Monday 21st August 2017

Eclipse day.

The reason we were here, after all. All we needed was the weather to play ball. After the alarm went off, I got up to open the curtains, only to find almost total cloud cover. Oh no! I check the weather online and there seems to be no need to worry, with clear skies from ten, and a high of 32 or so by early afternoon.

We quickly get ready, check camera gear one last time, before going down to the lobby to hunt out breakfast. The choice seemed to be granola and fruit, as we have had enough of “sausage” and poorly cooked scrambled eggs. Anyway, they had the world’s worst granola dispenser, that deposited half a pound of serial in a bowl before the container fell off its stand. Oh well, in for a penny, in for half a pound.

And into the car, and off down the road. We had an almost full tank of gas, should be enough. Before us was a drive to Thermopolis, some 83 miles down the road, across the badlands, it was right on the edge of the eclipse, but would only receive 52 seconds of totality, so another half hour drive down the river gorge to the state park was needed to bring us near to the greatest amount of totality.

Traffic was pretty thick, but we traveled at 70mph all the way down to Thermopolis; there was an air of expectation and worry in case our progress would grind to a halt at any moment. Above us the clouds thinned, and soon weak sunshine broke though.

Thermopolis was pretty busy, but we get through, now knowing that no matter what we would see the eclipse as we had traveled far enough south. Down through the gorge, still making good time, until we came to the state park. We queue to get in, and then only to be told that all parking was already taken, but if we pay $6 we could park beside the road wherever we wanted, as long as not on or beside the road.

A few miles on, the land opens up, and so we pull off and park just off a dirt track, and we have our spot.

Perfect.

It is just after nine and we have two and a half hours to wait. I check and re-check my camera equipment, put on the teleconverter, the 1/1000000 filter, and rattle off a few shots of the now visible sun. The camera did not like the converter, jamming every 20 shots or so, and the autofocus and IS did not work, but I would get shots.

Traffic along the road got heavier, and some of the cats joined us at our spot, or went on. At half ten, I looked at the sun through the camera, only to find it had begun, a bite had already been taken out of the sun, so I try to take a shot every five minutes.

Around us, a Mom tried to keep her tribe entertained, and did pretty well. They all, like us, had the eclipse glasses and made pinhole cameras for each of the children, which they used to pretend to be robots.

But all the time, the sun was being eaten, and yet, it got no darker. By eleven, a third of the sun was gone, and quarter past, a half. Traffic had faded to a trickle and stopped on the road, and, apart from the children, all was quiet.

At half past, nine minutes from totality, the light changed; it was still daylight, but different, flatter, and what traffic there was had headlights on. Only a thin sliver remained, and the final moments saw the light fade to dusk almost instantly.

Above us, the sun suddenly vanished, and a black disk of the moon revealed the sun’s corona and magnetosphere. It was breathtaking. I began to well up, I don’t think I have seen anything so beautiful. All around us were also enthralled.

I rattled off shots, as did Jools with the compact. To the south and south west and south east, sunset had appeared, and to the right of the eclipse, Venus could be seen

And then it was over, the diamond ring effect happened, and blinded all who were not prepared, like me. And it was over.

The show would go on for another hour, as the moon cleared the sun. We decided to move on, to try to get to Riverton to have lunch, then cruise back and look for butterflies.

After packing the camera gear away, we pulled onto the main road, which was still pretty empty, and motored south, passing by hundreds and hundreds of vehicles and people on verges and down service roads still looking at the eclipse.

On the outskirts of Riverton, traffic ground to a crawl, but in about half an hour, we reach the Speedway Cafe, pulled off, and most surprisingly, they had tables, so we could sit down and be served, and be recognised by two of the servers. They were pleased we had taken to time to return.

After eating, we make to return north to Cody, and all went well until we had to take the frk off the main road to Thermopolis, and the queue of traffic we thought would be just for the junction, went in mile after mile, creeping north at a walking pace.

In an hour we moved maybe a mile, the road climbed into the badlands again, and we could admire the weathered rock formations that stretched from the road to the horizon on both sides. And then for no reason, traffic started moving, and we were going at fifty, making good time.

We reached the gorge again, and as last time we stopped here, we had seen so many butterflies, we thought we would try our luck again. We stopped at the same lay by, climbed over the barrier, and at forst could see nothing on the wing. But as we stood and watched, I saw a couple of Buckeyes again, although they hardly had their wings open as before.

A female blue, mostly brown in colour, but with bright orange flashes on the aft wing. Certainly a different species from the one seen in Yellowstone. On a branch above I see another blue; a hairstreak, I would say a White Letter if I was back home, but here, will have to do some research.

And finally, the male of the first blue lands, almost as blue as an Adonis, and partly opened his wings for me, but I also get good shots of the underwings too. A good haul for fifteen minutes.

And finally, Jools spots a moth, a moth so big it seems like a bird. We chase it around for ten minutes, but when it lands it is well camouflaged, so we have no chance of seeing it until we nearly step on it, at which point it flies off again. We give up.

Back to the car for the last leg back to the hotel, up the rest of the gorge and then through Thermopolis; we saw no freight trains this time, sadly, but still saw many butterflies.

All that was left was the 82 miles over the high lands to Cody, cruising at 70 in the light traffic, and reflecting on a stunning day. We get back into Cody just after six, back to the hotel to chill out and for me to [ost a shot of the eclipse on Faceache, and then thoughts turn to dinner.

First I wanted to photograph the main street in the blue hour, just after sunset and with the neon signs shining brightly, but apart from Irma’s Hotel, the signs were poor, and mostly were just shops and bars. So I take a few shots and we hightail it back down to Bubba’s, hoping for some more Bar-b-Cue. There was a line outside, and seemed we would have to wait an hour or so. Instead we drive back through town to the Rib and Chop Shop; they said they would have a table in 20 minutes, so we wait.

There was yet more football on TV, the Browns actually winning, and is distracting in a way. I have not watched NFL in at least 5 years, so I have no idea which are good and bad teams these days.

Our table was ready, so we go into the busting restaurant, and choose what to eat. I could have chosen a dozen things, they did some amazing food, some of it good smelling cajun. I plump for jambalia, which when it comes was fabulous, with spicy sausage and seasoned shrimp. Jools has BBQ shrimp, a New Orleans classic the menu said, and was wonderful too, so Jools said.

But it was ten by then, time to go back to the hotel for a nightcap, but the hotel has no bar! But we have two bottles of hard cider in the fridge back in the room; one each and just enough to make us proper sleepy heads.