NOTE: This blog post was written in 2017 but I just recently added a podcast episode to go with it so I bumped it back to the top of the blog.

FAIRMONT, NE – The last 12 months have been a banner year for That Buzz Guy and our BuzzHead Media Company. In that year I’ve flown to Washington DC to cover a Presidential Inauguration, I’ve chased and filmed multiple tornadoes with a storm tracking crew, I’ve been an extra in three films with actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Bo Derrick, and I’ve interviewed rock legend Gene Simmons from KISS and TV personality Michelle Malkin.

Most of those events could be crossed off as top “Bucket List” items. As great as they all were and as much as I had looked forward to many of them, it was an event this week that I had never even contemplated that has topped them all.

It has never been my desire to see a total eclipse of the sun. I’ve never even sat down with anyone that had ever gone through the experience so I was completely unaware of what to expect and why I would even be crazy enough to go eclipse chasing. But crazy we were.

Todd Wheeler, my partner in crime on our new BuzzHead Radio, and I have been chasing stories every chance we get. We are both fortunate enough to own our businesses and have the ability to take off at the drop of a hat. I was intrigued by the hype surrounding the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse and thought it might be the next big thing for us to cover.

The only way to truly experience a solar eclipse is to plant yourself in the middle of totality. That’s the 70 mile wide area that becomes almost completely dark as the moon passes in front of the sun. A few weeks before the big event we made the decision to embark on the adventure of covering the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse over the United States in 99 years.

The first task I set out to do was find a prime location for eclipse viewing. My first thought was to head to Kansas City where I had friends and a place to stay. I quickly learned that we might run into traffic jams if we headed to the larger cities so I pulled up a map of totality.

Our hometown of Enid, Oklahoma is on Highway 81 so I decided to look straight up 81 to see which towns would fall into the path of the total eclipse. The first town that fit the bill was all the way up in Nebraska. There were a few towns in northeast Kansas that we could reach by driving on I-35 but again, I was leery of the traffic situation in that area. There were several Nebraska towns that looked promising but I honed in on Fairmont due to the fact that it was straight up 81 and was in the center of totality.

Fairmont, Nebraska luckily had a Facebook page that looked very inviting. They had posted that they would have a free parking and camping area in the park with porta-potties. Cha-ching! That’s exactly what we were searching for since all hotels had been booked for months ahead. There were also several comments on the page from travelers from other states that were planning on landing in the little town of around 600.

Without much other planning Todd and I made the decision to drive the 5 hours to Fairmont. The week before departure I started paying more attention to the hype learning that I would definitely need eclipse glasses. That turned into a futile search as there were no glasses left for sale on the planet Earth. No biggie, we’d wing it. Todd came up with some glass replacements for a welding helmet and a couple of paper eclipse glasses.

We told our families we were going and started the countdown. The only hitch I could see to our entire plan was the weather. Of course at the beginning of our plan the forecast was for mostly sunny skies but turned to mostly cloudy skies just a day before we departed. We toyed with the idea of driving to a different location but decided we’d stick with our original plan and hope for the best.

Our adventure began on Sunday, August 20 around 2pm. We left the BuzzHead Studio and stopped to stock up on snacks and drinks. We then hit the highway and drove up Highway 81 into Kansas. With zero knowledge of eclipse chasing we had no idea if the highway would be packed or not. We made a quick stop in Concordia, Kansas to get dinner out of the way at Dairy Queen. We also downed a quick Blizzard.

Story continued here…

The post Part 1: Chasing A Total Eclipse Of The Sun appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Once we were back on the road to Nebraska we noticed that there was very little traffic at all. We did notice a few license plates from out of state including a Honda Element that we passed from Oklahoma. I bet Todd that they were headed to eclipse watch. We planned our first photo opp to be at the Nebraska state sign. Todd Google mapped the road ahead so we would know where it was and what it looked like. Just before Chester, Nebraska we found it.

