It is an amazing experience

I would like to thank the very generous Michael Dolan for these pictures. He declined my offer of beer but only because he had many miles to travel later in the day.

I would also like to thank my long time friend Bob Breckenridge for telling me not to bother trying to pack my camera gear on the bike and just enjoy the eclipse.

I spent some amount of time during the night contemplating the prospects of battling traffic in and around Mann Creek. A few times, I heard families in the hallways of the hotel - 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m., tromping around, excitedly heading out to get their preferred location. Notwithstanding the warning about getting to Mann Creek early, our own plan had been to get up at 5:30, get breakfast at 6:00 a.m. when the restaurant opened, then head up the highway. Nan's alarm was on mute. However, I did wake shortly after the appointed time, we discussed it briefly, then opted to stay at the hotel and avoid the traffic. We gave up 35 seconds of totality - we had 95 seconds - and as hard as it was for me to give that up. (after all, we did ride 1,800 km for this) we saved a lot of anxiety and potentially some risk, riding in amongst some crazy traffic. As a result, we had quite a pleasant morning, slept in a little longer, ate breakfast when we were ready (didn't have to eat the Reuben's we ordered 'to go' last night) and then walked 50 feet to be in a modestly large crowd of enthusiasts. We met people from all over the western states and from western Canada, including one fellow riding his Harley from Whitecourt.

The morning was looking good for eclipse-watching. The sky was clear, the temperature was pleasantly in the low 20's and no wind. In fact, it was pretty much perfect. Nan had parked our chairs on the lawn as opposed to the pavement of gravel, so it was not unlike a little picnic.

It was a festive atmosphere. People were gathered in groups, many with high tech or fancy equipment and others, like us, without gear... but solar glasses! I had checked out the glasses that got wet and they had water marks on them that blurred the vision, so I was especially thankful for the hand-outs from the hotel. Also, there was a group from NASA and they had glasses to hand out, too, in case somebody "forgot" their own.

There were also many make-shift operations. I saw a couple of "pin hole" lenses; this is a simple arrangement of placing a tiny hole in the side of a cardboard box, the hole acting as a tiny lens, forming an image on the inside of the box. Or, one person brought several colanders so the holes could act as pin hole lenses. People had attachments for the cameras on their phones, attaching their phones to telescopes, binoculars, super telephoto lenses, and of course, telescopes in a large range of sizes. Before totality, people were generous with their time and equipment, offering up views of the crescent sun and as well, a bevy of large sunspots.

Self demonstration of a pin hole lens.

Examining a pin hole colander.

The result. Look closely at each individual light.

As totality approached, the crowd became quieter and quieter and just before totality, hushed as the crowd held its collective breath. Street lights turned on. The air became still. Birds left the sky and roosted. Crickets chirped. There is an instant just before totality where the sun is almost completely covered; the slimmest ring of light around the moon is displayed with a brilliant sparkle off one edge. This is called The Diamond Ring Effect. At the moment the sun disappeared and a black spot took its place the corona appeared and there was a cheer from the crowd. It was possible to see stars and planets in the sky, most notably Venus not far away. Seeing the corona is a magnificent sight, shining brightly. It is so much larger than I remembered, a little like the top photo on the page. Truly wondrous.

Day 5: Ontario, Oregon
Total distance: 15.0 km
Cumulative distance: 1874 km
Maximum speed: 69 kph
Moving average: 33 kph
Temperate range: approximately 31 - 33 degrees C

After the eclipse, we needed to get laundry done. We have used our clothing judiciously but there are limits. There is a laundromat about 2 km away and we thought about walking but it is smokin' hot. We decided to break down and get on the bike, much to our dismay because it was very pleasant having a day off riding. However, as you can see, it wasn't a whole lot of riding. In fact, it was as much as it was only because I rode back to the hotel to get the computer, then we rode around a few blocks after the laundry was done.

The owner of the laundry was telling us about the big build up before this weekend and that they were told there would be "200,000 people in the Tri-State area" and that really, it was not a whole lot different than any other day. Maybe that was just in the laundry but he said that even up towards Weiser, which is half way to Mann Creek, it was busy but not overwhelmed. He also gave us a couple of restaurant recommendations but there really isn't much to choose here. Ontario is not much more than an intersection on Interstate 84, so there isn't a whole lot of choice beyond the fast food restaurants common at these places. We had been thinking it would be great to get a nice meal somewhere to celebrate the eclipse, maybe even drink a glass of nice red wine however, there really is limited selection. Getting back to the hotel, we learn that the one taxi in town has taken the weekend off for the eclipse, so if we are going to go for that one choice of restaurant, we're walking. As of this writing, that remains undetermined!

These are images created by the "pin hole effect" through the leaves on the tree.

Lined up for a view through a telescope. 

Pin hole images through the tree.

That's Nan at the front of the line!

Street lights coming on just before totality.