Shortly after 1pm on the afternoon of August 21, 2017, the moon crossed paths with the sun, casting a shadow 70 miles wide across the entire length of the contiguous United States. This is the story of how I ended up in that shadow.

Making The Decision

Deciding to make the trek to "The Path of Totality" was something I didn't seriously think I would do. My wife, Carrie, and I joked about it on and off over the last couple of months but I just didn't see the point in driving 5+ hours to see a celestial event that would last a mere 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

About two weeks before The Great American Eclipse, that all changed when I watched this video:

There was something about the way that David Baron described the eclipse that got me excited. So excited, in fact, that I sent Carrie a text and told her that we were renting a car, finding a place to stay, and driving over 400 miles to witness totality. Carrie has always been one for picking up and hitting the road on an adventure so she put in for a day of vacation and suddenly the decision was made to find the shadow of the moon.

Preparation

For the next week, I began pouring over maps. I looked at weather maps and I looked at maps that showed the path of totality and I looked at Google Maps, plotting various trips and trying to decide which part of the country would be the best place to go. I initially considered flying somewhere in addition to driving, but after looking at flight times and costs, I quickly abandoned that idea. Instead, I realized that wherever we went, it was going to have to be within a day's drive of Oklahoma.

Fortunately, the total eclipse took place over three areas relatively close to Oklahoma: Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri. Based on driving times, our best bet was to head somewhere around Kansas City and intersect the path there. 

I started looking for hotels.

None were available.

Okay, that's actually a lie. There were hotels available, but they were all way overpriced. At the risk of sounding snooty, I wasn't about to pay $200 a night to stay at a 2 star hotel. So, I looked further outside of Kansas City. There were more options, but all still overpriced. Discouraged, Carrie suggested I check AirBnB. After looking all around the Kansas City area, I finally settled on a nice home in Topeka. I decided that it was close enough to the path of totality that we wouldn't have a long drive on Monday, but it was also in a strategic enough location that we could head further east or west if the weather didn't want to cooperate.

And boy, did the weather not want to cooperate.

A little less than a week before the 21st, the weather started to change. Prior to then, the forecast called for clear to partly-cloudy skies. Suddenly, everywhere I was aiming to catch the eclipse was partly to mostly cloudy and even showed chances of rain. I distinctly recall getting up one morning and taking our dogs outside, looking up at a beautiful, blue, completely cloudless Oklahoma sky and being angry that I wouldn't have that same sky on eclipse day. But by that point, the AirBnB had been paid for, the car had been reserved, and bad weather or not, we were going to Kansas.

Sunday Morning - 36 Hours Before The Eclipse

Throughout the week, I kept checking on the weather. One hour it would look terrible, the next hour would look better. People in online forums I visited said to not worry, none of the forecast models would agree until about 24 hours or so before showtime, and anything could change. I was so stressed and such a wreck over the weather that Carrie would later admit she could tell it was bothering me and I was being a grump all week.

Regardless of Mother Nature's plans, we were headed north. We picked up our rental car, packed an ice chest so we would have food and drink while we waited for the eclipse and headed north to Topeka, Kansas. The picture above is us just before we pulled out of the driveway to head to Kansas.

Sunday Afternoon - 24 Hours Before The Eclipse

The drive to Topeka was fairly uneventful. We did pass one SUV that had "ECLIPSE OR BUST" painted in the windows and we honked and waived as we passed. We also passed a van from the University of Oklahoma that I'm assuming had students going to study the eclipse.

We arrived at our AirBnb, met our host (very sweet lady), and got settled in. After resting for a minute from the 4+ hour drive, we went out and had dinner then drove around Topeka. We checked out the capitol building which looked an awful lot like the Oklahoma capitol building. We drove around downtown and then on whatever random roads I decided to turn down. We eventually - and accidentally - ran into the Topeka Zoo.