Todd and I hopped out of the car and went live on Facebook. We took several selfies and other pics. While there, we saw the Honda Element drive by and also saw a pickup truck drive by and whip a u-turn. Two men and two boys got out of the truck and walked towards us near the sign. The driver, Richard Johnson, has a camera in hand and asked Todd if he’d take their picture. We all took photos and talked about the eclipse. They were headed to a scout camp near Grand Island. We exchanged information so that we could contact each other in case of bad weather.

As we journeyed into Nebraska I told Todd we were going to use the power of positive thinking to will that there would be clear skies during the eclipse. We confirmed those thoughts with the universe and made our way to Fairmont.

Once we reached Fairmont we stopped at the only gas station we had seen on the map and filled up with gas in case there was a mad rush the next day. We talked to some of the locals and found out that a few other chasers were already in town including people from Australia. We then made our way to the city park which we had seen while flying over on Google maps. It looked just like we had seen on the computer.

There were a few scattered cars parked around the perimeter of the park so we drove in and parked in the next available space. Can you guess who was parked next to us? It was the Honda Element we had seen twice on the highway. They couple that owned it were from Guthrie, Oklahoma!

The park was a huge empty square filled with grass. There was a large water tower in the northwest corner of the park with the name Fairmont painted on the side. Next to the water tower was a corn field. On the south side of the park was a railroad track and across from it was the downtown area.

A small crowd was gathering by the water tower listening to a group of men talk. As we made our way to the group we noticed they had some very large telescopes pointed to the darkening sky. The men were an astronomy group was from Chicago. They were allowing people to view the planets through the equipment. I looked through the telescope at Jupiter and could see the tiny bands on the planet.

The first question you’ll here when chasing an eclipse from everyone there is, “Where are you from?” We heard that many times and discovered there were people from all over the country with a heavy number of folks from Minnesota. I asked the head astronomer if he would pick up and move the next day of the weather was bad. He said they would stay put because all of his research said we were in the best spot to see the eclipse and getting stuck in traffic would be worse than staying put.

For Todd and I, that was the knowledge we needed to stay put no matter what they weather forecast was saying. Friendly townspeople were passing out coozies and telling us that the American Legion was open for business that night. Todd and I walked the couple of blocks to the Legion had a drink with the locals. They asked us lots of questions and we asked them just as many. We watched the weather on TV which was predicting heavy clouds and possible rain for eclipse day.

Todd and I made our way back to the BuzzMobile where we climbed in and got ready for the night. The weather could not have been better and with the windows down we were never bothered by a single bug. The only problem we encounter through the night was the loudest train I had ever heard. It made its way by the park at least three times during the night. It was so loud that the campers on the other side of us decided to switch locations so it would not keep them awake all night.

Story continues here…

The post Part 2: Total Solar Eclipse appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Todd and I awoke early Monday to a beautiful morning. The night had not been the most comfortable but we had gotten some sleep. A few more cars had showed up and we could see more on the way. The weather was showing storms to our east with clouds moving in from the south. We were going to stop by the American Legion for a Continental breakfast but saw that the Fairmont Fire Department was setting up to cook burgers and hot dogs in the middle of the park.

As we made our way around the park we talked to people from all parts of the country and recorded a few interviews. Two guy walked by us and noticed we were with the press. They made a comment that lead me to believe they were either the Aussies or from England. They quickly informed us they were from the London, England area and had made a last minute decision to hop on a plane and fly over for the eclipse.

The Londoners were Stu and Steve, two musicians from across the pond. They told us about how they had decided on Fairmont, which was much like many others, including Todd and I. Stu and Steve were band members from a group called The Midnight Tokers. They told us they were a cover band that played in the London area. Both had welders masks with them which they used to view the eclipse.

Throughout the day there were more and more clouds. Todd and I decided to grab food at 10am and got in line for a burger. A gentlemen came up to me and asked if I was the Enid Buzz Guy. I told him I was and he said he was from Tulsa and had family that told him we would be in Fairmont and they should look us up. As the morning wore on there were more and more cars filling the entire town.

