So Karen, our son Noel, and I joined the hordes and drove to a rest stop just north of Lime, Oregon, arriving about 4:30 Monday morning. And any lingering doubts we had about the advisability of the enterprise were put aside after the event. Following are photos documenting our conversion.
Dawn breaks at the rest stopThe view from the farm road above the highwayOne of the only lines we found that morning: the women’s room at the rest stop just after dawn…Karen waits for the moon to arrive, next to my second camera…Our friendly neighbor from Olympia, who shared his filtered telescope with usA view using a welder’s lens (thanks, Howard Lev) before totalityThe unfiltered event. Note the planet lower left quadrant. Mars or Mercury.In the dark…Two minutes of nightI blew up this shot to look a bit closer – is that a solar flare at 1 o’clock?My last photo of the sun peeping out from behind the moon. Magnificent.Moments after the eclipse, in the twilight of awe
Afterwards, we had a picnic and then decided to drive south a few miles to visit Lime, where Paul Dorpat told us an abandoned cement factory still loomed. We wandered an apocalyptic moonscape of graffiti, art, and lost children – a perfect aftermath comprising melancholy reflection and an exquisite sense of mortality.
No Trespassing — ignored by artists and visitors alikeKaren in the ruins with her solar umbrella
This kid got up but couldn’t get down. I asked if he needed help, but he threw a rock at me and called for his dad (who may have been named Jim)
Is this Banksy in a box? The concrete stands about 3 feet tall and is a lovely secret miniature amongst the larger art
Spectacular, Jean, simply spectacular– the eclipse and Lime both. Glad that you, Karen, and Noel made the journey.
There’s another solar flare at 3 o’clock, too. I can see it on yours, and here’s another look: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYEWxpiFmW-/?taken-by=aaronbrethorst
Thanks, Aaron, for the alternate view!