Holley's Diary of Eclipse Week

Wednesday, August 16

• Michael's interviews:
     Radio interview with Jon Grayson at 10:30 am.
     KQ2 TV interview at 3:45 pm.
     Nationally syndicated DB60 interviewer Hannah came to mom and dad's house for an interview that lasted more than an hour.
• Had lunch at La Peep with mom and dad and mom's best friend, Pam.
• Went shopping for souvenirs at the Pony Express Museum and got a t-shirt, Christmas ornament, book, and magnet. Then went to Nesting Goods in downtown St. Joseph where we got an original piece of artwork about the eclipse.
• Dad made tuna with ponzu sauce for dinner. I made the salsa with our garden tomatoes and cucumbers. The parent's cleaning lady made them eclipse cookies which we had for dessert.

Thursday, August 17

• We had lunch at Sakura (sushi) with mom, dad, and Mike Reynolds. Then Mike, Michael, and I headed to the airport to meet the radio station guys who were setting up their equipment for the broadcast featuring Michael on eclipse day. They left a truck and set up an antenna for broadcasting. Barry Birr is the on-air personality for one of the stations, KFEQ, who will be with Michael from 8 am to 10 am and from 11:30 am until about 1:30 p.m. on eclipse day. Gary Exline is the general manager of all four stations who will be simulcasting parts of the broadcast. Two techs, Travis and Kevin (the engineer) also were there. With the airport was Adam, the man who gets things done. He was smart and capable. He told us George Hill would be the man to contact if we need anything on the big day.
• After the meeting, Michael and I went back to the Pony Express Museum to get Jackie a t-shirt. They had sold out of the Christmas ornaments and magnets by then, so we were lucky to have bought the ones we did! We also stopped at Nesting Goods again to get Jennifer the official eclipse glasses, and while I was there we found "Totality Rocks" painted souvenir rocks! They were too good, so we bought a bunch to give to friends as souvenirs.
• Dinner was a shrimp boil with shrimp fresh from Florida thanks to Mike and Debbie Reynolds. Debbie's brother runs a shrimp boat, and when they got them, Debbie de-headed the shrimp and then froze them for the voyage. Unfortunately, and especially after all that hard work, Mike and Debbie were both not feeling well enough to join us at this terrific feed. Rico and Liz joined us, but Frank didn't.
• Early to bed.





Friday, August 18

• Michael did two TV spots for WDAF FOX TV 4 in KC during their 6am and 7am hours. Oy! The on-air personality was Rob Collins and the tech's name was Eli. The spots went well - the early-morning hours at the airport were a good backdrop with planes in the background. But, the Sun didn't fully cooperate so Michael could show off the Sun Funnel projection or do any meaningful demonstrations with binoculars.
• On the way back to mom and dad's we decided to get breakfast, and Yelp pointed us to Brioche in downtown St. Joe. As we waited the few minutes for it to open at 8 am, we chatted with a group of four women who were meeting there for breakfast. We let them go first while we decided, and discovered that one of the women, a local nurse/trainer for Mosaic (the large, regional hospital chain in St. Joe) had paid for our breakfast! It was really good, too. I had a buckwheat crepe filled with goat cheese, spinach, and artichoke while Michael had coffee and a yummy cherry tart.
• At 9:30 am, Nathan Ellgren with the St. Joseph News-Press Now team came to the house for an interview. He did some video and took pictures, and he talked to Michael for about an hour. Bernie photo bombed through at one point, meowing away.
• We went to lunch at Panera with mom and dad, then I ran some errands with mom after lunch. Kari, a friend from high school and her daughter McKenna came by the house when we got back, as did Jim and Tammy, our good buddies from Wisconsin.
• Afterward, we went to pick up Ray at the airport, and took him to Bo Lings for dinner where we met Tex.

