An Eclipse Story a Couple of Months in The Making
A very cloudy, historic, and eventful day for me at the campground
My partner and I had been at one campground all winter long. We stayed there because we didn’t want to have to move around a ton in inclement weather. This paid off for us because we happened to still be at the campground, which was in the path of totality, for a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.
We got to see the total eclipse firsthand, albeit interrupted by a cloudy day.
The weather that day was almost perfect. The high was 57 with cloudy and overcast skies. The clouds almost seemed to want to break when the moon and sun finally aligned just perfectly. The temperature felt like it dropped about 10 to 15 degrees and I could feel the birds panicking as the sun disappeared from the sky. You could hear that because there was screeching and squawking.
For those four minutes that the sun was covered, I was in awe of how amazing nature really is. That something like this could happen in front of my eyes and that I got to view it like this for the very first time. My partner and I had gotten eclipse-viewing goggles to view the eclipse safely but they weren’t needed in the conditions we viewed them in. It was nice to have them available anyway.
We were pretty lucky that we got to stay at the campground for this event. Campers had booked months and even years in advance to be in the path of totality. The city’s traffic was much more congested than usual and the campground we were at was completely full. In fact, we were able to park off to the side until another spot became available after the eclipse was over.
At first, we were a bit frustrated and irritated about all of the extra people in the area. Once we had experienced the eclipse though, we understood what all of the hype was about. When the total coverage was happening, it felt magical. There was even a group of people who’d set up a party and a picnic at their site. They cheered as the total coverage ended and I felt obliged to follow suit.
A professional photographer was on hand taking copious amounts of pictures of each phase of the eclipse. I myself got a few pictures of my own but nothing near the quality of the guy with the tripod and years of photography experience. It was eerie watching someone so encapsulated by the event. I found out later he had traveled hundreds of miles just to be in the path of totality and that made me appreciate that moment even more.
April 8 was almost 2 months ago. The eclipse is still fresh on my mind. We won’t see another event like this in North America until August 23, 2044. I likely won’t get to see that one, not because I don’t think I’ll be alive for it, but only because it’s going to be in only three states next time. Plus, I’m not scrambling to book a ticket to Montana, North Dakota, or South Dakota any time soon.
I feel very blessed that I got to experience it. I don’t think I’d ever go out of my way to see this again. I just feel like I got a golden ticket since I was already in the path of totality all along. This is just something that I think we’re all meant to experience once. I’m not rich so I won’t go out of my way to travel to every eclipse in my lifetime. There will be plenty but I need to be reasonable.
I don’t know why I took so long to recount and write the details of what happened that day. I guess I just needed some time to process the historical significance of all of this and what it meant to me in my short and impermanent existence.