As we were driving by, Carrie exclaimed that she saw some elephants. I didn't believe her at first, thinking that she saw some statues, but we drove back by and sure enough you could see the elephants in their habitat from the fence outside of the zoo. We stopped and watched them for a minute and then walked a bit further down the fence, where we caught a glimpse of the tiger cage and saw their tiger looking at us and licking his (her?) lips like he wanted to eat us. After the tiger got bored and sauntered off, we walked back down by the elephants and caught a glimpse of a giraffe that was curiously sticking its head over the fence and gawking at the elephants. As the sun slipped below the horizon, we left and headed back to our room. The zoo was a nice distraction from worrying about the weather outlook for the next day.

Monday Morning - 6.5 Hours Before The Solar Eclipse

I awoke on Monday morning to the sound of my phone ringing. It was TJ, Janet, and JRod calling me to check in on the eclipse. It turned out to be a great wake-up call because by the time we got off the phone, I was wide awake and ready to hit the road and head to totality. I did some last-minute checking of both the local TV stations as well as various weather websites (above) and two things quickly occurred to me:

1. Things weren't looking good

2. Almost none of the models agreed where the best (or worst) weather would be.

After looking everything over for close to an hour while Carrie got dressed and packed up our stuff, I made a decision. We were changing our plans. We were headed to Missouri. You see, prior to this my decision was to head north to the Kansas/Nebraska border just west of St. Joseph, Missouri. But as I looked at the models, they all agreed (somewhat), that the area in and around St. Joseph would be at a high risk for clouds and the area closer to Columbia, Missouri, would have clearer skies. So we packed the car, closed up our AirBnB, and hit I-70 eastbound towards Columbia, Missouri.

Driving Towards Disaster

The first 40 miles or so out of Topeka and towards Kansas City were great. The clouds were breaking up and I was feeling better about my decision to go east rather than north. But as we got closer to Kansas City, the skies got darker, until they finally opened up and a deluge of rain and lightning and thunder poured from the heavens.

The picture above is somewhere around Kansas City. I'm stressed and irritated and Carrie is doing her best to make me laugh and brighten my spirits. All I could think is that I never checked the current weather this direction and we had run into one hell of a thunderstorm. Traffic was slowing down and we could barely see a couple feet in front of us. I convinced myself that I drove us into a point of no return where our eclipse view would be that of the bottom of some rain clouds.

As luck would have it, we finally got past Kansas City and the thunderstorm and the skies were looking slightly better. To the south I could see blue skies and things were starting to break up in the east. We stopped to get gas and I checked my weather maps again. Things weren't looking great where I planned to go, so I made the decision once again to push even further east. I knew I couldn't go much further than I had for two reasons:

1. I did have to eventually come home and a double-digit hour long drive did not sound fun.

2. We would flat run out of time before the eclipse crossed our path.

I plotted a course towards Boonville, Missouri. It's about 15 miles or so west of Columbia and seemed like a good place to stop. As we got closer, traffic started picking up and I panicked. I decided that rather than go to Boonville, which was north of I-70, we should dip south and get as close to those blue skies as we could without leaving the path of totality.

Final Destination - 11:40am, Start of Eclipse - 1.5 Hours To Totality

Looking at the maps, I had two options to get south of Boonville. One took me back southwest, and the other tracked more southeast. I decided on the southeast road because it followed the path of totality slightly better. We passed the first exit and it was pretty busy with people exiting the interstate. I quickly whipped out my phone and took a look and sure enough, the next exit I was planning to take was also getting lousy with traffic.

Suddenly, a third option appeared. An exit off the interstate to a small two-lane state highway that went due south of our location. I quickly made the decision to exit and decided we would drive until we found a good spot, pull over, and hope for the best. By this time, the sun was coming out more and conditions seemed to be clearing up.

We drove for a while, passing a few cars here and there that had found their own spots off the main road. I considered stopping and joining them, but none of the spots felt right and besides, Carrie wanted to be as secluded as possible. About 11:40pm, we came around a bend and there it was. A small gravel road off the main highway. It had a place to pull off the road but still be visible to passing cars. I mentioned it as a possibility and Carrie said I should turn around and park there. So, I did.

