Eclipse

[Fangorn]

When your house is 12 miles north of the Zone of Totality, it's really hard to not want to head south and get in the Zone. But the media here in Portland have been in zombie apocalypse mode for weeks and predicting total gridlock and worse all weekend as the 2 million people in Portland all try to get the 20 miles or so further south to be in the Zone. So resigned myself to only a 99.7% experience.

Got up this morning and checked the traffic apps. No serious congestion on the back roads! DW and I hopped in the car and are now sitting at a school in St. Paul, Oregon, inside the Zone of Totality. Just barely, but we'll get about 45 seconds of total eclipse.

Only 2 hours to go!

Steve

[Fangorn]

Phase 1 begins in 7 minutes

Steve

[Fangorn]

And it begins...

Steve

[Fangorn]

15 min to totality. Light is beginning to dim. Bright blue sky, but it feels like it's overcast. Temperature is dropping as well.

Steve

[Fangorn]

That was so stinking COOL!

Steve

[eam]

Is it wonderful?

[Fangorn]

It was like nothing I've ever experienced. Kinda eerie leading up to totality - light was strange, dark like it wad overcast, but the sky was perfectly blue and clear. The brain had trouble processing that. Then as we approached totality, it just plain for dark, the sun went away and this incredible ring of light (the corona) showed up. It was spectacular. Didn't last long enough though. Where we were we only had about 45 seconds of totality.

Steve

[ILoveLegos]

Awesome! You definitely made the right choice to go see totality. :thumbsup:

[magicofdisney]

I heard that if you have roosters, they'd crow as the totality begins to end. :)

[Ed]

Eclipse was special down here in the Land of the Mouse.

[Fangorn]

:thumbsup:

Steve

[Goofy4TheWorld]

We live in 99.9% totality territory, so we drove about an hour away and got in dead center with 2.5 minutes of totality. We were prepared for carmageddon, packing food, water, toilet paper, and garbage cans just in case, but we ended up right beside a Bojangles which had "indoor plumbing" (cue the Carousel of Progress theme!)

We could have only drove 30 minutes one way to get in the center, but we were trying to outrun clouds (we felt like we were in the movie Twister driving around chasing weather). The area I had planned to head towards is very rural but has a very nice 4 lane road built decades ago as an evacuation route for a nuclear power plant nearby. Traveling to our spot was slow but reasonable, so I guess the evacuation plans are good enough!

I was so glad we traveled, what the folks back home saw was nothing to what totality was like. It was so weird how just the tiniest slither of sun gave off so much light. It didn't get dark at all at home, but in our spot it was as dark as night with the crickets chirping along. I thought I was going to be able to see solar flares, so I was a little disappointed that I was apparently misinformed on that, but it was still a fun experience to see.

[Wayne]

Visited our Aunt who lives in the totality zone (Spring City, TN). Drove the back roads to get to her house. The trip took about an hour, which is about normal. The trip home took 2 and a half hours and we weren't so lonely :). The traffic hassle on the way home was worth it to experience 2.5 minutes of totality. It was a great experience.

[Cinderelley]

We need that as an avatar! :)