After the peak morning commute passed on Wednesday August 16, 2017, I began the drive up I680 then over I580 at Richmond to US101 where I would then be driving for long hours. I crossed the Oregon border late afternoon then found a state roadside rest just above Brookings to spend the night sleeping inside my Forester. My driving distance was about 430 miles for the day. Conditions were very windy along the coast and skies were rather smoky due to numerous lightning caused fires burning in the Six Rivers and Siskiyou National Forest mountains just east. Although I had been to Oregon in the past skiing at Bend, and had visited our redwood parks and Crescent City a few times, it was my first drive up along the Oregon coast. I wanted to be in Salem by Friday afternoon so would have a couple days to explore Oregon coastline areas. Harris Beach State Park was near the roadside rest so I went into the park where the most helpful woman at the entrance station provided me with a pile of brochures and information sheets on Oregon parks that I later perused in the evening.

Friday August 18, 2017, I was up at dawn and out on the road north on US101. Rather quickly stopped at Oregon Dunes Overlook area then hiked down into the dunes where I found various interesting close-up subjects. Strong winds in the region continually blow sands over any tracks keeping the sand surface smooth. There were raised tracks about the wonderfully smooth sand surface by some nocturnal insects that apparently move about just below the surface.

There is a long list of state parks along the coast and many more scenic pull outs and unsigned pullouts, many with paths down to beaches. The above is just one of I passed by, almost all of which I simply did not have time to do more than glance at while driving by. I did meet a woman at the pull out with her husband in an RV that were also on their way north for the eclipse that. She nicely took a picture of me set up with my tripod taking the above photo so I gave her my business card that has my website and email address information that she then later sent.

Saturday August 19, 2017 I didn't leave the motel till mid morning after which I went directly to Riverfront Park where ...surprise... the large parking lot was still mostly empty. Parked under shadiest group of trees where I left my car sit until after the eclipse, instead walking everywhere. At the time there were only about a half dozen tents set up in the park that is the closest to downtown, has a permanent carousel, and playground for kids. During the weekend within a nearby fenced off area with a grandstand, there was a Christian music concert on Saturday with a list of different groups and mariachi band concert on Sunday. Two walking bridges provided hiking access to miles of nearby riverfront trails and park areas. And the downtown had considerable dining and retail areas plus all the state capitol buildings. I probably hiked a good six miles all told Saturday.

I met a local Salem person that was the official NASA ham radio network person reporting on the eclipse whose crew was also doing a documentary on the eclipse activity and people in the park. He was voluntarily meeting every group that came in and tented, interviewing some, and I slipped into a roll of tagging along having fun meeting people from not only all over the Northwest but also some from other states and countries. Although unfamiliar with Christian music groups, in the afternoon bought a ticket and was enjoyably entertained as the event was well attended by families and people from a wide region of the state. By the end of the afternoon Saturday our tent city had grown to a modest couple dozen tents. There were of course a number of other parks in the city and region where visitors were also tenting and a list of special events for the eclipse some of which had paid tenting.

On Sunday August 20, 2017 I continued having fun wandering about Salem including catching a classical music concert in the morning at the capitol park and spending time at the nearby weekend flee market. Much much more. My A6000 was pretty much left in the Subaru during both weekend days as I just captured a few information shots with my moto g smartphone camera. By mid afternoon many more people had now set up tents. The mariachi concert was well attended with numbers of colorfully dressed visitors coming into the park. But it was during the evening that large numbers of people arrived, some tenting but many simply spending the night sitting on park bench seats wrapped in blankets. Weather reports had become more optimistic for clear sunny conditions the following morning.

Sunny skies greeted Salem Oregon on Monday August 21, 2017 and there was incredible energy everywhere as people began massing throughout the city including our park areas. Yes eclipse day was absolutely perfect weather. During the early morning I packed away my tent and readied the car for a quick exit when the time came. At 9am the Moon began to eclipse the Sun and it was at 10:17am that totality would start and then last only 130 seconds. Before leaving on the trip I had decided not to bother trying to capture any serious Moon/Sun eclipse images because that requires serious equipment I neither have nor know how to use like expensive telescopes, sun filters, tracking equipment and software. Thus would be content to just experience the eclipse and maybe take a shot if I could do so without much effort. However I was more interested in recording a video of the crowd watching the eclipse so brought along my Canon R700 camcorder. I set up my A6000 to point in the general location of the sun and my Canon R700 camcorder also on a tripod towards the crowd among tents.

As more and more of the Sun was occluded by the Moon, landscapes gradually dimmed but such was not much more than when high clouds dim the sun a bit on normal days. Everyone looked through their eclipse glasses marveling at the orange image of slices of the sun being blocked out. It was about 10 minutes from totality or a bit after 10am that more noticeable changes increasingly occurred with the dimming landscape. At 10:16am people could see just a small slice of sun left however it was still rather bright out everywhere. There was a considerable buzz in the large crowd as people knew totality was imminent with many getting ready in whatever way they planned to. One thing that all expected to do is most had only been viewing the sun via the eclipse glasses and it was time take them off then for a following 2 minutes viewing with one's naked eyes. Thus many parents talking to their children about doing so though not a few like this person had already begun squinting directly at the almost eclipse. At 10:17am the light change was suddenly very dramatic in just a few seconds as the entry diamond ring phase rapidly changed to totality with enormous gasps, OOOHs, Oh My Gods, AWESOMEs, rising everywhere. It was suddenly immensely darker everywhere. But not like the night because the sky above was still a light blue. More like a dark twilight. Behind the blazing corona circling the intensely black disk the sky was a dark blue, not the black one tends to see in even professional photographs because camera sensors simply have a too limited dynamic range. One of most incredible experiences of my life beyond being able to put into words and much of my own emotion was due to more than just the incredible visuals. Like I was there, right then, witnessing one of the most incredible events possible, possibly the result of an ultimate power guiding life in the Universe wanting to leave a signal to eventual evolved advanced intelligent beings that they are not alone.

The above image at page top was taken at the end of the eclipse, the diamond ring exit phase, with my SEL55210 lens zoomed to maximum. Because the moon and sun position were continually moving during the morning, one could not aim a telephoto lens at the target beforehand and at the end of the eclipse I spent more time just getting it framed and focused that in hind sight would have been better spent actually watching the end of the phenomenon. The image above is a crop of the image at page top. As the diamond ring exit phase began, a delay from my camera infrared remote shutter release resulted in a bit more ring than I actually preferred. As totality ended and the diamond ring exit phase blazing light appeared, the crowd roared again and just as quickly as totality began, it also ended with a ringing cheer and clapping heard into the distance. People slowly began moving about while some began rapidly moving towards their vehicles since the next prime directive was to escape to wherever without being caught in the nightmare traffic jams the media had been talking about for weeks.

I was out on the road within about 20 minutes of the eclipse and over and across the nearby route 22 bridge, leaving the city westward and most traffic. A few miles west I turned south on route 99W that slowed down to stop and go at Monmouth for awhile and then again some at Corvalis but nothing like stories of those using Interstate 5. At Junction City I turned west on route 36 that had light traffic and went into route 126 reaching the coast where I would remain on US101 for the rest of the long miles home. About midnight, I stopped for a few hours north of Willits at a state roadside rest for some sleep before continuing south at sunrise, reaching the San Jose area by late morning. Well I'm now an eclipse convert and am certain to make plans for our next eclipse in the United States that will not be 99 years but rather less than 7. That next eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024 swinging northeast through Mexico, Texas, and up through many states to Ohio. I have some relatives in Texas and we will make some awesome plans.