Ologies with Alie Ward - Field Trip: I Chased the 2024 Eclipse with Umbraphiles

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Come along like a frog in my pocket for an adventure to see an eclipse. After last week’s Heliology episode on the Sun, I rushed out of state to see what the fuss was about and to witness my first ever total eclipse of the Sun. Did it go as planned? Of course not? Did it work out? You’ll have to listen. We’ve got: a rollercoaster of emotions, last-minute pivots, chats with strangers, highway scenery, hope, anxiety, awe, and tears as we see if my seven-year wait for totality pans out. A donation went to Functional MagicCheck out Veritasium on YouTubeVisit Dr. Teagan Wall’s website and follow her on Instagram and XJarrett’s Webby-nominated Avatar: The Last Airbender podcast, “Braving the Elements” More episode sources and linksSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesOther episodes you may enjoy: Heliology (THE SUN/ECLIPSES), Selenology (THE MOON), Cosmology (THE UNIVERSE), Meteorology (WEATHER & CLIMATE), Nephology (CLOUDS), FIELD TRIP: Alie’s Mystery Surgery, Disasterology (DISASTERS), Genicular Traumatology (BAD KNEES)Sponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow @Ologies on Instagram and XFollow @AlieWard on Instagram and XEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob ChaffeeManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling producer: Noel DilworthTranscripts by Aveline Malek Website by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Oh, hi. It's the lady that's last aboard the plane. On our way to see an eclipse, here we go. So if you listened to last week's Heliology episode, highly recommended, it's on the sun and solar eclipses, you may know that I missed the 2017 eclipse because I stayed home to work on and launch the podcast, Ologies. I had some friends who went, people cried. It's been nearly seven years of regret. Then in March I had this big surgery And I wasn't sure if the results would yield me a big bummer diagnosis when it came back clear I told myself perhaps Ward we should go on a few adventures But before this adventure huge thank you to everyone on patreon who supports the making of this show at patreon.com

Ologies you too can join for $1 a month and perhaps hear your name and your questions on the show. Also thank you to everyone supporting Ologies by wearing merch from Ologiesmerch.com. You can also always support the show for $0 just by leaving a review such as this nice one from Nishbeth who wrote, I would love to hear an offshoot of Ologies. Ali's adventures with some of the peeps that you have interviewed that have invited you to the field. Bears, pelicans, bugs. Adventure Ali. Nishbeth, youeps that you have interviewed that have invited you to the field bears pelicans bugs Adventure Ali Nishbeth you have no idea how timely that is because you're about to come with me to a lot of different places right now

Thanks for writing that thank you to everyone who's ever written a review I've read it so if you listen to heliology from last week You'll have a lot of the context and lead up to why this field trip eclipse episode was so important for me to make and of course that episode is linked to the show notes as well as my field trip mystery surgery episode. If you listen to that, you'll understand why. As soon as I got a green light, I decided to maybe have a little bit more fun after a rough couple of years.

So I booked a ticket to see the eclipse. It did not go according to plan. Did I make it? Was it fun? Did I see the corona, the penumbra, the Bailey's beads, the inside of a cop car? What happened? Come along with me and several million others

as we chase the moon chasing the sun for a glimpse at our own insignificance. This one gets a little wild, lot of ups and downs, also airport sandwiches. In this field trip, I head to the solar eclipse like an umbra file. An umbra file is someone who likes eclipses. How about a little background? Okay, so in 2024, a band of totality stretching across Central and North America on a diagonal like a beauty pageant sash.

Millions of people going to see the moon covering up the sun, which would also boost the US economy by $6 billion. Where should you spend your money if you're going to see it? Well, the best option to see it was at lower latitudes, where the weather has a lower chance of some meteorological sabotage, because no clouds, we're not here to look at you. And this thing would be going from Maine to Mazatlan, so you have a lot of options. And my friend Derek of Veritasium, he had a place with his family in Kerrville, Texas. So I asked them if they thought that was a good spot and they said they actually couldn't make it

and I could have their Airbnb. And then I found out one of my best friends I've known since we were 12, Sarah, was also headed to Kerrville, Texas. Kerrville, whatever. Hot damn, things are working out. I got a free Airbnb my friends aren't going to use. My other friend's going to be there, but rental cars were scarce. We asked friends and family and all ogites and then somehow one on Toro popped up. My friend Simone and I were both headed to DC after this eclipse, so she got a ticket to join Jared and I in Texas. However, Charit's Jiu Jitsu gym was having a belt promotion ceremony and they'd like him to be at and they hinted that he might want to be present for it. So we moved the trip back a few days to fly to Austin the day before the eclipse. I'm nervous. We have really early

flights. I hear the drive from Austin to southwest Curville. Usually a two-hour trip may take up to 12 hours. My friend Katherine sends a video from her mom in Austin. Empty shelves at the grocery store. It's like a quarantine flashback. The Texas Department of Transportation is putting porta potties along like a quarantine flashback. The Texas Department of Transportation is putting porta potties along like a 90 mile route and the mayor of Kerrville declares the event an emergency ahead of time in case they need immediate assistance from FEMA during the influx of people. By the way we have a Disasterology episode with Dr. Sam Montano, highly recommended. But either way I've waited seven years for this. Texas is the place to see it. They're not gonna have clouds.

I've been on helicopters, a tiny bush plane, a military centrifuge for TV shoots. I've driven through a tornado and an ice storm to get to work. I can handle eating protein bars for a few days and using a porta potty for fun. And then the weather reports came. Texas is expecting thunderstorms right at the time of totality.

