The first night after arriving in Boulder City the weather news was all about the full moon for the month. A special lunar eclipse was due to occur in the early morning, around 3 am. It didn’t have a very attractive name, Worm Blood Moon. I understood the blood part, because in the earth’s shadow, the moon always looks red. The Worm part doesn’t make as much sense to me and doesn’t sound pretty either. I didn’t plan on seeing it. I’m used to disappointment when there are clouds or trees in the way. To me, it’s not worth interrupting a much needed night’s sleep.

One time last summer, Kevin and I went out to Round Lake to look at a beautiful full moon. It was a clear night and we both admired the way the moonlight made a path across the water. We talked about how many songs we remembered that had a moon in them. (How many can you think of?) We were both pretty high on the romance scale and decided to get together every full moon. We had looked forward to this March full moon knowing we would be together on our trip. We gave it a good looking over before we retired for the night. 

I don’t know why I woke up at 3:15 am. I didn’t know where in the sky the moon would be. I don’t know why I lifted the shade to look out the window. But it was there, in the perfect spot for me to view it. The sky was clear and the moon was about 45 degrees off the horizon, red and round.  I’m shy about waking other people up at night so I watched it alone. My lounge chair was like having a front row seat for 45 minutes. It was changing very slowly so I decided not to wait until it was completely over.  I went back to sleep.

It was a unique way to start out the time in Nevada. I had never photographed a lunar eclipse before.