Lodi resident travels to Oregon to experience total eclipse
Lodi Resident Phi Litz recently returned home after traveling to Oregon to have the once in a lifetime experience of being in the line of totality during the eclipse.
According to Litz, he always wanted to see a total eclipse, but what really fueled his desire to experience one was hearing Astrophysics Professor Alex Filippenko speak about the total eclipse when he attended a Cal Alumni Association Dinner a few weeks prior to the eclipse.
“It was all about the total eclipse,” Litz said. “He said it was going to be his 16th total eclipse, and he talked about it and really got the bug in me. He said ‘once you see one it’s very addictive, you’re going to want to see more.’”
Litz knew his daughter was going to drive up with her fiancé, so he called and asked her if he could ride along.
“I said, ‘hey can I come? I’ve never seen a total eclipse and I really want to.’ I’m 73 years old. I don’t know if I will have this chance again,” Litz said.
Saturday morning, he and his daughter, along with her fiancé drove up to Beaverton, Ore., where his daughter had friends, and spent two nights there.
Monday morning at 4 a.m. they continued traveling to Salem, Ore., where they would watch the eclipse. Once they arrived to Salem they pulled into a packed Denny’s parking lot and were lucky enough to get a spot. The Denny’s was just as packed inside and it took them an hour and a half to get a table. Meanwhile the crowd outside prepared for the eclipse. After eating the three joined the crowd.
“Outside it was just like a big party. People brought lawn chairs, blankets and picnic baskets,” he said. “My daughter started talking to people about the eclipse. We met some foreigners from Germany that traveled over here to see it as part of their vacation plans. It was just this wonderful party.”
When it became time for the eclipse, everyone put on their glasses in anticipation for what was about to happen.
“We watched the beginning of it and it started getting darker, it started getting a little colder and the birds stopped singing,” he said.
Once the eclipse went total and there was no light whatsoever, Litz said they took off the glasses and watched the eclipse with their naked eyes.
“We had about 100 seconds where we could watch it in its totality and it was ... next to holding my children when they were born, I have never had an experience like that in my life,” Litz said. “I started crying. It was so moving. It was so beautiful you could see the corona and the blue light. There was blue light around the whole thing and it was pulsating and people were cheering and clapping and yelling and crying. It was just unbelievable. It was so breathtaking.”
After a minute or so, Litz, his daughter and her fiancé put their glasses back on to continue viewing the eclipse safely.
“The first sense of any sunlight at all you could see it through your glasses. We turned around and started yelling ‘glasses back on, glasses back on,’ and people around us echoed it, even across the street, and on the rooftops. Everybody got their glasses back on and it was amazing. It was just the most wonderful thing and I said I got to see one of these again.”
Litz said Professor Filippenko wasn’t lying when he said viewing a total eclipse would be addictive. According to Litz, the next total eclipse in the U.S. will be April 8, 2024, and his friends in Texas live right in the line of totality, so he had already made plans with them to be there.
“It was just the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen. I’ve seen pictures of totalities. I’ve seen still shots of totalities. I’ve seen videos of totalities of a total eclipse and there is no way that even approaches the emotionalism and the phenomenal experience of seeing it for yourself with your naked eye.”
He said the eclipse was very life changing and there were others around him saying the same thing. He joked with his daughter that the eclipse was the solution for discord among world leaders.
“I said ‘I think I know how to solve the worlds problems with all of our leaders that do not play well with each other, just get all the world leaders into the line of totality and have them experience a total eclipse. I think it might change their lives,’” he chuckled.
After the eclipse was over Litz, his daughter and her fiancé hopped in the car for the long ride home.
“It was just amazing and after it was over, we jumped in our car and got in line of thousands of cars heading south on I-5. It took us 12 hours to get up there and it took 16 hours to get home,” he said.
Though the trip was long, he said he was happy that he went.
“It was magnificent,” he said. “It’s difficult for me to talk about it right now with out getting choked up. I’ve never seen anything like it. I am so glad that I decided to keep my boney old behind in the car for a total of about 30 hours to see it. It was worth everything to go up there and see it.”
He encourages other to experience a total eclipse too.
“If people have not seen a totality, if they have any opportunity in their lifetime to see one I cannot strongly enough encourage them to do whatever it takes to get in the line of totality,” he said.