So the day before we left, this past Saturday, I talked to Jared. Okay, here's the deal. So right now we got clouds in Texas. Big big clouds. Vermont and Maine are supposed to be clear, right? If we change our flights to go, instead of going to Austin, to go to Kerrville, which has declared a state of emergency and might have clouds.

If we change the flights to Portland, Maine, the day before we leave. I'm just saying, is it bonkers to go, as long as we're like gonna spend money and time to just be like, well, hiccup. You tell me, I mean, are there places to stay in there? Is that gonna, that's gonna be in the path we're saying? I don't even know where fucking Portland, Maine is.

I can't, I just can't believe that it's flipped. Teagan has family in Buffalo, so she was gonna go up there. She's up there to see it in upstate New York. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Let's go, let's go sleep in a car somewhere, you know? Yeah, Buffalo's right in the middle of it. I know.

Do we have places to stay if we go there? I mean, I could ask Teagan. We could camp in her yard. How would we go there? I mean, I could ask Teagan. We could camp in her yard. How would we get there? I don't know. I texted Simone that it might change. I know you really want to see this thing. Simone says, oh shit, I'm down either way.

Okay, that's good. I just figure like an adventure is an adventure. The sunk cost fallacy prevents a lot of people from going for I agree. I agree. And I'm not looking for the idea of like, driving like fucking crazy. To see clouds. You know, yeah, I love it. Tegan says, if we pivot, she says, if you can get to Buffalo or Rochester,

we have couches, floors, et cetera. I think we should maybe do this. Okay. You know? Well, then let's fucking try that. Hold on, let's figure this out. I think it's fun too. Ah, so we started to mobilize.

There were flights out of Burbank at 715, 810, 925 and 1025. They all get in at 810. So they all change planes in Las Vegas. It says one left on each of these. There's only one seat left on each of them, but whatever. And then from Vegas it looks like we'd all be on the same plane. I say fuck it, let's go. Amazing. Okay. One ticket down, babe. I got us flights. There were four left. I had my confirmation number already up, so I switched mine first. Oh no. Oh no.

Huh. Oh no no no no no. Jared, meanwhile, was in the bathroom. ...dumb stupid video on Instagram, but it said three times. There's been a complication, and I will tell you when you're out of the bathroom. Okay. What's the complication and I will tell you when you're out of the bathroom. Okay. What's the complication? So sorry. Okay, so it looked like there was one flight available for each of those times. So I booked mine and now there's no flights available and that was just, that one flight was showing up for all the departure times. Do you know what I'm saying?

So it looked like there were four flights available. And now there's none. We should call. Shit. Can we call? Yeah, let's call. I booked myself, but. Well, I'm glad you're going to see it, babe,

because I know it's really important. No. That's not what's happening. No, no, it's important. That's not what's happening. I couldn't. That's not what's happening. No, it's important. That's not what's happening. I couldn't Hi Jessica, my name is Jared sleeper TLDR no dice couldn't help us at all

I think they are We FaceTimed Simone. I don't want to feel like I'm ditching you because I booked my ticket first, being like, okay, I have my, does it seem like I'm like, okay, well I'm set you guys, so good luck, you know. Kylie, there is not a single cell in my body that feels that way.

To you? No. And thank you for checking. Thanks for fact checking your feelings. What? Ah. The two sources here, Jared and I, do not feel that way at all.

It's quite the opposite of like, it would be a bummer that you would miss out. Like you got a flight, it's fucking awesome. And also if I could choose for one of us to go, like obviously- Right, right. So this is a peer-reviewed study, double peer-reviewed. I think it's a great idea for you to go.

So Jarrett checks for flights into Syracuse, Albany, Rochester, but coming up empty, goose egg, decides just not to go. There's no flights. He's going to catch the next eclipse maybe in 2026 if we decide to. But then later that night, he goes and he finds a flight into Toronto a few hours over the border. It's in Canada. There's one seat.

It lands at 11 p.m. the night before the eclipse. So he'd land and then he'd drive two hours in the middle of the night across the Canadian border into New York to reach us in Buffalo, where there are clear skies. He goes forward. He gets a ticket. He finds a rental car. We're both just going to do this. K-453, the day before we leave, we went back and forth, decided I'm going to fly into Buffalo. I got those tickets for Buffalo. I got tickets singular. Simone's out. She's gonna stay in LA a few more days. And Jarrett is flying into Toronto late at night.

And then we're gonna watch it between Rochester and Buffalo and then the next day I head to DC. All right. Okay, so I'm going straight to Washington, DC after the eclipse as a STEM ambassador for the National STEM Festival. It's put on by the US Department of Education and Explorer, which is cool. It's highlighting student solutions to global challenges in areas like the environment and

food and energy and space. Very cool. That's right after the eclipse. So the morning of my departure this past Sunday, I just grabbed my stuff in chaos. I'm packing haphazardly. I'm wondering if I'm going to regret this in case they invite us to the White House and I have the wrong clothes. Underwear is literally falling out of my backpack as I arrive at Burbank Airport. I'm just gonna get in there and do some repacking.

Okay, okay. Are you sure? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, I love you. I love you. I'll see you in a little bit. I'll see you in Buffalo. I'll get the address from Teagan because I don't know where we're going. If you've ever flown Southwest where there are no seat assignments and only boarding order, you may understand that my place in line at C-55 sucks shit.

