Total Solar Eclipse

Since the sun and moon were cutting a dark swath across the U.S., I figured it was worth traveling  to Columbia, Missouri for the occasion - one of the longest periods of totality (approx 2 minutes and 37 seconds).

When I floated the idea on Facebook, my friend T suggested stopping by while I was in the neighborhood - and I did!  So I made a big triangle from Kansas City to Lawrence KS to Columbia MO.

It was great to see T and meet the kids; I hadn't seen her for several years.  The little one, at 6 months old, was very baby-like, but he apparently loves being read to.  The elder one, a toddler, had less patience for stories, but was happy to be chased around the back yard (as long as it wasn't too scary).  Their mom is doing a great job, and I'm very proud of her.  She has dreams of going further west, where she will likely feel much more welcomed than in her current community.  Fingers crossed.

We went to a nearby college campus, and saw the future location of a franchise sandwich shop she really likes - but unfortunately, even though the door was open, it's still under construction!

After a few days there, I drove out to Columbia.  As luck would have it, the hotel was walking distance from Cosmo Park, the city's official party central for the eclipse.  (Probably bigger crowds were at the college campus a few miles away.)  I went over and checked it out Sunday - they had bands playing, and food trucks, and a fabulous playground with a vaguely science-y theme.  I found a covered picnic table area that seemed like an ideal location for the day itself - a place to sit in the shade and get some work done while I waited for the eclipse, with a restroom nearby in case of emergencies.

The bands were fun, and an artist had brought two nicely painted cardboard cut-outs to frame people's faces as the sun and the moon.  A lot of people posed with these cut-outs, and one of the bands really got into it -- they gave us a mini-eclipse!


On the Big Day, the weather was looking rather iffy over most of Missouri.  I'd brought work to do at the picnic area, but I and a family near me were also checking our various weather apps, including darksky, to try to see if we should make a break for it to get in a better place by 1 pm.  They were thinking of going to St Louis, but were indecisive and missed the window of opportunity for that.  They eventually left to try their fortune at a nearby town that was predicted to have only 18% cloud cover at 1 pm.  I told them regretfully, "You're probably doing the right thing," but I decided to stay put.  I've had too much experience with the despair of switching lines at the grocery store only to be stuck in the very slowest one.

As the morning wore on, other people arrived.  One group, from Massachusetts, had decided to go at the last minute.  The closest affordable flights and accommodations were in Chicago!  But they saw that as an advantage - they had ease of travel in multiple directions.  And they found a place to stay for one night in St. Louis.  They trekked over to Columbia that morning because it looked like the best weather!  Yay!  I also met one couple from Wisconsin  and  another from D.C. who seemed quite nice.

Despite the overall cloud cover, there was an occasional weakening of clouds right around the sun, which gave me some hope.  Sometimes we even had actual shadows on the sidewalk!

As things started getting dark, the regular bands stopped, and they started playing somewhat more eerie music  over the loudspeakers.  I'd come out now and then to look through my eclipse glasses to see the progress, then go back to work.  One of the young girls from the Massachusetts family was giving me funny looks as I put on the eclipse glasses, and she apparently whispered to her mom that she was worried I had fake eclipse glasses and would lose my eyesight.  It was really sweet of them to pass on the message, although I was pretty confident in the glasses.  I'd bought a set of eclipse spectacles and a set of paper eclipse glasses, both supposedly meeting the ISO standard,  from amazon.  I'd gotten a recall notice on the spectacles ONLY, so I figured the others were safe.  But I also had a pair of eclipse glasses from the hotel, stamped with the Columbia MO insignia, and the mother seemed to feel that would be much more reliable, so I switched.  I don't think there was any difference.  Could only barely see the ever-diminishing sun through either pair!

It didn't get completely dark (presumably because of the ambient cloud cover), but the insects got really loud all of a sudden as we approached totality.   And when they said to take off our glasses, we did - and everyone gasped.  It was amazing to see the corona.  We had 2.5 minutes to gaze in wonder, to turn to our fellow humans and share our wonder, and generally to drink it all in - the eeriness, the humanity.