Our final spot to view the eclipse was really beautiful. As you can see in the pictures above, there was a lone tree next to a farm gate to the west. To the north was the gravel road, leading to a couple of farm houses. Looking south, we could see an open field across from the highway, and a small grove of trees, under which were a heard of cows trying to get shade from the sun. And to the east (second picture) was a valley that was much prettier than my picture gives it credit for.

We parked and Carrie got out a blanket to lay on. We took out our ice chest and had a picnic while the moon slowly made its way in front of the sun. We put on our solar glasses and watched off and on the eclipse getting more and more pronounced. After a while, we decided we were too hot and jumped in the car for some A/C. I decided that we could hang out for 30 minutes or so before it was time to get out and see totality to it's completion.

When we got in the car, it was muggy and hot, but when we decided to get out, it was a different story. While still humid, the lessening sun brought down the temperature a few degrees and combined with a nice breeze it was feeling rather pleasant.

35 Minutes To Totality

I'm not much of a lay-on-a-blanket-in-a-field kind of person. It's just not terribly comfortable to me and I have never really enjoyed it. But, the day was nice and we were on a slight hill so it actually wasn't all that bad. Carrie snapped the above picture of my eclipse gazing.

Everything was going great up to this point. The clouds had broken, we found an awesome spot, and it seemed that it was all going to work out after all. And then, a small but thick cloud rolled in front of the sun. Then another. And another. I recall thinking we had plenty of time before totality and I shouldn't worry because these would continue to meander north and out of our view. Except they didn't. In fact, a whole line of thick clouds formed and began moving in front of the sun. Our ability to see the sun became intermittent and I started to worry that all this had been for naught.

This is the view looking south from our location. You can see the grove of trees where the cows were getting some shade, and the clouds beginning to thicken up and move in.

While frustrating, the clouds did give a couple of opportunities to get a great picture of the nearly-eclipsed sun.

10 Minutes To Totality

When we first stopped, I made note of our surroundings. The wildflowers along the fence line. The animals around us. The fact that almost no bugs were making noise, save a few crickets here and there. I made note of these things because I read that animals and plants behave in weird ways as totality approaches.

About 15 minutes before totality, I noticed that the crickets had gotten much louder. More and more of them were chirping and making noise, and it was beginning to sound like early evening. Even the cicada's joined in. Things around us had become noticeably darker, but in a weird and uncanny way. I was frustrated because of the building clouds and I thought they were making it darker until I looked behind me and realized I still had a shadow. And that shadow was becoming crisper and more pronounced. 

Everything around us began to take on this weird color. It wasn't darkness but it wasn't light, either. Things seemed sharper and colors popped, while still seeming dull. Everything felt kind of eerie.

I looked up at the clouds that still hadn't moved away from the sun. They were slowly drifting northeast but I needed them to move north. I needed them to get out of the way. Time was running out and these clouds, if they didn't move, would ruin everything.

5 Minutes To Totality

I plead with the sky. Asked the clouds to please move. I didn't want to miss this. I couldn't miss this. I looked at my watch. Less than 5 minutes to totality. I looked at the sky. There was one lone cloud in this line of clouds that was a little further south and covering the sun. Every few seconds, the sun would peak out and you could see it getting smaller and smaller. Daylight was slipping away.

3 Minutes To Totality

Everything was getting dark. Not night dark, but still harder and harder to see. The crickets and cicada's were at a frenzy, singing their evening song. Birds were starting to head to the trees, convinced that nighttime was upon us. I looked up again and the very last cloud was drifting north. I put on my solar glasses. I looked to the sky and suddenly, as if it was meant to be, the sun burst forth from behind the cloud. There was a fingernail sliver left. Suddenly, I felt it get cooler and everything seemed to go silent as if the entire world took one deep breath in anticipation of what was about to happen but was waiting to let it out. The last vestiges of the sun, the last rays of its disappearing light began to dwindle from my sight until they were gone.

I took off my glasses.