I'm the last to board the plane and I stand before this like achingly full flight, but I'm happy. I'm happy to be there. Then I see a middle seat in row two and the flight attendant whispers to me those ladies know each other and sure enough When I asked to scoot in the middle one the aisle passenger sighs as if I caught her in a lie and says I'll just take the middle and I have a blessed aisle seat at the front of the plane and these two ladies who are friends have To sit next to each other So the flight attendant kind of sneaks me a look

as if to say like, see, don't let anyone bamboozle you. And I say, thanks lady. Now on the flight, the attendant asks for a show of hands of who is Buffalo bound for the eclipse. And maybe a dozen of us on this full flight raise our hands. She's like, how many people are just coming home? And I crammed my neck back to see 80% of the hands raised. I wish you a beautiful, clear, skies day tomorrow. Deplaning are mostly tired families returning from what must have been spring break because

there are flip flops, beach braids, there's tanned nine-year-olds, there's very little patience. One older couple is wrangling luggage through a crosswalk and they drop a bag so I go to help them. The woman stares me right in the face and says, my daughter lives a life of chaos and this is the result. But they must also be eclipse chasers and I relate heavily to her daughter, who a moment later pulls a rental car around and parks crookedly on the crosswalk.

I get her. So in the crisp buffalo night, I see Teegan smiling through the windshield of a rented minivan. Her brother Jeff pops out of the shotgun seat and loads my luggage in the back. While I've been flying, clouds have rolled into Buffalo. Oh my god! Hi! How are you? Good, how are you? Oh my god, Dr. Wall! Thank you for coming to get me.

I'm so glad you're here. It's a good chance that we're going to get a car and we're going to be driving. That's alright. Based on where, like, we're going to find a fucking hole in this cloud. Yes. You're nabbing me. Alright, I'm nabbing you. You're going to target first. Okay. Because all of the

air mattresses that everyone has are black. No, we honestly can sleep anywhere. No, no, we're gonna get you a new mattress. No, no, no, no, no. We can sleep in the car. No, no, no, no, no. Honestly. We're gonna get you a new mattress. Okay, I get to get it. Fine. I don't care. You can pay for it. Okay. Deal. It's way cheaper than a hotel and I don't even know if we could have found one. I don't think you could have. I know. I mean... The buffalo is not that big and there's literally something like 2 million people coming into town for this.

Fuck. Yeah. That's exciting. We hit Target, air mattress acquired. We walk into Teagan Aunt's Shar's house to a chorus of dogs heralding the arrival of a sweaty, gross stranger, who is me. Now this house, it has that blissful feeling of like coming home to families. Like there's kids asleep upstairs, baby monitors droning at the end of the dining room table. All the adults are still awake. They're bowls of jelly beans and M&Ms, and her family is laughing, playing a dice game.

Seven, yes! Okay. Double! Nine. Now it goes to doubles. Come on, Kerry. Everyone is instantly welcoming and warm, including that barking dog, Sadie,

who quickly learns that I'm a reliable source of pets and hugs, and that I consent easily to have my face licked by dogs I've just met. Four, five, nine, seven. Seven! Seven! That was the fourth roll.

Game's over. Game over, maybe, because after pivoting from Texas thunderstorms at the last minute for those clear skies of Buffalo, the Buffalo clouds are gathering. First, just a few, and then. Yeah, it got worse again. Whether you want to get in front of it or try and get behind it, I don't know.

Now that it's getting closer, I'm looking at forecasts and different weather modeling. Let's see, there's Toronto. So right now at 2 p.m. Buffalo is scheduled to have a 83% of the sky covered with cloud too. At 2 p.m.? At 2 p.m. But if we wanted to go all the way out to Watertown, it's like 55%. Chance. See, I'm kind of watching that weather.

That weather, this is cloud cover as of right now. Like a military operation, we gather around to weigh our odds and plot the course. Here's Erie, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Toronto. And so we're sitting like right in there. So we might be able to look out if we go down to Erie. There's really not much we can do now, but just get some rest on the air mattress,

which is now inflating in the living room. We'll check again in the morning. Five or six. You know, it's like, I thought it was really cool. It's a great hat though. So we'll see. It's just like roll the dice. Do you go in front of that band of clouds or do you try and travel behind the band of clouds? Oh, a roll of the dice game indeed. We'll see. We're in it for the adventure. This is what Umberphiles deal with.

Okay, so Teagate's brother Jeff just said, no matter what tomorrow, we will see something obscuring the sun. Nice. Will it be the moon or the clouds covering the moon covering the sun? We're at 83% chance of the sky being covered at 3 p.m. during the eclipse in Buffalo. So we're gonna wake up,

we're gonna see what the weather report says, and then we're gonna see see if we're going to head to Cleveland or Watertown, which might be really long traffic. But that's what we're here for. Umbrophilia, not for the week of Constitution. We'll see what we see. So it's 11 PM. Jared has just landed in Canada and he has customs and a two hour drive ahead. I meanwhile, not off in my airplane clothes, which is disgusting, on this fresh new air

mattress and at 2.30 in the morning, Shar's front door clicks open and Sadie erupts in a barking that we are sure will wake the four babies and toddlers upstairs. But we wince, we bribe Sadie with biscuits and pets and pets and snuggles and then we slip under a quilt on the air mattress to sleep like the dead. Now the next morning, still on Pacific time, us Californians sleep in until 9 or 10 and then jump out of bed, still in yesterday's clothes,

to look at the weather. It's the day of the eclipse. OK, let's see. It's 10, 17 AM, Buffalo local time. There is not a knot cloud in the sky. It's all clouds. I cannot see a patch of sky, so we're gonna see what happens.

