#2864 because we like that kind of stuff

Yesterday, Saturday 14 October, MT and I got up around 5:30 am. While this is a normal time for me to wake up during the week, it's pretty unheard of on a Saturday or Sunday unless something really cool is coming up. Because we like natural phenomena, we decided to drive to central Utah so we could see the annular eclipse in all it's Circle of Fire glory for as long as we could. MT did a bit of research, and he found that central Utah would have just over 4 minutes of annularity. We could have stayed in Salt Lake to see the eclipse, but it might not have been the complete circle, or for as long.

State officials had been preparing the small towns of central Utah for a major influx of eclipse watchers. There were signs all along the freeways warning of traffic congestion on the 14th. We thought about going to Richfield, which is about 130 miles away. To get there, you take I-15, then turn off on I-70. We also talked about going to Delta, about 100 miles away, but along single lane highways. In the end, we decided on going to Delta, since neither one of us have ever been there. 

Here are a few photos I took along the way:

The going-to-Delta-to-see-the-eclipse traffic

pretty sunrise behind the Wasatch Range with Utah Lake in foreground

I like the way the sunlight hit that hill

Desolate country; basin and range geography

I'll tell you, once you get past Saratoga Springs, there's not much in the way of towns. We passed through Elberta - it's where you hang a right onto Hwy 6 to take you through the town of Eureka on the way to Delta. It is sagebrush desert out there with a few cows and some scrubby pine trees here and there. Eureka looks like a cool old town. 

Once we got to Delta, we took a left to go toward Fillmore. We were about a mile out of town, I'd say, and there was an area that looked like a good place to park. It was off the road and plenty big enough for a bunch of cars. There were only two cars parked when we got there, then three others came when the eclipse began. Plenty of space. We pulled out our chairs, put on our puffy coats, donned our eclipse glasses, and watched the show.

The temperature was around 50 degrees. The air was crisp. I felt more comfortable with my jacket on. 

It's amazing to me that scientists had the whole thing accurately timed out to the minute. When the moon's shadow began to cover the sun, it was dropping down from the top of the sun, so it looked like a Pac Man (MT's take), then kept moving down, down, until the sun was just a sliver of crescent at the bottom. That's when the magic started to really happen. The outer edges of the sun seemed to crawl up around the shadow until, at last, there it was, a perfect Circle of Fire. It was stunning. The sun was a bright golden color around the darkness. (MT told me that he saw the circle as red.) As I said, there weren't many people where we were parked, but I could hear everyone exclaim when the circle was complete.

The light was muted a bit during the annularity, but it did not get dark. Here's a photo I took during the annularity:

I didn't use eclipse glasses as a filter for the camera. You can see how the sun looks a bit misshapen, and maybe you can also notice that the light is muted on the ground. Compare it with the photo of MT above. You can see how bright it is in that photo compared to this one. 

MT tried to use the eclipse glasses to get a photo of the eclipse, but it didn't really work out, so in the end, we decided just to enjoy the moments. I did post on Facebook throughout the eclipse, but not during the annularity. 

Once we saw that the moon's shadow was moving down off the sun, we packed up our stuff and got on the road. I can't really say that I have been to Delta, because we didn't stop at any gas station or restaurant. The parking lot of the Maverik convenience store was packed. There were quite a few people off the road or in parking lots. We didn't have any traffic jams or anything, though. There is one tiny town, Lynndyl, that had their emergency crew acting as a traffic light, waving people through, and stopping the flow when semis were coming along the road from Nephi.

MT and I decided to take a different way home. Before we got to Eureka, there was a turn-off to go to Tooele, so we turned to go that way. The country was a little more hilly. bit still sagebrush dessert. There were very few cars on that road. It was a nice drive.

We got back to town around 1:00, and stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Magna, El Habanero. We hadn't been there in a long time. It's the only place I know in the area that had cochinita pibil, a pulled pork dish I had near Coba in Mexico. It's delicious.  When we got home, we played with the dogs for a few minutes, then I had to take a nap.

Today I have stayed home, paying bills, playing with the dogs, and reading. I also made this art:

 I call this "Mother Nature's Circle of Fire Hat." This was a response to a prompt from the Underground group. 

Earlier this week, the prompt was "gumballs and something random." Here's what I did:

I have always wanted to draw my little dragon. Yeah, I know the wings are wonky. I still like it.

Have a great week! Be kind to yourself and to others.

xo