Totality

Before I put my solar glasses on for the final time, the colors of the world felt muted. Everything was dull, sure, but it was still our world. When I removed my solar glasses, it was as if I was on another planet. The first thing I saw was the space where our sun used to be. In it's place was a bright ring, but not so bright that it hurt your eyes. Outside of that ring was a halo of silvery white, extending in all directions. And in the middle was a pitch-black hole punched out of the sky.

My breath caught in my throat. I got the biggest grin on my face. And I started to cry.

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will prepare you for that sight. All the pictures and videos in the world cannot impress upon you the utter alienness and sheer beauty of the total solar eclipse. It feels so foreign, so out of place. And yet, you can't help but stare, transfixed, mesmerized. It's a sight you want to just stare at forever. You want this odd, new object in the sky to hang there permanently because it's just so...awesome. And I mean the real definition of awesome. You just stare, in awe, at this thing looking down on you from the heavens.

As hard as it was, I made myself look away and observe everything else going on around me. The sky was a sky that I had never seen. One that I wondered, later, if it could be duplicated without a solar eclipse and it can't. All around you, 360 degrees, just above the horizon is a sunrise orange. Above that is a light blue not unlike the blue of the sky just after sunset. Further up, the sky is a deep twilight blue. It's three different skies in one. Three skies that manage to exist at different times throughout every single day, but never all at once. And the ground is dark. Night time dark.

I kept sharing time with both the eclipsed sun and the world around me. I kept turning in circles trying to take it all in. I kept pointing out things to Carrie to look for and observe. I wanted to drink in everything I could in the short two and half minutes that I had in this new world. This new existence.

We looked up and through the remaining clouds spotted one star. No doubt it was actually a planet but I have no idea which one. I looked over to see the flowers closing up, convinced that the day was over. I quickly took some pictures, trying hard to get the shots I wanted as quickly as possible so I could enjoy the fleeting moments of the eclipse.

I stared at the sun a bit longer, transfixed by the silvery corona, when I noticed some red tinge around one of the edges. We had managed to see solar flares! They were barely visible, but they were definitely there. I took one more spin around, trying to snapshot as much of the moment in my mind as I could.

I looked up once again and seemingly just as soon as the eclipse had started, suddenly the first blade of light exploded forth from the other side of the sun, giving the diamond ring effect. It was brilliant and beautiful and suddenly I wanted that sun to stick around for a while, but alas it was seconds of time. The rest of the sun began to peak out and I put on my solar glasses and just like that, it was over.

Post-Totality

To say that was the fastest two and a half minutes of my life would be a gross understatement. I remember thinking before that it should feel like a long time, but it didn't. It was here, then gone, and I tried as hard as I could to commit the images and the feelings to memory. I couldn't risk losing that in my mind.

When the sun popped out, the colors of the world returned. The sunrise orange on the horizon quickly faded and things started getting brighter again rather quickly. We didn't stick around much. Just long enough to clean up, and then we were back on the road headed home, our pilgrimage complete.

On the drive home we talked about what we saw and what we felt. For both Carrie and myself, it was an emotional, borderline religious experience. Being in the shadow of the moon caused us to feel something so visceral, so deep down, that it touched the soul. Our question when it was all over was not should we do it again. It was when can we do it again?

We spent close to 14 hours in the car and drove just under 1000 miles in two days to see 180 seconds of a total solar eclipse. It was awe inspiring and breath taking and we would do it all again in a heartbeat.

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The good news is that is just 7 short years, we can do it again! All of us! There will be a total solar eclipse that travels from Mexico, through Texas - passing over parts of San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, through far southeastern Oklahoma (Idabel and Broken Bow), through Arkansas and up the east coast.

The best part? The center of totality will give you 5.5 minutes of viewing time, a full 3 minutes longer than this one!

I cannot impress upon you enough how much you need to see a total solar eclipse. How much you have to see one. Call me an Umbraphile - maybe I'm now a convert - but heed the words of the video at the beginning of this post: before you die, do yourself a favor and see a total solar eclipse.

As someone who has now experienced one, believe me, you will not regret it.