But right now, it is 100% clouded over. Over some of the best donuts I've ever had in my life from Palas in Buffalo, hit them up. We decide we're gonna drive and we gotta go now. So we trip over our own legs, putting on shoes, we grab the eclipse glasses and recording equipment and race to the rental cars. I don't even bother with a bra. Seven years I've waited for this. It's 1136. We've got four hours, three and a half hours until

the eclipse. Clouds. We got a lot of clouds. It's all clouds. But over the lake, which is I believe Lake Erie because we're close to Erie, Pennsylvania, I need to look at a map. Pennsylvania, don't email me. I think that we're gonna try to keep heading that way and we'll hope that the clouds don't blow our way. Chasing eclipses. So on the drive we pass miles and miles of still bare branched trees and hawks perched on telephone poles. I see smatterings of these yellow daffodils poking through the dead winter grasses. At one point I look over and see a flash of this classic car in the woods that's rusting

into pieces. All of this scenery under a still cloudy sky as we head west, braced for a bummer, let's be honest. Now from California, my friends are checking in and my good buddy Mackenzie sends an eclipse playlist with songs like Eclipse by Pink Floyd, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Ain't No Sunshine, It's a Banger.

We're still under the clouds driving and Tegan has come down with a stomach bug that her and her husband's children have. But despite her nausea and fatigue, she is meticulously watching the weather and navigating us toward the best odds for a clear sky between bouts of barf bags in the back of their minivan. So we proceed southwest along I-90 crossing from New York into Pennsylvania, still under the cover of clouds and mounting anxiety about disappointment. What did you think it was going to be like?

Shady. Shady. You're saying it becomes nighttime? Apparently, pretty much. Wow. Like the stars come out, the birds get confused because they think it's night and they think it's morning. And you know, someone's telling me that it's almost like a sunset 360 but I don't know

about that. And then you always see a break in the clouds, like the tiniest slice of hope. Now that we're going to see it, or if we're going to see it, I mean, I think we're going to see it, we've got to be able to get over there before it happens. Yeah. I mean, that's... Blue skies! This is Hatchadam sky. We gotta be able to get over there. That's a big patch of sky.

The blue sky is very promising. We're crossing into Ohio, which is apparently the heart of it all. Some of us crossed international borders to be here actually. It's true, some of us did. So after the flights and the changes and the midnight drives and wearing no bra and a dirty shirt it's starting to look good. Could this happen? All right, so we're about 30 miles away from where we're going.

I think we're going to stop and grab a little perhaps a burger for lunch and then we're 30 minutes out. It's two hours until the eclipse, right? I'm feeling much better seeing some blue sky. I think all of us are feeling less despondent. I think that's good. I keep replaying in my mind like if I had a time machine would I do this over again if it were cloudy. If it were cloudy I feel like it's a no. I would have stayed home. So this is good. Stay tuned. Yeah I'm feeling very good about the sky's overhead. We're going from like a

tiny patch of blue sky to smaller patches of clouds, so this is good. Osiris. I don't know, I gotta look it up. I think they're Osiris. Chemtrails looking beautiful. Chemtrails, gotta love those chemtrails. They're seeding the clouds for us. Beee!

Alright. They're seeding the clouds because they're trying to prevent us from absorbing the eclipse energies. They don't want us to charge our crystals, so clearly they're spraying some stuff up there to cover up the heliolunar energies because it's going to break us free from all the 5G. The heliolunar energies are going to cure my vaccine. They're going to cure your vaccine.

This aspect of the discussion is amusing to me because it is employing a comedic technique called verbal irony, whereby his comments become funny because they don't represent his genuine thoughts. Now, this is distinct from situational irony, such as, for example, when we decided to fly into Texas to avoid clouds, but Texas got shit weather so we flew into Buffalo for cloudless skies which then became cloudy but then became clear due to relocation, which at this moment, I don't know if I find any of that funny, but I am happy. Also because we could all use a potty break, we stop at a Steak and Shake, which is populated

with people in booths wearing various commemorative black eclipse shirts, which gives things a very thrash metal aesthetic. Look at all the people in the parking lot. Next door, a Walmart parking lot is filling up with cars and RVs and people with camping chairs and coolers and eclipse glasses at the ready. And I see an older man though in this take and shake parking lot. It's about 90 minutes to totality, but he sits alone next to his sedan in a folding chair. And I ask if he's waiting for the eclipse

and says he drove in from Pittsburgh just to see it. He says he's 76 and knows that this is his only chance. We give him an extra pair of eclipse glasses in case he needs them. And I tell him I hope that the clouds part for him. Then we get in the car. We soldier on another 10 miles to Walnut Beach Park, Ohio. And we pull up to a spot along a residential street and grab our coats and our now cold lunch.

Perfectly timed. We run into the rest of our crew. Oh, you guys look familiar. What the heck? Oh, my God. I'm so excited, you guys. It's looking very, very good. Folks, stay put for the eclipse, but first a quick pit stop to donate to a charity this week and it'll go to Functional Magic, which is a nonprofit design studio making optimistic pop artworks, merch and media inspired by solutions to climate change with all proceeds benefiting various climate charities. The art they produce is gorgeous, the causes are well vetted, and

they are linked in the show notes, functionalmagic.org. And one sponsor of the show, even though they don't realize it, is Veritasium. Derek Muller, thank you so much for giving us an Airbnb in Texas that we did not use. But if you're not familiar, Veritasium is an impeccably produced and hosted channel of science and engineering videos. So you can find Veritasium on YouTube. And thank you to Derek and all of the Tassiums for your generous accommodations in Texas that we did not use. And thank you to other sponsors of the show. Okay, so we're parked. We drove three states to a small waterfront town in Ohio, and the sky's overhead are mostly blue, and I've pulled out the real audio equipment. I'm so excited.

