21 | August | 2017 | Teresa Van Haalen Ventures

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Carly Simon: “And you flew your Lear jet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun”. Well, we’re not vain. We drove to Alliance, Nebraska, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to see the eclipse. Stayed at the Moose Crossing campsite in Montana, Peter D’s in Sheridan, Wyoming, and finally dropped down to the very cute town of Alliance, NE in northwestern Nebraska.

The smoke in Montana and northern Wyoming was unbelievable. Hard to breathe and see. Lord help us so we don’t get more of this, but I don’t have a good feeling about our fires in coming years!

We finally broke through the smoke and came through southern Wyoming and into western Nebraska from there. We passed some spectacular sandstone bluffs (the Sand Hills), and wound our way to Alliance, where we provisioned to watch the eclipse.

The town of 6,000 was in full-on, show the tourists a good time mode. Food vendors, tee-shirt sales, and music venues were expected for two days. I’ll bet their Chamber is going to be high-fiving after all of us shopped and spent $$ there. The clerk at the local Safeway said her neighbor was charging $100 to pitch a tent in her yard. Hmmm….I need to rethink retirement. But, oops, no more eclipses for another 7 years I hear.

Enclosing the photos from the totality!