Todd and I continuously tried to check the weather and live stream to Facebook. Due to our location and the number of people in town it became harder and harder to connect to the Internet. I was able to live stream at 10am and we were able to see that more cloud were building from the south.

Around 11:30am the eclipse started. We were able to see a sliver of the moon begin to cover the sun. Even through the clouds you could see the crescent sun. Todd and I began trying to snap pictures and setup our cameras. I setup a Sony 4K camera, a GoPro 5 and I was ready to live stream from my iPhone 7 Plus. I also strapped on my Cannon 40D with telephoto lens to try and snag a sun shot or two.

By 12:30pm there was a pretty good blanket of clouds over us at times almost blocking the sun. To the southwest of the park there was a small circle of blue sky. I kept telling everyone I talked to that the clear spot was going to reach us just as the eclipse were to go into totality. Not knowing if it would or not I was trying everything I could to convince the universe it needed to happen.

About 15 minutes before totality I couldn’t even get my phone to show any service at all. At 10 minutes before totality the clear blue spot in the sky reached our location and we had full view of the sun! At 5 minutes before totality my phone connected and I was able to go live on Facebook. Todd and I turned all cameras on and prepared for this event in nature that we had never experienced before.

And the story ends here…

The post Part 3: Experiencing A Total Solar Eclipse appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Explaining to someone what totality is like can be a little difficult because there’s so much more to it than just darkness. There are wind changes, temperature changes, lighting and shadow changes and the people around you react in a way you might not be expecting. As we approached totality the sky became darker but not black. Our camera phones were soaking in every bit of sunlight making it appear much lighter than it actually was.

At exactly 1pm in Fairmont, Nebraska the moon completely blocked out the sun causing a drastic change in the lighting. The crowd began to cheer and clap as they stood and stared in awe. If you didn’t have goosebumps at this point you were a person that felt no connection to something bigger than yourself.

The best way that I can describe the look of totality is that the ground and area around us was dark. The sky looked much like it does right after dusk and the edges of the horizon showed just enough light that it looked like a 360 degree sunset all the way around us. This was the point where we were able to take off our glasses and stare at the sun. When looking at the sun with the naked eye it actually looked like a dull bright spot not the black spot you see on film.

I was able to point my telephoto lens directly at the sun and captured the corona around the edges. Totality in our location lasted for 2 minutes and 36 seconds. That was plenty of time to video, snap pictures and then just stand there soaking it all in. People were talking and kissing, the kids were running around hollering and I was just trying to experience the entire event. It did not look dark enough to me to see any stars but we did have clouds surrounding the area we were in.

Luckily Todd remembered to come over and shoot a selfie with the eclipse behind us. The street lights had come on and you could see camera flashes all over the park. Our totality lasted long enough that the crowd eventually got much quieter and immersed themselves in the moment. But the split second the moon let a crack of light through it instantly became day again. The crowd then again cheered and clapped asking for the moon to do it again. In a flash it was over. Waiting around to watch the end of the partial eclipse seemed so anticlimactic.

I have to say that the eclipse was most likely the coolest natural event I have ever witnessed. It was an experience and a memory that will last forever. Watching an eclipse in anything but totality from this point forward would make very little sense. Seeing the crescent sun is fun and the hazy sky is a bit weird but being plunged into darkness during the day opens the gates to the power of the planets and universe around us.

I urge everyone to make plans to view the 2024 solar eclipse in the path of totality. Our hometown of Enid, Oklahoma will experience a solar eclipse in August 2045 which puts us right in the middle of totality. I now plan on living at least until that day in which I can walk out my back door and see my last total eclipse. I’ll be 82 years old and I guarantee I’ll still get the same tingle and the goosebumps that I got at 54. Until the next one.

Back to the beginning of the story…

The post Part 4: Eclipse Chasers appeared first on Curtis Tucker.