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Todd and I awoke early Monday to a beautiful morning. The night had not been the most comfortable but we had gotten some sleep. A few more cars had showed up and we could see more on the way. The weather was showing storms to our east with clouds moving in from the south. We were going to stop by the American Legion for a Continental breakfast but saw that the Fairmont Fire Department was setting up to cook burgers and hot dogs in the middle of the park.
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As we made our way around the park we talked to people from all parts of the country and recorded a few interviews. Two guy walked by us and noticed we were with the press. They made a comment that lead me to believe they were either the Aussies or from England. They quickly informed us they were from the London, England area and had made a last minute decision to hop on a plane and fly over for the eclipse.
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The Londoners were Stu and Steve, two musicians from across the pond. They told us about how they had decided on Fairmont, which was much like many others, including Todd and I. Stu and Steve were band members from a group called The Midnight Tokers. They told us they were a cover band that played in the London area. Both had welders masks with them which they used to view the eclipse.
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Throughout the day there were more and more clouds. Todd and I decided to grab food at 10am and got in line for a burger. A gentlemen came up to me and asked if I was the Enid Buzz Guy. I told him I was and he said he was from Tulsa and had family that told him we would be in Fairmont and they should look us up. As the morning wore on there were more and more cars filling the entire town.
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Todd and I continuously tried to check the weather and live stream to Facebook. Due to our location and the number of people in town it became harder and harder to connect to the Internet. I was able to live stream at 10am and we were able to see that more cloud were building from the south.
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Around 11:30am the eclipse started. We were able to see a sliver of the moon begin to cover the sun. Even through the clouds you could see the crescent sun. Todd and I began trying to snap pictures and setup our cameras. I setup a Sony 4K camera, a GoPro 5 and I was ready to live stream from my iPhone 7 Plus. I also strapped on my Cannon 40D with telephoto lens to try and snag a sun shot or two.
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By 12:30pm there was a pretty good blanket of clouds over us at times almost blocking the sun. To the southwest of the park there was a small circle of blue sky. I kept telling everyone I talked to that the clear spot was going to reach us just as the eclipse were to go into totality. Not knowing if it would or not I was trying everything I could to convince the universe it needed to happen.
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About 15 minutes before totality I couldn't even get my phone to show any service at all. At 10 minutes before totality the clear blue spot in the sky reached our location and we had full view of the sun! At 5 minutes before totality my phone connected and I was able to go live on Facebook. Todd and I turned all cameras on and prepared for this event in nature that we had never experienced before.
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And the story ends here...
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Experiencing A Total Solar Eclipse
