And just like that, the sun was gone and day turned to dusk, revealing stars in a night sky. Except that it was the afternoon.
Having never witnessed a solar eclipse, watching blackness slowly creep in front of the sun was unbelievable and eerie all at the same time. It was liking watching something eat the sun, first taking a tiny nibble, barely noticeable in the lower southeast quadrant, then expanding to a large bite, before leaving behind a small crescent and eventually, consuming the whole thing with only the corona, radiating an intense white glow from behind the black disc of the moon.
We chose to be in Indianapolis for this spectacle. Part of the appeal for choosing it over other places was the opportunity to experience the eclipse from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (aka where the Indy 500 takes place) and to take in the sights and sounds of a new city.
Our adventure started with a very delayed flight from SFO to Chicago. The advantage of ending up on red-eye was that it negated any potential jet lag we might have succumbed to otherwise.
From Chicago we drove 3.5 hours straight to the Speedway and parked our car on the grassy lawn of Lot 2. We set up our tent with a view of the racetrack grandstands visible in front of us. A few other campers—in RVs, vans and cars— were already there. That evening, the grounds felt like a giant block party: fireworks going off and music blaring.
Since we flew with all our gear, we kept things to a minimum, which meant two chairs, the tent, and our sleeping pads and bags. All our meals were around town, which worked out pretty well as we got to check out different neighborhoods. Dinner the first night was at gastropub Twenty Tap in Meridian-Kessler, a hip area whose proximity to Butler University probably makes it popular with college kids and their parents (there were definitely a lot of young people out and about).
On Sunday we continued our exploration of the city, starting with brunch at Shapiro’s, an old-school, cafeteria-style delicatessen near downtown. We opted for full-bore traditional and got a reuben, cabbage soup and potato cakes. By the time we were leaving, there was a line out the door. Dinner was near the Speedway at Daredevil Brewing. We had the Daredevil pizza (red sauce, sausage, ground pepperoni and banana peppers), served the midwest classic style which is thin crust, cut into square pieces. It was excellent.
It had rained earlier in the evening and a little bit when we got back to camp. Fortunately, our tent did not leak but more worrisome was what the clouds might mean for weather the next day. We went to sleep that night hoping that it would be a good day despite what the forecasts were predicting.
I opened my eyes in the morning to blue skies with wispy clouds. It was still early in the day – plenty of time for things to change, but I remained hopeful; at least it wasn’t raining. Since we were heading back to Chicago right after the eclipse (a very bad idea in hindsight) we tore down camp and packed everything into the car before walking to the Speedway. The line waiting to get in was already many blocks long. A good thing we didn’t have to deal with parking on top of standing in line.
Once inside, the first thing we did was pick up our eclipse viewing glasses. Then we walked around, checking out the various exhibits sponsored by Purdue University and NASA.
We still had a few hours before the start of the eclipse so we decided to join the hundreds of other revelers hanging out in the grandstand. While waiting we watched a live broadcast of NASA TV on the jumbotron. About an hour before the start of the astronomical phenomenon we were treated to racing driver Ed Carpenter running demo laps around the track. It was another first for me. I can imagine how exhilarating it must be to actually watch a race.
Right around 1:50 PM (Central) the eclipse started. When it reached totality at 3:06 PM and daylight disappeared, people all around us were gasping and cheering. I could finally take off my glasses and stare right at the sun; I was awestruck. This was perhaps the most amazing natural occurrence I had ever witnessed.
We didn’t linger and left shortly after the eclipse ended. Had I known traffic back to Chicago was going to take more than twice as long as the original trip coming in, I would have camped one more night. From the time we left the track to when we arrived on the outskirts of the Windy City, there had been nothing but brake lights. However, it was a small price to pay for experiencing a cosmic wonder. In fact, I’m already thinking about the next one.