I really have been prepared to be disappointed. Me too. I've been like, you know, it's fine. I don't really do hope. That's true. You don't do hope well. I think you don't do disappointment well, so you do hope in accordance with how much you can handle disappointment. You know what's funny about disappointment is you think like most things you get better with practice.

Actually that's worse. Oh, because every time you're disappointed it's... It just takes a little more out of you. Mm-hmm. I feel that. Do you want to bring your hat? Yeah. It's less than one hour to totality, and the light looks dimmer already.

So we check through our paper eclipse glasses to see that the first stage has started. The moon has taken its first nibble of light, and we're already on to the second stage, where the moon is covering the Sun more and more and we hustle toward this big gathered crowd on the sand and an adjacent lawn. All right first stage has started we're in a place called Ashtabula, Ashtabula sorry Ohio. We're near the waterfront so the moon is starting to take a bite out of the Sun And we're walking down to the beach. I thought we had a little more time. Can I steal one of those glasses? I just want to see where we're at with it.

Ah! Oh my god, it has started! Oh, that's amazing. Okay. Jared, did you look? I know, it Oh, shit. I know, it started. Here, can we stop for one second to recombobulate myself? So I gather my items and nerves and I wonder if I should interview strangers. And I don't know why I even hesitate. That's what I do for a job. And there's a group of like six folks

sitting on patio furniture in their yard. I'm guessing because of their kind of jovial nature, I'm gonna assume they're retired or they may have just started the morning with mimosas with lots of them. You guys have a good spot. Is this your house? We traveled from California. You guys went to your patio? You don't find a place, but there's a place down on the beach. Nice! I have some new friends. Enjoy! We post up, the clouds are just wisps and a few airplane contrails grid the sky. Also, I'm seeing vape clouds coming from the lawn.

People getting spooky. Look, oh, there's a bunch of people at the beach. Yeah, yeah, I hear you there. As the stage two moon eases its way onto the sun and the light around us is turning cooler, gray, and blue, I run off to talk to strangers. Hey, I have a question. I have a science podcast. I'm just wondering how far you guys traveled. Maryland.

Maryland? How long of a drive is that? About eight hours. Eight hours? Yep. I came from California. You did? Yeah. is that? About eight hours. Eight hours? Yep. I came from California. You did? Yeah. Was that more than eight hours?

A little bit. I hitchhiked, so it took me six months. No, OK, Maryland, I hope you guys enjoy it. All right, hope so. Excited. Oh, hi. I was just asking people how far you traveled to be here. Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh, OK. That's not that far, right? No, a couple hours. Couple hours? Yep. That's awesome. About three. We're south of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, okay. That's not that far, right? No, a couple hours. Couple hours? Yep. That's awesome. About three. South of Pittsburgh.

We traveled from Virginia. From Virginia? How long is that? Six hours. Six hours? Yeah. Pretty good. We were the first thing to go towards the Pennsylvania side, then we came over here.

Have you seen an eclipse before? No. This is the first time. Yeah, this is the first time I'm going to take. Yeah, me too. Everyone I know who's seen one cries. OK. So get your tissues ready, apparently.

Well, enjoy. Thank you. You too. Virginia. Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania. Central Pennsylvania. So we're about 3 and 1 half to 4 hours.

We're from Delaware. Delaware? So like 7 hours. And that's my husband over there. That's quite a telescope. Yeah it's pretty cool. He's getting good pictures. Yeah. Have you seen a solar eclipse yet? Yeah we were in Columbia in 2017. Did you cry? No but what was really cool, I thought, these guys laugh at me but um like we're all, it's just a weird moment. You're standing in awe and then you

don't know what to do because you're kind of in awe, and then somebody starts clapping. And next thing you know, everybody's clapping. Who? It claps at this guy, but we did. You know? It's exciting. That's good to know. Now I know the protocol.

I've never seen one before. I don't know if that's a protocol. It's really cool. We would not have known how cool it was without us just having been in an area where it was happening, and now it's like, I'll travel. I'll travel in 2040 or whatever the next one is. I'll go chase them.

You know that there's a word for that. It's called umbra files and umbra means shadow. So umbra files are like eclipse shapers, shapers, shaker. Umbra files, eclipse chasers. A lot of other files. A lot of other files. Understood. of other files, thank you very much. Yes, well enjoy, I hope you like it. I'll be clapping along with you. How far did you come? We came in from Washington, D.C.

Oh, okay. Six hour drive. I think it's about six hours, maybe about 380 miles. Did you see the 2017? Partial. Oh, this is your first total. I think so. Yeah, mine too. I think so. Yeah.

Mine too. I'm hoping to have an epiphany that changes my whole life. We'll see what happens. Well, I'm hoping to feel my sense of scale in the universe, especially in light of the tantrums that I survived this morning. That's my three and five year old over there who are not feeling the magnificence of the moment. They just want M&Ms and fruit snacks, so.

