RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas — When they arrived at DFW Airport, Yngve Kristiansen and May Antonsen were jet-lagged but still dedicated to their chosen mission: traveling from the extreme northern shores of Norway to Oslo, then to Paris, then to Atlanta and then to Dallas in search of their first total solar eclipse.
But then those 5,000+ miles later, faced with worrisome forecasts and fears of cloudy Texas skies, they decided at the last minute to add a few hundred or so more.
“It would be a disappointment,” Kristiansen said of the eclipse journey. “But either way it has been a wonderful adventure,” he said.
Because back home in Norway he’d looked for a small Texas town, somewhat near Dallas, that was in the path of totality. He liked the way Sulphur Springs sounded, so it became their eclipse-watching target.
But Monday morning when he pulled into town, the skies were cloudy and getting worse. That’s when he found predictions of clearer skies in Russellville, Arkansas midway between Little Rock and Fort Smith. Unfazed by their trip halfway around the world, they opted for about 300 miles and four and a half hours more.
“Well what do you hope we find in Russellville?” I asked them.
“Clear skies,” Kristiansen quickly replied.
Russellville, sandwiched between I-40 and the Aransas River, planned its own eclipse festival. That’s why, in their search for clear skies, Kristiansen and Antonsen also found thousands of other like-minded pilgrims seeking the same celestial experience too.
“I am 100% confident,” Kristiansen said when asked if he’d found the quintessential American eclipse experience he was looking for. “Texas is great. But right now, Russellville is the right choice.”
The right choice for a bevy of telescopes and solar filter-outfitted cameras in the central town square. Eclipse glasses, welding helmets and people choosing to take in the eclipse while completely prone on the pavement were part of the eclipse experience too.
“Wow,” Kristiansen said while he looked at the eclipse with binoculars equipped with solar filters and lens stabilizers.
Then, as the assembled sky watchers enjoyed 4 minutes and 11 seconds of totality, two Norwegians joined them in a celebratory cheer.
“I am glad we got here,” May said. “This was the right place."
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the most of us,” Kristiansen said. “And there’s no better way to see bigger things in motion than a total eclipse,” he said of recognizing his place in a vast universe of planets and their satellites and stars.
But back in Norway, Kristiansen’s co-workers joked that they live in the Arctic Circle. They already get months of darkness. They came to Texas, then Arkansas, to experience four more minutes of darkness.
Kristiansen said it’s not that simple. It is, in a word, cosmic.
“So, you would recommend this to anyone?” I asked him of the round-the-world journey and the communal celebration with fellow sky watchers.
“Anyone,” he replied. “Young or old, half-blind or eagle eyed. It’s an experience.”
An experience for two Norwegians happy they traveled the world, and traversed Texas and Arkansas, to marvel at the one world we all share.