What I remember most about Monday morning, the day of the eclipse, is the uncertainty. We just didn't know what the best thing to do was. The weather forecast hadn't changed. We went outside to look at the sky, and about half of it, from the southwest to the northeast, was covered in a layer of clouds. And there were still more moving in from the southwest. We talked to an older lady sitting outside, who shared our concerns. Then we went back inside and made our decision: in the absence of any better ideas, we might as well stick to the plan!
We packed our cooler with food and water (and moon pies), collected our eclipse glasses, and drove 40 minutes north to Ravenna. There were more cars on the road than the previous day, but not nearly as many as we expected. As we got close to Ravenna, we saw several small groups of people on the side of the road, setting up telescopes. I also noticed something completely unexpected: driving 30+ miles to the north caused the clouds to get lower in the sky! For the first time in days, I started to feel hopeful that things might work out.
We got to Ravenna, found a parking spot at the high school, and made our way to the baseball fields, where we settled in for a wait. There were several hundred people, we think, at our baseball field. We couldn't see how many were at the other one.
You can see in the pictures that some areas of the sky (to the south and east) were cloudy and some were clear (to the west and north). I was quite hopeful at this point, but I still kept my fingers crossed. A single cloud could ruin it (and did, in some parts of the country)!
We waited around for about an hour for the eclipse to begin. When the moon first contacted the edge of the sun, someone in the crowd yelled out "BEHOLD THE MOON!", which was quite dramatic and made me laugh. Then we waited some more as the moon slowly covered up the sun. To pass the time, we ate our moon pies.
There was a microphone set up, so that a radio host and a local astronomer could give updates. At one point we all sang Happy Birthday to a boy who turned 11 years old that day. Later, they announced a couple was there celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary, and later still they announced another couple was there celebrating their 46th anniversary! We also listened to a Ravenna theme song the town had written for the event, and it was surprisingly good.
Eventually, totality got close. Our shadows got sharper, the temperature dropped, and a breeze began blowing. Someone at a house nearby had a rooster, which started to crow. That made everyone laugh. And it got dark! I looked to the west to see if the moon's shadow was visible, but I didn't see it. It did look weirdly dark, though, in the moments before totality. What stuck with me most is just how eerie it felt! It was a strange feeling.
A few minutes before totality began we also started to see stars and planets. That was really cool. A few high and thin clouds also moved in right before totality, but thankfully (thankfully!) they were very thin, and we could see through them, so they didn't block the view. As I was marveling at the darkness and the stars/planets, the crowd gasped, and I looked up just in time to see the diamond ring and the beginning of totality. It was crazy! Suddenly we were in darkness, and people cheered, and I looked all around, and at the stars and planets, and at the sun's corona, and just took it all in. And Wendy and I kissed, because an eclipse-chaser said in an article that it's "super good luck" to kiss your sweetie during an eclipse. How can you argue with that?
Totality lasted 2m 35s and it went by really fast! Suddenly there was light again, and people cheered, and I realized that we had actually seen it! We did it! All of the planning and preparation had worked! It was crazy.
Based on advice I'd read, I didn't take any pictures during totality, but I did set up my phone on a small tripod and recorded a video to get the crowd's reaction. Here's the relevant portion, about 3.5 minutes long:
A number of people took off immediately, but we stuck around for a little bit longer, soaking it in. I used an astronomy app on my phone to identify the stars and planets I'd seen. They were Venus, Jupiter, Procyon, and Capella. After a while, the radio host tried to get everyone to do the moon walk, to "set a record for most people doing the moon walk after an eclipse". We felt that was our cue to leave. We walked back to the car, and drove back to our hotel. I kept thinking of how weird it felt the moments before totality when it was getting really dark. That was a very unique experience.
We spent the rest of the day at our hotel, relaxing, texting and calling our families, and writing post cards. Of course, I also ate my delicious, delicious celebratory sweets!