We're all in it for our own gain, aren't we? Whatever we need. My husband made us drive here. I would have watched this on the internet, but we spent seven hours in the car with a three and five-year-old, so this better be magnificent. I'm hoping for only the best. Thank you. We came from Dover, Delaware. Oh, okay. That's a waste. Did you guys see the 2017?

Well, in Delaware it was a partial eclipse. But it was cool still. You know. It's not something you see every day. But we did bring our son because obviously I don't think we're going to be around in 2044 when the next one is. The next one? You'll be here.

I'll be here. Yeah, who knows? I probably will. Given that we stopped at Shake and Steak on the way, we were probably not gonna be here for the next one. No, yeah. Yeah. Oh god. I walked up to a guy with this long lens camera on a tripod who was also setting up a GoPro, I think. He was prepared. You look like you've got a good rig for this. Yeah, it's a pretty decent rig. It's all Sony equipment.

I drove just over 300 miles up from Virginia to come into the path of totality. Did you check the weather and check the weather? That's what we did. We were- Every hour it seemed like. I know, I like barely slept last night. And plenty of YouTube videos,

forecasters all saying different things. So I wasn't sure until really last night. Yeah, we flew into Buffalo from LA. Buffalo is clouded over, so then we drove here and our friends in the other car were just minute by minute Doppler being like, where is it going to be here? But it looks like it's going to be clear enough to see. Yeah, totality. Have you seen totality before? It's my first.

Me too. My first. Oh, I'm excited. Yeah, me too. I know. I'm trying to contain myself. I know. Me too. Me too. We were trying to contain our potential disappointment when we saw the clouds.

We were like, OK, we might not happen, might not happen. So when we saw clear skies, we were just elated. Yeah. I almost made the trip to Texas. We had tickets to go to Texas. Really? And then we changed them two days ago because of the storms. Oh.

Well, I didn't have tickets, but I was going to drive down there. Yeah. Just make a road trip out of it. Mm-hmm. And then the last minute I saw the forecast, this is a no, I think I'll take a gamble and come in this direction. Good gamble. Yeah, good gamble. We made the right choice. Yeah.

Well, enjoy. It'll be my first totality too. So, cool. Nice to see you. Enjoy. Yeah. Remember the woman whose kids were just in it for the M&Ms, who was fine with watching it on the internet? Well, I walked past her again and it turns out that she'd been gently coerced by more than just her husband. Excuse me. Yeah. Are you Ali? I am. Hi. Nice to meet you. I love your podcast. Oh no. Are you serious? Hi. I was like, I think that might be Ali Ward. I had to like Google a picture. I was like, no, I think it is.

Oh my God. Oh, well, thanks for listening. I actually listened to the heliology. I threatened not to come. Are you serious? I was like, well, they made it sound pretty cool. I love this. So I guess I will come. Because I was having a tantrum. I was like, I'm not riding in the car with these two. Stop it. You know, we were supposed to be in Texas. Yeah, I heard that. And then we wound up in this park. This is my husband. I told him. I was like, I'm going to be so mad. But then I listened to a podcast. So I went. That's amazing. And then here we are finding ourselves here. We were supposed to be in Texas. I was like, that can't be right.

I'm so glad you all made it. I'll be up on that hill crying. Well, enjoy. I will be. This is what my life looks like. Covered in children. Enjoy. Have fun. Enjoy. Thanks for saying hi. No, I want to throw you. That's pretty hi! That's really cute. After seven years of regret, a really rough few years, two interviews with heliologists and a long episode about it, two countries, four states, it looks like we're going to see this thing. Tegan is the only one who's seen a solar eclipse and she gives me the lowdown of what to expect

and why she was willing to stifle her stomach bug and drive several hours today with her weird friends who crash in her aunt's house, which is us, and her brother and parents and husband and two tiny children. Ah, that's looking so good. Y'all, this is nuts. We just made it. Hey, Tegan, do you want to give us a primer on what to expect when the eclipse happens?

I can give a little bit based on the last one. Yeah, how did it, what did it seem like? So it gets chilly and all of the animals start to like go home, like it's the end of the day. The birds all go home to roost. You start to hear like crickets and stuff. And then when you take your glasses off, you see like a sunset or a sunrise in every direction.

It's like 360 degrees sunset and sunrise. And then when you realize that you can look directly at it, it looks, it looks like there's just a giant hole in the sky with the corona coming out behind it. It's really cool. What are you most excited about for the eclipse? Ah, the moon. The moon. It's the moon's big day. I took my place on top of my jacket on the lawn. Have you stared directly at the sun yet? On accident, Jer? Of course. Yeah, me too. It wasn't on accident though. No. It was also on accident. I've done it both ways. Are the birds starting to sing or is that just regular birds? I think that's just regular birds.

It gets darker and a chill comes over us. I'm lying on the grass with one microphone on my chest and the other one pointed toward the crowd behind me. I will say I'm noticing shadows are looking a lot sharper. If you look around, everything looks like it's got an Instagram filter on it. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, you're right. It's definitely dim. It's kind of like a grayish pall to everything. Yeah, like the saturation went down, but the contrast went up. Yeah, yeah. So strange. And when you see the Bailey's beads, that's when you know totality is like moments away. Oh cool.

Wow, it's really getting crescent-y. It's happening much faster than I thought it would. Oh, people are just lying down. It's weird because it's kind of like dusk, but instead of having warmth to it, it's kind of a cold light, you know? So like dusk has so much golden light it's nice to experience this with you i love that you're here and that i'm here too did i just hear a rooster

was that a rooster or a child? The moon kept creeping over the Sun through the eclipse glasses and the only light was this diminishing amber crescent of the Sun just getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Oh my gosh, look at how skinny it's getting. It's like a little toenail up there. Through the glasses it just looks like like a Halloween crescent moon. Feeling emotional? I don't have to go that way, but it's cool. Somehow my anxiety has found a way to even be anxious about this. Like, what am I going to feel like when it happens?

