I'm An Official Eclipse Chaser!

Whelp, I guess once you go chasing two different eclipses seven years apart you could be considered an eclipse chaser. A person who chases eclipses is known as a umbraphile, meaning shadow lover. Umbraphiles often travel for eclipses and use various tools to help view the sun including solar viewers also known as eclipse glasses, as well as telescopes.

I was totally oblivious to chasing an eclipse and what the zone of totality was until 2017. After I started reading about the stories people were having at totality I figured it would be a great adventure to experience myself.

With very little planning Todd and I hopped in my car and drove to Fairmont, Nebraska to sleep in the SUV, in a park. We were in awe of everything because we had no idea of what to expect. It was a very outdoorsy one-with-nature feeling.

I started planning the 2024 eclipse chase at least a year before it happened. The main objective was to drive to Grapevine, Texas and stay with my best friend and all watch it together. His house was in the zone of totality but not near the center. My original thought was to be as near to center as we could get.

I kept reminding everyone to plan for April 8, 2024 and ask off of work months ahead. The plan was for my wife and other best friend to all drive down to Grapevine. From there my plan was to drive east towards the center of totality.

Up until a couple of weeks I wasn’t sure where we’d be watching the eclipse from. As I researched cities in Texas I started to lean towards Terrell, TX. They seemed to be close to the center line on a highway with lots of activities happening.

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On my morning trek the next day I was able to process the entire event and my mind started racing. When I got back to my studio that day after I didn’t want the experience to fade away and I got a crazy idea. The next huge cross country eclipse will happen on August 12, 2045 and totality goes right over my house with a full five and a half minutes of totality! Even though Enid is not on the center line we are close enough for the longest amount of totality I have ever experienced.

I immediately got the idea to start promoting the 2045 eclipse in Enid with a website, t-shirt and possible podcast. There are two things I wholeheartedly believe and they both deal with next eclipse. I believe everyone should experience totality at least once in their life which gives everyone 21 years to plan and save money to make it to Enid. The second thing is that I believe you should always have something to look forward to especially some big event.

A huge eclipse in Enid, Oklahoma in 21 years is the perfect motivation for people to get excited about. I’m going to create some t-shirts for eclipse chasers to wear letting everyone know they are already planning the next big cosmic event. I plan on selling t-shirts and updating the website to keep the buzz going.

I’ll do another blog post and podcast episode as soon as I get all of my Shaggy Ducks in a row on this new adventure. I know this sounds a little crazy but it will be fun to see how this evolves over the next 21 years. I have several of ideas for the website already as well.

The website is EnidEclipse.com and there is also a Facebook page created. Bookmark the website and go like the Facebook Page. I’ll have the t-shirts available soon! See ya!

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