In the last 45 years, there have been 3 Total Solar Eclipses in the United States….1979, 2017, 2024. We have been fortunate to witness all 3 of these in Totality. In 1979, we were in the 9th grade and our earth science teacher took our class to Salmon, Idaho 4 hours north of Idaho Falls. It was February, there was snow on the ground, and it was cloudy. Mr. Fischer had us turn our backs to the sun and watch the eclipse in the reflection on the bus windows.
In 2017, our town was in the Totality path and we had a big party on the flat roof at our house. The weather was perfect with not a cloud in the sky. After that eclipse, we immediately looked up when the next eclipse in the US was and began planning. We had originally thought of going to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but wanted our grandkids in Iowa to join us. We learned that NASA had designated the Indianapolis Speedway as an official view site. Tickets for adults were $10 and kids were free and you got to park and sit on the infield of the track.
Disclaimer…This post contains pictures from the IMS Eclipse website
We left our town at midnight, to drive to SLC for our flight to Des Moines, Iowa. In the Denver airport, we saw Dog the Bounty Hunter’s stunt double…lol. By the time we got to Iowa, Jade was done!!!
We purchased our eclipse food…Sunbelt granola bars, Sun chips, Sunny D juice, Milky Ways, Star Crunch cookies, Starbursts, and created home-made Moon Pies.
We made face masks for our eclipse glasses. It makes it safer to view the eclipse, but you can also decorate your plate!!
We left Iowa on April 7th for the 6+ hour drive to Indiana.
While riding in the car, we got great news about our church building a new temple in Iowa
Great-grandma Connie had given us money for food along the way.
We stayed at a Springhill hotel and they had an awesome welcome kit in each of our rooms. The area of Indianapolis had really embraced the eclipse event.
We settled in for the night.
We were up at 5:30am the next morning. At breakfast, the Weather Channel had an eclipse countdown!!
We were about 30 minutes from the Speedway and took the opportunity to grab a few pictures in our matching shirts. During the day, we had a bunch of people asked about our shirts.
On the raceway infield, there were lots of things to do and games to play. The Indianapolis Colts had a kicking booth and their mascot Blue, rode around the infield.
Purdue University had a rocket making station. Purdue has produced the most astronauts and since they are nearby, they played a big part in the day’s activities.
Purdue also had telescopes set-up for viewing the sun.
We signed our names to be sent to space.
Our official 2024 Eclipse picture…
The Speedway museum was offering bus tours of the track, which we booked several weeks before the eclipse. The tour started on pit row. There was also an eclipse clock on the track.
The bus drove us around the 2.5 mile track and gave a short history.
It was constructed in 1909, and was the first track to be called a ‘speedway’. It is the third-oldest permanent automobile race track in the world, behind Brooklands and the Milwaukee Mile. With a permanent seating of 257,325, it is the highest capacity sporting venue in the world.
Carl Fisher had envisioned the race track in 1905 and with the help of investors, work on the speedway began in March of 1909. Excavation for the speedway took 500 laborers, 300 mules and a fleet of steam-powered machinery. The track had several layers of material, with the top layer being stone chips covered in tar and oil with gravel on top.
The first event held at the speedway was a hot air balloon race with 9 balloons and 40,000 spectators to watch the start of the race that finished in Alabama.
During the first race their were many issues with the track, resulting in injuries and several deaths. Fisher’s group began looking at other surfacing materials and finally settled on bricks. Five Indiana manufacturers supplied 3.2 million 10-pound bricks to the track. Each was hand laid over a 2-inch cushion of sand, then leveled and the gaps filled with mortar. At the same time, a concrete wall 33 inches tall was constructed in front of the main grandstand and around all four corners to protect spectators. Locals nicknamed the track the “Brickyard”. The original bricks are still in place but are now covered by several layers of asphalt.
On the outside of the speedway is a dirt track and a golf course.
After the bus tour, we were dropped off at the finish line. This is the only place where the original bricks can be seen. There is a tradition… the the winner of the Indy 500 “kisses the Bricks”. The kids weren’t too sure of this tradition.
The official Indy Eclipse car…
We set-up our viewing spot on one of the racing berms on the final turn in the in-field. There were screens so that we could watch the interviews with astronauts in the pavilion as well as NASA’s coverage. The main grandstand was also available for viewing. We were so thankful for mostly clear skies.
There was an opening ceremony, where the Purdue band and chorale sang the National Anthem.
After the opening ceremony, we watched an Indy car drive several laps. It took the car around 40 seconds to circle the entire track.
Purdue Pete was at the Eclipse and waved the green flag
Several weather balloons were released to make a 3-D image of the eclipse that would be turned into braille so that a visual impaired person could experience the eclipse.
It was time to get ready for the eclipse. We used the eclipse masks that we had made, to watch the sun during it’s transition.
Several booths handed out pin hole disks. This allowed us to view the moon’s shadow across the sun without our glasses
We brought a sheet to look at our distorted shadows and the shadow “snakes”. They weren’t as strong this eclipse because of a thin cloud cover, but still cool.
A few pictures of the “partial” eclipse.
TOTALITY is SOOOO Awesome!!! It got dark, quiet, and chilly. One member of our group said it made them almost cry.
Jim took some incredible pictures with his phone.
He even captured the plasma bursts and the sun coming out of umbra, which is the term for total obstruction of light.
These are pictures from the IMS Eclipse information page..
Purdue University did several cool time lapse photos
When the sun came out of Totality, we celebrated with Sunny D.
After the eclipse you could walk Gasoline Alley. This is where the car garages are for races.
Pretty amazing to be standing on the track at the Indy 500!!!
Gotta get the “Conquer the World” pose. It was definitely a BAM kind of day!!
The only down-side to the entire trip was the drive out of Indianapolis…it took us 4 hours just to go 60 miles. But the experience was worth the extra time. Our grandson, Wyatt said it was definitely in his Top 5 experiences with us.