But I think that's just excitement that I'm filing into the wrong folder, you know? It's cool that there's just like nothing left to do but just lay down on this lawn and watch. I know, it's the best. I wonder what it's like in Texas and Buffalo right now. It's funny how eclipse chasing is really a lot about weather watching. I feel like it just suddenly got way colder out of there. Yeah, it did get colder. Wow, we really rely on that freaky sun, huh?

Sheesh. That's your cold open. The cold open? The cold open, oh my god. Boo, boo. I like it, I loved it actually. I loved it. Oh my god Dude it is looking trippy out here. It's definitely getting a weird eclipse mode. Oh, it's so cool. It feels like um It feels like a horror film It's definitely cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's so weird looking out here.

It's the weirdest dark. It's so cool. It's like a post-apocalypse movie where they desaturate everything. Very cool. Yeah, the blue-ness and the gray-ness is really striking, you know. This is a weird dark. It kind of feels like I'm still wearing my sunglasses. Wow, it's so close. It's just a little upside down smile. I know!

At this point, we were just a few minutes away from totality, and the clouds had pretty much drifted away from the sun. We were so lucky. And with solar binoculars, you could see the shape of the moon's texture and outline. And as it eclipses the sun, that geography of the moon causes small leaks of light around the rim, and those are called Bailey's beads,

or if there's just one of them, a diamond ring. And the atmosphere around all of us was dimming to this deeper dusky level. Look at how dark it's getting. That is so weird. It's really surreal. It's giving me kind of goosebumps. Like a little creepy crawly on your neck you know? So just a minute or so away from totality and a few pinholes and a piece of paper resulted in a little handful of crescents. Oh, look at that! It looks like a cheese grater. This is so weird. Wow. Isn't it kind of amazing how much light there is considering how much of the sun is locked

down? I was seeing that too. I was trying to peek at it again and I was like, can I see it? Yeah. And we're like, no. The little sliver is like still gonna blind you Yeah, that's in every direction Oh my gosh, it's like wavy. Oh, whoa. Is that like a sea shimmer or something?

So in the Heliology episode last week, we talked about shadow bands, these racing, waving, alternating light and shadow shimmers that become apparent on the ground or on light-colored surfaces. And those things still mystify Heliologists. They're not quite sure where they come from and after talking about them in the last week's episode, shadow bands seem like this mythical creature I've only read about. It was like catching a glimpse of a unicorn through the trees and then a circular rainbow appeared above us in the sky.

Look at the sky. I fucking told you guys. Wow. Is that a star? How close are we Jeff? Is that a star? Don't look for that. Give me a second. Ellie that's a star. Oh my god. Wooo!

Wow! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Woohoo! Holy cow! Wow! Oh my god, I'm so pretty!

Wow! That is so nice! That's so nice! Oh my god! Oh my god! Look at the, look at the That's so nuts! Oh my god! Look at the... look at the um... That's it! That is so cool!

Oh my god! Oh wow! Look at that! You can still see it through the clouds. It's going! Get away cloud! Oh my god. Whoa, my god. Whoa, my god.

That's insane. The level of surreality is difficult to comprehend unless you've been under this. Horizon is just... No, no, no. Oh my god. I can almost see like a... that one Bailey's Beard. Do you see like they've one diamond ring yes the one do you see oh

the Sun set in every directions really weird that's so beautiful. Look at the, look at, how did it, how did we not get any clouds right now? There was one and it just got out of the way. Oh my god. Five, four, three, two, one. That's it. It's so surreal. It's so surreal. Look at all the people. I've never seen something so otherworldly, so surreal, and part of the awe is

how transient it is. It's not something that you can take in for as long as you like or go back and revisit. You can't be anything but in a moment that is huge and communal and rare and fleeting and visually stunning. It's a void in the sky, rimmed in these sparkling rays, and hundreds of people around you are gasping and crying and cackling and making a memory that'll last until death. And it was dark, still in totality, and we're staring up at this glowing golden ring of light in otherwise darkness. Yeah. Wow.

Did you see that? Look at that. Look at the streetlights. I mean, it's nighttime. Yeah. It's really chilly, isn't it? It got so cold. It's so cold.

It's really... Stars. Oh, man. The stars are wild. In a way, I have such a lump in my throat about it. Oh, I've cried a couple times. No, I mean, but it's like my chest feels heavy. Yeah, yeah.

Like it's so big. God, that's weird. I'm so glad we came out for this. Hahaha. It's so cool. It's so cool. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. Look at that corona. Look at that. That one contrail is so funny. Honestly that contrail is amazing. Look at that diffusion we're getting. It's beautiful.

Woo! I can't believe this. Once on a morning walk, my dog hopped through some grass like a bunny, and it was so cute it made me cry. And this sensation was similar. It's like when you watch videos of someone finding out that they got into their dream college, or when you see a surprise reunion of loved ones. You watch that and you cry in empathy

at how happy they must be, and how life can just work out sometimes. And part of that weird crying and awe was just appreciation that so many people could see something so beautiful, lasting only a few minutes, and also some happiness and relief that we had made this happen for myself and Jarrett. Simone, Spain, 2026.

