying down in the street. I thought it was dead but when I left to get the kids it got up and walked into the grass.
Georgie and Samantha tracked it down and went out to sit by it and keep it company.
After a few wonderful days with the Joneses it was time to move on again. This time, we would be stopping in Park City, UT, to stay at the Pettey cabin and spend time with the Monson clan!
We had to make a stop at B&D Burgers near the U in Salt Lake for great burgers, zucchini fries, and amazing shakes. Arie and the girls were collecting honeysuckle flowers after lunch.
Playing on the street outside the Monson's house. They used to live in the same neighborhood as the cabin, but have since moved out to the flats.
We took the kids on a monster hike on the trails behind the cabin. It was a grueling four-hour ordeal that they almost didn't survive without whining themselves to death.
Family selfie before the whining really began in earnest.
I took Ashley to Ruth's Diner in Emigration Canyon for breakfast on her birthday, the site of our first official "date" together. Unfortunately, it was a windy, cold June 12th in Utah and we couldn't sit outside, but we still enjoyed the mile-high biscuits. After a great stay in Utah it was time to finish our cross-country trek. Ashley wanted to arrive at our new home during the day, so we drove to a campground in eastern Oregon for the night.
We camped at Immigrant Springs in the Blue Mountains, part of the Oregon Trail. Even though most of eastern Oregon is high desert, the Blue Mountains get enough rain to look more like the Cascades. It was beautiful, with Douglas Firs and ferns everywhere. We were geeking out about how green it was, especially after just coming from drought-stricken Utah.
We wanted to ride bikes so I had to unload Ashley's new wicker chairs that she had bought in Cheyenne. Once they were out, the girls decided to glamp it up a bit.
Camping in style, Oregon-style that is: socks with Birkenstocks.
Lovely, lovely.
We all squeezed in to our 6-person family tent. It was really cold that night, down to the 40s. I didn't sleep at all, I don't think. I was too excited about seeing the million-dollar millstone around my neck the next day. And this is what it was like coming up the drive for the first time:
Needless to say, we were smitten, we were in deep smit. And who wouldn't be? Just look at that pond! That property! The excitement was so blissful. I didn't know then that I would get so stressed by my new work that I would have horrible heartburn for four months, that I would get poison oak so wicked that I couldn't sleep well for a month, that my grass allergies would keep me house-bound the next May and June, or that I would be so worried about debt that I wouldn't have the motivation to start all of the outdoor projects that I had been dreaming of. I would still have done it all over again.
Georgie and I taking our turn on the pond.
Despite not knowing anyone, we ended up having guests from Portland. The Hunts, friends from San Antonio, came down to hang out and go the coast with us.
Here we are at Seal Rock, so named not because of any seals but because the rock in the background supposedly looks like a seal. There is an Otter Rock that is likewise named and also bears no resemblance to it's namesake.
Ashley was so excited about collecting mussels! Little did we know that 1) you need a permit, and 2) these mussels are not edible! They brought them home, cleaned them off, boiled them, almost puked, and then threw them all away.
Trevor with a massive crop of nasty mussels!
Becky with the kids.
And that was the end of the road trip. I had to fly back to Ohio about a week after we arrived to finish up my last two months with the Air Force. I lived in the house on base alone and packed nearly the entire house into boxes and loaded everything but the heaviest items into the moving trailer. Never, ever again. Ashley lived in the new house with the kids without furniture for for almost two months. We saw each other again at Traci's wedding in late June/early July.
Back in Park City with the Merback clan.
We played "Cards Against Humanity" with Alyson, Bryant, and Alex during that trip and I won a round, and let's admit it, the entire history of the game, with this Pick 2 combo:
I flew back to Ohio but decided to make one more trip out before my final drive. I surprised Juliet on her birthday morning:
Aww, so sweet. Ashley and the kids had more adventures while I was slaving away in Ohio, but that is their story to tell. The next time we would be together for good, with a new family member and a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event to behold...
Was moving to Corvallis easy? Easy because I didn't have an attachment to Ohio.
Whats the best thing that's happened in your 8th year? getting a dog
What's your favorite holiday? I like all holidays!
What are you good at? Reaching, make believe and cooking
Who are you friends? Emily who is fun and trustworthy, Kayleigh who is nice and comforts you when you are sad. Paisyn who has good ideas of fun things to do.
What is your favorite piece of clothing? My grey sweatshirt.
Favorite book of the year? Keeper of the Lost Cities
Favorite Song of the year? I don't know
Favorite thing you own? Naxi...well she's free but she sleeps with me every night.
Best thing about your new house: My room.
Best thing about school: I can socialize there.
What would surprise your 8 year old self about your 11 year old self?
That my hair is super curly, I live in Corvallis, OR and I'm out of the military.
What are you good at? Acting, reading, owning myself and I'm a good student.
What are some of the worlds biggest problems? Global warming, some places don't have access to clean water, sexual assault and gender inequality...a lot of stuff.
Will your generation make the world a better place? I don't know...it's scary to think what my generation will be able to do.
Has moving to Corvallis been hard? Yes and No... (when pushed) yes, because trouble and no because this is a good town.
What are you looking forward to about your 13th year? Cancun and getting a pet snake!
