I was also at Goldendale to see that eclipse. I had driven east on I80N from Portland, intending to view it somewhere east of the Cascades, but it was overcast and raining during most of the drive. At dawn, about an hour before the eclipse, I saw a hole in the clouds 50 miles or so back to the west. Made it in time and watched the eclipse from near the freeway at the Goldendale exit. I never could figure why some people were applauding, since the sun could not hear them and wouldn’t have cared about their opinion anyway.
That’s the only total solar eclipse I’ve seen so far. There was an annular eclipse visible from here in Arizona a few years back, and we went up on the mesa with a welding mask to see it.
Yep, I left out of Portland, too, and got to Biggs Junction and crossed the Columbia there. I had plenty of time. My worry was getting in the right spot for an appropriate hole in the clouds.
But, talking about that drive out from Portland, I started early, and of course it was dark and hardly any traffic was on the city streets at that time of the morning ... BUT ... the really amazing thing was how much traffic was on I-80 and it stayed PACKED, both of the two lanes of the freeway, going East, while the westbound lanes were empty.
AND THEN ... everyone was exiting off the freeway at Biggs Junction ... the only place to cross the Columbia for miles either way!