Page 8A
ECLIPSE 2017
East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
‘Podcycle’ globetrotter arrives in John Day for eclipse
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Philip Funnell calls it
a “podcycle,” with a tiny
sleeper-trailer made out of
thick foam and fi berglass
rigged to the back of his
Yamaha 250 motorcycle.
At just fi ve and a half
feet long, the homemade
camper has barely enough
room for Funnell, 80,
to stretch his legs. It’s
not always comfortable,
Funnell admits, but he
says it has served him
well during multiple tours
across the globe, spanning
more than a million miles
and 74 countries since he
began riding in 1953.
“It’s not tiring for me,”
he said. “It’s an instinctual
thing. It’s become auto-
matic.”
Funnell arrived Saturday
in John Day from his home
in Chilliwack, British
Columbia, where his latest
adventure has brought him
to experience Monday’s
total solar eclipse. The
moon started crossing the
sun at 9:08 a.m. in John
Day, with approximately
2 minutes, 6 seconds of
totality beginning at 10:22.
Inside his podcycle is
everything Funnell needs
for the trip — a butane
stove and utensils for
cooking, spare sweaters, a
can of bear spray, a deck
of cards to play cribbage
and an old cassette tape
recorder to take down his
thoughts and experiences.
Though he has traversed
deserts and jungles on his
bike, watched the most
beautiful sunrise in Costa
Rica and met the toughest
people in Afghanistan, this
will be Funnell’s fi rst, and
likely only, solar eclipse.
“The light will disappear
alarmingly,” he anticipated.
“And then it’s over. And I’ll
never see another.”
Born in South London,
Funnell speaks in a soft
British accent with an
incredible memory for
details. His whole life has
revolved around motorcy-
cles, and the places they
have taken him. He has
been around the world
twice, including every state,
country and territory in
North and South America.
Rifl ing around the back
of his podcycle, Funnell
fi nds a bound edition of
a book he once self-pub-
lished, titled “The Sport
of Not Getting Tickets.” It
was written in 1980, when
he says he was still going
fast.
“I had a reputation for
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Philip Funnell, of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, sits in his pod bike, the “World’s Smallest Camper,” after arriving on John Day on
Saturday. Funnell designed and built his pod bike. It is the third pod bike Funnell has constructed.
“People have done the most
amazing things with motorcycles.
Your whole lifestyle goes over to it.”
— Philip Funnell, Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
podcycles in his life for
these kinds of journeys. The
fi rst, he said, was stolen and
the second now resides in a
BMW motorcycle museum
in Maryland. The little
trailer, with its all-too-ap-
propriate decal, “Snug as a
bug,” offers him a place to
kick up his feet at the end of
a long day.
Funnell said he was
attracted to motorcycling
at fi rst because they were
cheap, and he couldn’t
afford at the time to buy a
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Philip Funnell, of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, looks through a book he
wrote about motorcycle riding on Saturday in downtown John Day. Funnell rode
his pod bike, the “World’s Smallest Camper,” to John Day to watch the eclipse on
Monday.
fi ghting these things,” he
said with a chuckle.
Nowadays,
however,
Funnell said he prefers
a
more
gentlemanly,
low-anxiety style of riding,
taking the time to soak in
the prairies and Canadian
plains.
“When you go through
those places slowly and
look at the antelope, you
learn to appreciate them
more, and the journey
doesn’t seem so long,” he
said.
Funnell is no stranger
to John Day, where he says
he has visited before and
greeted every deer that
wanders into the small
town. He plans to watch
the eclipse in the grocery
store parking lot before
eventually making his way
back to Canada.
Funnell has built three
Crowds gather at Capitol to view eclipse
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — For about two
minutes Monday morning,
Oregon’s capital went dark
during the fi rst total solar
eclipse to hit the continental
U.S. since 1979.
State
emergency
managers and tourism
offi cials had been prepping
for the big event for about a
year, though things seemed
more subdued in Salem than
some had feared.
The event did draw visi-
tors to Salem — the fi rst of
fi ve state capitals in the path
of totality — from all over
the nation and the world.
The crowd front of
the state capitol building
sported refl ective eclipse
glasses, telescopes and
camera equipment.
Olle Frykstam, 23, came
to Salem with a group of
other amateur astronomers
from his home country,
Sweden. At 9 a.m., just over
an hour before the sun was
due to be obscured, Fryk-
stam said, “I hope for total
darkness.”
He got his wish.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
hosted a group of Girl Scouts
from Salem and Woodburn
and other guests — ranging
from the state forester to
the secretary of state — for
a morning eclipse viewing
party on a terrace outside
her ceremonial offi ce.
Brown said guests had
converged on the capitol
terrace from places as
far-fl ung as Chile, Peru and
“the state south of Oregon.”
After she was presented
with a special commemora-
tive stamp, Brown and her
car. Since then, he has been
inducted into the Canada
Motorcycle Hall of Fame
and spent years as a BMW
dealer in Canada, where he
earned the nickname “Dr.
BMW.”
“People have done the
most amazing things with
motorcycles,” Funnell said.
“Your whole lifestyle goes
over to it.”
———
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at gplaven@eastoregonian.
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Claire Withycombe/Capital Bureau
Observers of the total solar eclipse gathered on the Oregon Capitol Mall Monday.
Claire Withycombe/Capital Bureau
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a former Campfi re Girl, chats
with Girl Scouts at the Oregon Capitol before the total
solar eclipse Monday morning.
guests took in the eclipse.
Things grew quiet as the
air cooled and the moon
began to obscure more of
the sun.
During the event itself,
though, crowds at the
Capitol Mall and nearby
Willamette University could
be heard making noise. The
Girl Scouts screamed.
“The sun is winning!”
said Secretary of State
Dennis Richardson as the
moon continued its journey.
People applauded and
cheered after the darkness
lifted.
Afterward,
Brown
appeared in awe.
“It is a euphoric feeling,”
Brown said. “It was abso-
lutely stunning. There is no
way to describe it in words.”
———
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