A Totality Disappointment in St. Joseph, Missouri

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

“Want to go see the totality?” Jon said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We could go to someplace like Nebraska or Missouri and be right in the path of the eclipse. ”

“Eh, I dunno. Sounds like a lot of trouble for two minutes of drama.”

End of conversation.

Two days later, without telling me, Jon booked flights and a hotel reservation. And on August 20, we found ourselves in the totally delightful city of St. Joseph, Missouri. We scored a sixth floor room at the Radisson, within

spitting distance of the Missouri River and a short drive to the city’s Heritage Park and Softball Stadium, our chosen totality viewing site.

On Monday we were up early, for us. We packed water, extra camera batteries and several pairs of eclipse viewing goggles. In St. Jo, totality would begin at 1:06 p.m. and last about 2 1/2 minutes.

• At 10:15 a.m. we arrived at the park’s jam-packed public parking lot. The sky was cloudy, but only partly. We caught a glimpse or two of the moon taking its first bites out of the right side of the sun.
• At 12:40, with 26 minutes to go till totality, partly cloudy gave way to cloudy, which gave way to rain. We headed for cover in the Heritage Park Softball Stadium.
• At 1:00 p.m. the rain let up.
• At 1:06 p.m., the moon slipped between us and the sun — and so did a big fat gray cloud.
• Things got dark, really dark.
• An orange sunset appeared on the horizon.

  

• My husband disappeared into the darkness, along with the small crowd of eclipse chasers from all over the world who’d gathered at the softball pavilion.
• A single bright planet — probably Venus — shone through a break in the clouds off to the west.
• A little later, the clouds broke a bit and we caught sight of the sun beginning to peer out from behind the moon. I snapped a picture.
• A friendly eclipse chaser took our picture.

  

We had traveled 1700 miles to see the totality. The moon came between us and the sun, as promised. But so did a big fat cloud. The totality had happened without us. Our disappointment was total. And Jon’s hopes of checking a totality off his bucket list of things to do before he died were dashed.

Well, not entirely.

“There will be another one in Patagonia in 2020,” he said. “Want to go?”

I said yes.

More about Jon and the vagaries of nature at “For Wetter, for Drier I’m Married to California.” More about nature as I see it at “Yosemite Rocks. And Sometimes It Rolls.” 

Travelers’ note: Yeah. We had a totality disappointment. But St. Joseph was a fun place to visit — small and easy to get around. We had time to visit the old west Pony Express Museum and the gory Glore Psychiatric Museum. I took a walk and got photos of St. Joseph’s historic Victorian architecture. Lots of fancy brick work — and boarded up windows. Sigh.