{"id":18927,"date":"2017-08-20T19:04:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T01:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=18927"},"modified":"2017-08-20T19:07:17","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T01:07:17","slug":"no-big-crowds-yet-but-plenty-of-excitement-in-casper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/08\/no-big-crowds-yet-but-plenty-of-excitement-in-casper\/","title":{"rendered":"No big crowds yet, but plenty of excitement in Casper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-18927\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"18927-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-map-1-of-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-map-1-of-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A couple of visitors put pins on a huge map behind the visitors booth on Second Street in Casper, Wyo., showing where they've come from to see the eclipse.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-dance-1-of-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-dance-1-of-1-771x469.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Dancers in Army uniforms presented a tribute to the Armed Forces at the recently opened David Street Station.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-interview-1-of-1-771x607.jpg*771*607\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-interview-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Your Last Best News correspondent wasn't the only one interviewing visitors in Casper.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-mayor-1-of-1-771x595.jpg*771*595\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-mayor-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Mayor Kenyne Humphrey, left, checks her notes just before a late-afternoon press conference.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-t-shirts-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-t-shirts-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A vendor sells eclipse T-shirts.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-David-Street-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-David-Street-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The David Street Station, with an amphitheater and stage, opened just in time for the Wyoming Eclipse Festival.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-street-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-street-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Second Street was closed for nine blocks in downtown Casper.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-beer-1-of-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-beer-1-of-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The usual ban on open containers of alcohol was waived in parts of the downtown.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18927-slide9\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-1-of-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eclipse-1-of-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Swedish tourists Johan Hast and Leona Rohrbeck flew into Denver Friday and drove up to Casper.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 18927, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/08\/no-big-crowds-yet-but-plenty-of-excitement-in-casper\/', 9 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>CASPER, Wyo. \u2014 Here on the front lines, things are running pretty smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>After reading all about the total eclipse for days on end, and hearing stories about how people from all over the world could be converging on Casper for front-row seats, we didn\u2019t know what to expect.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>What if we came over the last hill and saw cars stacked up for miles at the exit ramp? What if we made it into Casper but had to abandon our car miles from where we were planning to stay? What if the National Guard turned us back at Wyola?<\/p>\n<p>But no. Interstate 90 didn\u2019t seem unusually crowded, not for this time of year, and as we approached Casper we didn\u2019t see any backup in traffic at all. We sailed into town with hardly a pause, to the point that we began to wonder: would the much-anticipated event be a bust?<\/p>\n<p>But no, again. After we got to my sister-in-law\u2019s brother\u2019s place and put up our tents and otherwise settled in, we drove into downtown Casper, into the heart of the Wyoming Eclipse Festival.<\/p>\n<p>This was the third day of the festival, culminating of course in tomorrow\u2019s celestial spectacle. There were supposed to be something like 35 events around Casper during the festival, but downtown is Ground Zero.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve closed nine blocks of Second Street, with several connecting streets blocked off for shorter distances. There are food booths, live music, games, miniature carnival rides and many thousands of people.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Kenyne Humphrey said she couldn\u2019t have been happier with how things have played out so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s perfect,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s every mayor\u2019s dream,\u201d with a steady stream of visitors coming in, but not so many as to overwhelm services or put a damper on anyone\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we found the perfect sweet spot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>The centerpiece of the festival is the David Street Station, a city park with an amphitheater and stage, which was offering live music, dance shows and other entertainment from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. The park had been years in the making, Humphrey said, and a lot of people didn\u2019t think it could possibly be done in time for the eclipse festival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they pulled it off,\u201d she said. \u201cNow it\u2019s one of the most beautiful parks I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anna Wilcox, executive director of the Wyoming Eclipse Festival, moved here from Iowa in June 2016 to work on the festival full time. She said projections \u2014 based on reports from motels and campgrounds, and information about people renting out their houses or welcoming friends and relatives \u2014 were that the city of 60,000 could expect at least 30,000 people over the days leading up to the festival.<\/p>\n<p>But many others could drive up from Denver and other population centers for the actual eclipse, she said, \u201cso the day of is a giant question mark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, authorities are asking people who are in Casper now to stay put, not to drive around town looking for the optimal viewing spot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re in Casper, you already own the best seat in the house,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need another car on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The festival was organized by local agencies as a nonprofit, so most everything is free.<\/p>\n<p>Wilcox said she, like everyone else, plans to enjoy the eclipse tomorrow. After all this preparation, she thinks she&#8217;s earned it. She said CNN called and asked if they could interview her tomorrow at 11:44.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Uh, how about 11:45?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the most popular spots in town Sunday was right behind the visitors booth on Second Street, where people were invited to put a red-topped pin on a 9-foot map of the world, to show where they were from. By late afternoon, the map was crowded with pins, mainly in North America and Europe, but with every continent represented, and a whole lot of countries.<\/p>\n<p>Johan Hast and Leona Rohrbeck pushed a couple of pins in to Stockholm, Sweden. The pair landed in Denver Friday, rented a car and drove to Casper for the eclipse. Hast said Casper seemed like one of the best places to see the eclipse, and he also wanted to make his first trip to Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n<p>He was a little awestruck by the emptiness of southern Wyoming, \u201cand then a small town is the capital!\u201d he said, referring to Cheyenne.<\/p>\n<p>Rohrbeck, for her part, said, \u201cI was just amazed by how friendly everyone is. You always hear that about Americans, but I\u2019ve never been here before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CASPER, Wyo. \u2014 Here on the front lines, things are running pretty smoothly. After reading all about the total eclipse for days on end, and hearing stories about how people from all over the world could be converging on Casper for front-row seats, we didn\u2019t know what to expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[6176,6175],"class_list":["post-18927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-news","tag-casper","tag-eclipse","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18939,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18927\/revisions\/18939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}