Saturday, August 19

• Party for Michael's birthday!!! Early in the morning, Michael, dad, and Rico set up a tent in the back yard-a striped one like a circus tent! Mom, Ray, and I went and picked up the cake, lunch meat, beans, etc for the party. Mom and I set up the tables under the tent and did other prep work.
• The first person to arrive was Abe Forney from Rosecrans. He actually brought Michael a key to the city of St. Joe, which he presented later when more people had arrived. The look on Michael's face was terrific!
• Lots of people came and went throughout the day:
     Jim & Tammy Rufener, Slinger, Wisconsin
     Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber, NYC
     Jeanette Grantstein, Wichita, KS
     Denise Morrison, KC
     Dave & Sunni White, Tucson, AZ
     Derrick and Linda Pitts, Philadelphia, PA
     Mike & Ortensia Marcotte, Lubbock, TX
     Rico & Liz, St. Joseph, MO
     Kari, Kenny, & McKenna Holdsworth, St. Joseph, MO
     Frank & his girlfriend Lisa
     Jane Grimes, KC
     Mom & dad's neighbors (6 total)
     Mike & Debbie Reynolds, Jacksonville, FL
     Ray Shubinski
     Joe Elliott & grandson Solomon, St. Joseph, MO
• Michael set up the solar projector (Sun Funnel) and a spectroscope and people enjoyed those, especially Joe's grandson and the neighbor kids. Derrick, who acquired more than 30 SunSpotters for the Franklin Institute, really loved the spectroscope.
• We had tons of food and a cake decorated with the Sun and Moon that turned our mouths, tongues, and teeth blue. We also had yummy eclipse cookies shaped like the Sun, Missouri (with a white icing stripe denoting totality's path thru the state), and eclipse glasses. The last one was Michael's fav.
• Around 3 pm, Ray announced he was leaving because Julie's water had just broken. He decided to take the train to Chicago to be there as soon as possible after the birth. So, he rode back to KC with Denise. Eleanor Rose was born at 2:40 am on Aug. 20! Not on Michael's b'day or eclipse day!
• There was much chatting and enjoying one another's company. I think Michael and I interacted a significant amount of time with everyone there. Frank, Lisa, and the Holdsworths were still at the house by 11 pm, but Michael and I went to bed-too tired!

Sunday, August 20

• Jennifer and Dylan got to the house around 7:30 am via a shuttle, which gave us time to chat before Michael had to head to Missouri Western State University for a series of talks.
• Michael and I drove to Rosecrans where Derrick and Linda were camped to drive him to the University and to get Linda for breakfast and some souvenir hunting. Just as we pulled up to their campsite (we had the windows rolled down), Beth Carmichael with the St. Joseph CVB walked up to Derrick and said something like, "Are you Derrick Pitts? It was pretty east to pick you out because you're the only black people here." Michael and I sat in the car just stunned-and embarrassed. When Linda got in the car, she asked if we'd heard that and said that Beth tried to pat her on the back, but Linda told her not to touch her and said, "don't patronize me." I think I displayed my anger with a hearty, "what the fuck?!" while Michael apologized profusely to them both. Linda touched his shoulder and told him he didn't have to apologize for other people's actions. Michael later said that he didn't think he could be embarrassed anymore, but that did it. We explained that dad always says, "welcome to St. Joe. Set your clocks back 100 years." A truly sad commentary on racism in this country.
• We got to the University where Michael, Derrick, Mike Reynolds, and Bryan Busby were giving the talks, just as Dave and Sunni pulled up. So, Linda and I got in with Sunni and drove to mom and dad's. Linda hadn't had breakfast yet, so dad and I cooked eggs, bacon, and potatoes with a side of fresh tomatoes from our garden and some grapes.

• After a while, we herded all the "cats" into two cars and headed downtown. We picked up the commemorative poster Jennifer had ordered at the CVB, and went to Nesting Goods (again!). Everyone in the group bought souvenirs for their various loved ones and Dylan got a pen made by a local teenager. We skipped the Trails West festival on the advice of a fellow shopper, but took pictures by the Pony Express Statue before heading to the Patee House Museum. Sunni and Linda headed back to the university to be with their men.
• Dylan had a lot of fun at the museum. They had a type of seek and find game throughout the museum that kept him occupied. You had to discover the various anachronisms within the exhibits that were marked and numbered (for example a recreation of a house, complete with a front porch and swing, had an Amazon box next to the front door). I liked the exhibit about Robert Wadlow's visit to St. Joe for a defamation suit against a doctor who said giants are of lower intelligence, aggressive, and surly. All characteristics absent in Robert. Unfortunately, he lost. The museum even had a carousel, as well as a huge model train layout.
• We went back to the house and Mike and Ortensia stopped by. We loaded them up with food and supplies for eclipse day. Jen and Dylan packed-well, Jen packed while Dylan napped. Michael got back from the talks and announced how great they were. Everyone was extremely on top of their game and really kept the crowd (both morning and afternoon sessions) of roughly 500 total informed and entertained. I was very sorry to have missed them.
• After packing more, we got the groggy Dylan and our stuff in the car and headed to Rosecrans for the night. After helping Mike set up and unpacking food, etc., we had leftovers from the party for dinner. Jen and Dylan slept on the extra fold-down beds in Mike's RV while Michael and I slept under the canopy in our new La Fuma chairs. It was a pleasant, breezy night and we got around four hours of good sleep.