So as the moon plods on, this glimmer re-emerges. It's now going into stage three where it's receding, and it's now a partial eclipse. And the light light is still dim and the air is still chilly, but we're on the other side. We're cruising downhill from that summit. Even with just a sliver of the sun showing already, daylight is back. Wow, look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it. It's going to come back. 3, 2, 1. Oh! Oh my god! That's wild! Oh my god!

I gotta look at it! I'm looking at it! Wow! I don't even know where my glasses are. I'm gonna smile like this. I burned my eyes a little. I couldn't help it. And then it just gets so much brighter. Wow.

Look at the light around you. Look at it, look at it. There's some people being like, okay, that's enough. Let's go, let's go. Someone's ready to meet the crowd. We saw it, we saw it, we saw it. In an instant, some folks are already hopping in their car to avoid like a 10-minute traffic out of the park, but we linger for a while, still taking in these crisp shadows, and I finally eat my soggy lunch.

Not realizing I'd been hungry. So? Did I over-hype it? No, no, I cried the whole time. It's under-hyped. You really can't hype that enough. You just saved it. Yeah, just primal stuff. That is insane. Last time I laughed I could probably this time I should be crying. I'm just looking at the crime. It's so crazy. Look at that. The rainbow, the moon goes back you guys.

Do you see it? Yeah. Oh my god. Wow. Oh my god, look! Wow! Oh my god, that's so cool! Wow! Moonbow...wow, what a treat!

What a like, uh, didn't know that was gonna happen. I couldn't even eat my burger. I was too excited. The moonbow is... gorgeous. We've become umberphiles. Girl, get on my level. So the light is coming back in, so it's getting brighter and brighter like daylight with warmer

colors around us. Gosh, I can't believe that was like five minutes ago. It feels like a different realm. You know what I mean? Yeah. You feel changed? Yes. Yeah.

I no longer care about achievement or anyone else's opinions. Just gonna burp when I want. We should have done this in 2017. The sun is still emerging and that rainbow ring around it appears again. And if you stand in exactly the right spot, it's an excellent photo op.

Perhaps to convince people that you are saintly or a mystical dummy god, maybe you would like to start a cult. Great profile pic. Wow. This came out super good. These? Yeah.

A little saint picture. Yeah. A little cult. That's so cool. So we gather the snacks and children and with swollen eyes, walk to the car in kind of a daze. It's so odd that 20 minutes before we were just staring at the sky in shock.

Now on the road back to Buffalo, I put on that eclipse playlist and every song gives me the shivers, like a little crushy heart swell from what we just got to see. And there are still families gathered in front yards for some post-show barbecuing. I see one woman probably in her 60s just alone on a lawn chair with a TV tray table in front of her having lunch under the clear sky. We stopped for coffee and I wonder if the cashier at Circle K managed to lock up for a minute and go out and see it. I'm just really glad that I did.

And huge thanks to everyone who encouraged me to go. Thank you again Dr. Tegan Wall and Kristoff, Jeff, Scott, Mary, Char, Vin, Carrie, Mike, Sadie, and Soxie, and our pals Rogue and Skella and Tam for the warm Buffalo welcome. Simone and my friend Sarah who ventured to Texas. I hope I get to see the next one with you. And again to offset this travel and bring you a glimpse of the eclipse. If you couldn't make it, a donation went to climate activism nonprofit functional magic.org, which is linked to the show notes alongside our Tassium on YouTube. Thank you to them. You heard Dr. Tegan wall in the WGA writer strike episode and we'll link her socials in the show notes to in case you'd like to

befriend a Hollywood screenwriter who works on great science scripts. We are at Ologies on Twitter and Instagram. We have Smology's episodes which are kids safe, classroom friendly, cut down versions of our classic episodes. Those are available for free at allyware.com slash Smology's linked in the show notes. Stay tuned for a cool Ologies announcement coming your way in the next few weeks. Aaron Talbert, Admin Zoologies podcast Facebook group with assists from Bonnie Dush and Shannon Feltes, Aveline Malik and The Wordery make our professional transcripts, Noelle Dilworth is our scheduling producer who literally raced us to airports and helped gather things I forgot, Susan Hale rolled with the changes as our managing director, Kelly R Dwyer does

our website, Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio is our Ologies lead editor, again thanks for going with the last minute episodes, and huge producerial and editing assistance provided by Jared Sleeper of Mind Jam Media, which also produces a Nickelodeon podcast, Avatar, The Last Airbender. And the newly released season three just got nominated for a Webby. So congrats, Jared Sleeper. After the bonkers travel and the eclipse, we slept like 12 hours and we edited a lot of this in a Hampton lobby where they offered guests leftover eclipse snacks like sun chips and moon pies, which I found very clever.

Now if you stick around to the end, I tell you a secret, and this week it's that yeah, I did finally shower and I changed. Thanks so much. And I just got to DC, hopefully to put this up tonight. Also side note, remember how we stayed an extra day or two for Jarrett's jujitsu ceremony? I snuck in the back of the ceremony with some spectators and I watched your pod mom get his black belt in jujitsu, which is like a giant feat. It's taken him 20 years to achieve. You can see the

genicular traumatology episode about knee injuries to learn more on that and I'm so happy for him. I'm so happy. Without having gone to that ceremony also, we'd have been in Texas. So we cried a lot this week, all for good reasons. So thanks for coming along. We'll be back next week with a full episode per usual. Meanwhile, you tell the sun it's doing a good job. Do not look it in the eye. Okay's so beautiful.