Lincoln City, OR (Score 1)

Had reservations at a Hotel in Lincoln city for the night before the eclipse (made them almost a year ahead) as I lived in Portland, which was North of totality. I had been living in the the path of totality in '79, But except for a a brief glimpse during partiality through a gap in the clouds that closed up quickly (a friend and I actually chased that gap in a car,), I wasn't able to see it. This was extremely disappointing as I had been anticipating it for years. I was also into photography at the time (I even had my own darkroom set up), and had hoped to get a picture. We started to get warnings of the possibility of hours long traffic jams due to the influx of people coming to see the eclipse. They were telling people that you should pack extra water, food etc, in case you got stuck on the road. Just in case, we left extra early Sunday morning and packed a cooler. It turned out not to be needed as traffic was light to and In Lincoln City. (actually lighter than normal for a weekend). It seems that all the warnings scared people away. It was sunny when we arrived, clouded up later in the afternoon, but cleared off again in the evening. We went to bed early to have time for breakfast before the show started (partiality started around 9:05 AM). We woke to heavy fog. The Hotel clerk had said the day before that high winds were predicted for Monday that they should blow things clear by eclipse time. We at breakfast and went out to find a good view to the Southeast. It was still foggy by the time the Moon first started to cover the Sun, and the we kept losing sight of it in the fog. For a while I saw some blue sky overhead which gave me hope that the fog was starting to clear. Then the wind freshened a bit. But instead of blowing out of the fog it blew it in more thickly. With twenty minutes to totality, it was beginning to look like weather conditions were going to get the bet of me again. Then I heard a voice behind me say "Excuse me". I turned to see a sanitation truck driver who had come over from his truck parked in the Hotel lot. " You know that its not foggy everywhere" He then told us that if we just drove down the highway a bit, turned left and drove up the road for 3/4 of a mile, the sky was clear. I grabbed the camera and the tripod, and we jumped into the car. Sure enough after following his directions we soon saw blue sky and sunlight. We came across a pullout with other cars in it and with room left for our car. I got the camera and tripod set up again. I didn't have a solar filter for the camera (it wasn't designed for them), but I got a couple of shots off by holding my eclipse glasses in front the lens. As totality got closer, we started to notice that the fog we thought we left behind was staring to drift in from the West. Everyone at the pull out were basically trying to will it to hold back for just a bit longer. It must have worked, because the Sun's photosphere finally slipped behind the Sun and the corona burst forth. I snapped of a couple of quick shots, just pausing long enough to see if I got anything. Then sooner than I wanted, the Sun poked out from behind the Moon, we saw the diamond ring effect, and it was over. I went over to check on what I had captured on the camera. A handful of people came over to ask if I got anything. I showed them what I got and ended up with a collection of e-mail addresses and requests for copies. They had all tried to get photos with their cell phones and none of them had turned. In the end, with the aid of a helpful stranger, I got that eclipse photo that I had missed out on over 38 years later.