I Survived the Great American Eclipse
Woman in the Middle | August 25, 2017I went to see the Great American Eclipse and survived to tell the tale! Just barely, but I survived, got home safely, and can now gather my wits about me and consider typing this here blog post.
Hubby and I and our friends Bill and Sue flew in to Denver on Saturday and on eclipse day we got out of bed bright and early (Hubby and I got up at 2 am) so we could go catch our tour bus, which would take us to Wyoming to the center of the totality zone. Here are Bill, Sue and Hubby at 3:45 am with our trusty bus behind them.
There was quite a bit of traffic getting out of Denver, but once we reached Wyoming, it was pretty smooth sailing. Still lots of cars on the road, heading north, but it was moving.
Once we entered into the 70 mile wide totality zone, we began seeing people everywhere, along the roads and in parking lots along the way. Here are some of our fellow eclipse viewers.
We were taken to the Fitzhugh Ranch at Douglas, Wyoming. There we were greeted by a man wearing a t-shirt that read “I blacked out at Fitzhugh Ranch.” which made me laugh. In total, there were 15 buses with over 700 people on them, all hanging out in a cow pasture in Wyoming. Here are some of my fellow eclipse tourist. Most importantly, take a look at that clear, cloudless sky!
There were lots and lots of buses.
As you would expect there were cow patties (not fresh, happily.) This here is a genuine Wyoming cow patty:
There were small flowering plants and sagebrush. The sagebrush smelled like a cross between sage and lavender.
We were given eclipse viewing glasses and Hubby and I rented a couple of folding chairs. The local folks selling us snacks and drinks and t-shirts and such charged all of $3 to use the chairs, which was so far below what we were willing to pay to not lounge on the ground, we couldn’t whip out our wallets fast enough.
Very soon the eclipse began and we were hundreds of happy people. Bill and Sue are modeling the eclipse glasses.
As the full eclipse got closer and closer it got darker and darker. The warm breeze turned cooler and cooler, to the point that some folks put their jackets back on. When totality occurred, our whole field full of people cheered and clapped. At that point, we could take off our eclipse glasses and look at the sun with naked eyes. It was incredible. The sight of an eclipse must have been so frightening to ancient people who didn’t know what was happening. This is the best photo my camera, with me using it, could get of the eclipse. But it gives you some idea, I think, of what we were seeing.
During the total eclipse it was dark, but not completely. It was as dark it gets after sunset, but right before you lose all the sunlight. Looking the opposite direction from the sun, Venus was a bright star high in the sky. The horizon in every direction had a late sunset orange and yellow glow. Surrounding the dark face of the moon you could see the corona of the sun, shooting out in cones. Just two and a half minutes later, there was a sudden brilliant flash of white light as the earth continued its rotation and the totality came to an end.
Our tour stayed until the eclipse was entirely over and we pulled out of our cow pasture at 1:30 pm. Unfortunately, everyone else decided to leave at the same time. Most of us were going south on the only interstate available, the four lane I 25. It took seven hours to go the first 70 miles. According to the Denver Post, eclipse viewers easily doubled the Wyoming population of 585,501. Traffic was up 68% over the five year average for August 21st. One state department head said the eclipse was the “biggest one day event in Wyoming history.”
In all, it took us 12 hours to get back to our drop off place in Denver. We finally arrived back to our hotel room almost exactly 24 hours after the alarm went off the day before. It was crazy, it was wild, it was an adventure. Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. I would plan differently and try to stay closer to the totality to avoid spending 17 hours out of 24 on a bus, but it was a trip for the ages!
The next eclipse is April 8, 2024 from Texas to Canada. Let’s start planning now!
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