From Dan Madden

My first date with my wife we took the train from Columbus WI to Minot ND (Why not Minot). We arrived in town about an hour before totality. The coolest thing we've ever seen. We celebrate our 30 anniversary this October and we're looking forward to 2017.

We were lucky in that WA and MT were clouded in. On February 26 in Minot the ground was covered with a fresh snow where we watched totality from a hotel parking lot above the river valley. The morning sky had a light haziness to the blue sky that seemed to lend an added eeriness to the eclipse. The temperature was in the upper 20's and quickly noticeably cooled down to the upper teens. There were hundreds of people watching from this spot and the people recording the event with their telescopes and cameras were very generous in allowing us looks during the different stages. We spent the rest of the day visiting the local establishments, and took the midnight train back to Wisconsin.