Monday, August 21 — Eclipse Day!

• I woke up around 5:30 am to find Michael already up and about. He'd done two interviews before I even found him! Jim and Tammy were also there, although Tammy was asleep in their truck. Jim walked around with us. We explored the food vendors and they got coffee. On the way back, we discovered a group of 40 Australian tourists and chatted a bit - thanked them for the eclipse we saw in Cairns in 2012. One man recognized Michael's name and said he had a couple of his books.
• The day started clear with thunderstorms on the northern horizon, but clouds built throughout the day.
• Michael did tons of interviews - 10 before he went on the air with KFEQ radio at 8 am. He did the radio from 8:00 to 10:00, then the BBC World News until 11:00 or so before I made him go eat something. They came back and got him for a quick hit shortly after. In all, he did six segments with BBC World News totaling about 1½ hours of airtime. Then he was on with KFEQ through totality (which was 1:06 pm). He did interviews throughout the day with (among others) The New York Times, WDAF4, KCTV5, KSHB41, and KMBC9 (all TV from KC), KQ2 and ABC7 from St. Joseph, and the St. Joseph New-Press newspaper. He even had an adoring fan of the magazine from California shake his hand during segment breaks when he was on the radio.
• Friends who were at the airport included Allie and her mom Jill (Milwaukee), Ray and Carol's friend Natalie & her husband Mark (KC), Patty Schell and her husband (Milwaukee), and the core group of Jen, Dylan, Mike, Ortensia, Jim, Tammy, Bryce (and his entourage of about 8), and later mom and dad and Frank. We saw Jackie and Ed, Mike and Debbie and their family and friends, Linda and Derrick, Abe and his dad, Jerry Kochen from Wisconsin, Luann (Kalmbach) and her husband. Missouri Senator Roy Blunt even showed up briefly with a huge National Guard entourage and brought the radio broadcast to a screeching halt by talking politics for a few minutes.
• As for the eclipse itself, we saw some of the early partial phases, then it rained. As totality neared, it became obvious that we were in for a cloudy, obscured totality at best. Every time the Sun peeked out through a break in the clouds, the crowd roared with excitement. We saw the very thin crescent right before the diamond ring. Then, a perfect hole in the clouds briefly framed totality! We saw the corona and the crowd screamed! Dylan hopped around and kept saying how awesome it was. The radio tech brought his 10-year-old grandson who yelled, "This is the greatest moment of my life!!!" The sky got incredibly dark and the colorful sunset was around the entire horizon. It was spooky and cool. Mike talked to a man who said it was the most fantastic thing he'd seen, and when Mike said it could have been more amazing, the man said, "I don't see how!"
• I got to be with Michael during totality, which was nice, but overall, for us, the eclipse itself was disappointing. However, the entire experience of finally getting to share it with so many family members and friends, plus 25,000 people at the airport, was unbelievably great.
• We stayed through the partial phases and chatted more with Mike, Ortensia, Jen, Dylan, Derrick, and Linda. Jackie was obviously disappointed, and Mike Reynolds' group left quickly before we said goodbye.
• Michael did one more hit with the BBC World Service (they loved him-and why not?), and also with 41 and channel 9 with Bryan Busby - the only meteorologist he talked with during the whole day.
• After Mike got the RV mobile, we left the grounds around 2:30 pm. Driving Jen and Dylan to the KC airport at that time took much longer than it should have because of the heavy traffic. We took them to dinner at a sushi place near the airport and then had yummy custard before dropping them off. We were going to get together with Dave and Sunni at their Air B&B, but were just too beat. Dave and Sunni saw the whole eclipse from southeast of Platte City. We got home and gratefully showered and went to bed.
• Just about everywhere else along the line of totality had clear skies. Definitely a lot more Americans have now experienced a total solar eclipse. Wonderful!