We arrived at Hood Park, a real nice Corp of Engineers park on the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers just outside of Pasco, WA. We had reservations and paid only $8.00 a night for 3 nights. The only down side was that we could not check in till 2 PM. So much for beating the heat. We had a 4 hour wait. Around 3 PM, we did visit the dump station area to fill our fresh water tank since the campground only had a 30 amp hookup.
Once we got in, we got all setup in space #2, a nice pull through site with shade trees and access to the southern sky for Sat. TV.
Now the whole reason we chose to put this stop on our travel plans, was because of the August 21st total eclipse. So at 6 AM, we took off in the Jeep and headed south on Highway 395, hoping to get as close to the 'totality' area as possible.
It was clear sailing along I-82 to I-84 and Pendleton. Then we exited onto Highway 395 South. Surprisingly, there was absolutly no slowing traffic.
We travelled easily all the way to Dale, OR on Highway 395 and entered the 'Totality Zone'. I was amazed that with all the hype about a traffic appocalypse, we were there!
Just entering Dale, there was a nice spot for viewing along with a Forest Service Solar Eclipse Information Station. We got all parked for the up comming show. There were about a hundred other folks here. If we continued further south towards the center of the totality path, the total eclipse (blackout) would last about 2 minutes. Where we were, on the edge of the path, we would experience about a 40 second total ecplipse backout. That's good enough for us!
I am glad we picked up our solar viewing glasses while we were in Florence. They came in pretty handy.
The crowd, and us, were eagerly waiting.
At 9:09 AM, the moon started accross the sun's path.
Then is all began. My pictures:
We had to hold the Solar Viewing glasses in front of our cell phone camera. Just a sliver of the sun makes the pictures suck.
Here is What was really happening:
At about 10:23, it was totality! It got cold. A definite drop in temperature. It got dark and the stars came out. Just plain awesome!
At totality, the glasses came off, cell phone pictures still wouldn't come out, but thourgh our binaculars, it was incredible!
The people around us started whooping and hollering. This whole 40 second event was worth the 276 mile round trip drive!
On the way home, we stopped and gassed up while in Oregon for $2.49 a gallon, and stopped off at the A&W for some Root Beer and a vanilla ice cream come. So nice on a hot day.
It was a great day and bucket list item.
This is our last stop in Washington. We will be in Idaho in a couple of days!
Fergs .... out!
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