The eclipse wasn’t getting off to a good start, it was gray, it was wet, and storm clouds threatened to obscure the sun.
But 20 miles south of Pine Bluff Arkansaw, on the way to Pentacle Mountain State Park, just outside of Little Rock, the clouds opened up to reveal nothing but blue skies.
An eclipse road trip isn’t complete without Cosmic Brownies, a Star Crunch, and a Moon Pie, “Check, check, and check,” said self-proclaimed science officer Sydney Fletcher, about the snacks.
Fletcher, who is a 10-year-old National Aroenaughtics Space Administration or NASA super fan, and was on hand to explain the mechanics of the natural phenomenon, said, “The solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun, causing a shadow to block out the suns light as it passes over the earth, making it appear to be night time briefly.”
At the mouth of the Big Maumelle River, 50-plus miles inside the band of totality, right at the northern edge of the boat launch sat David and Jenny Sims who flew in from Long Beach California, came to see the eclipse and to meet their daughter Ellie, who flew in from LAX where she’s breaking into the business side of Hollywood with her eye set on running the show someday.
“It’s kind of become the Sims family reunion, we all met in Oregon in 2017 for the last one, and my eclipse glasses back then had today’s date on it.” the father of the Sims said, “This year we have some cousins down from Minnesota and a brother up from Texas, it’s becoming a tradition.”
The Sims family said they booked an Air BnB a year in advance and 6 months in advance for the airline tickets.
The father said he looked at an Air BnB availability map the day before and there wasn’t one listing available.
Five minutes before 1 pm central time, the light started to grow dim
It quickly became apparent something was different today, the shadows that get long in the tooth when evening approaches remained high noon short as the colors drained toward twilight.
Within seconds the lights switched off, and then a perfect ring of fire burst forth from around the obscuring satellite, the corona was achieved.
It held for a full four minutes before a burst of white light poured around the edge of the moon as if a laser had been switched on at that moment.
Blinding even through the approved eclipse glasses, scores of awe-struck onlookers were forced to turn away.
Seeming to slide away from the corona faster than it slid into place, the light returned, but it grew to an eerie greenish color with those puzzlingly short shadows again, quite a few spectators reported experiencing a momentary vertigo during the peak of the eclipse, and with the onset of that green light, as did many onlookers in 2017.
Dr. Marc Siegel a professor at NYU Langone Medical Center said in an interview with Fox News Digital that the phenomenon is called Flicker Vertigo, and it’s common in people with motion sickness, people with existing balance issues, and people with mild to severe epilepsy.
By 3:14 pm the sun and the moon had parted company, and the natural order was restored.
If the Sims family continues to follow their pattern, the next Sims family reunion will be in 2056, There will be other eclipses before then, but that's the date of the next eclipse to follow a very similar path through the middle of America as this one did.
Odd numerical significance is placed around naturally occurring events such as an eclipse and for the Sims family it’s no different.
The Sims’ daughter will be 58 years old in 2056, the same age her mother is right now.
