If anybody is interested, here's what my eclipse experience was like:

I hadn't planned to see it, but I happened to be in Atlanta with my wife over weekend, and we were coming back either Monday or Tuesday; it turned out we were done in Atlanta Sunday, so Monday it was.

I read that the interstates would be the most fucked up with traffic, and that South Carolina I-85 would be one of the worst, so I planned an alternative route. I took secondary roads up through North Georgia and had Franklin, NC as our destination. No particular reason for that place, except it was in the mountains, the sky was supposed to be mostly clear, and I thought it might be less jammed up. S. Carolina also was supposed to be cloudy.

So getting there from Atlanta was pretty bad with traffic, until about an hour before totality, when all the cars mostly disappeared from the road. One observation was the large number of redneck painted signs along the roads (some barely in the totality area) that said "Eclipse parking $10 (or $20)". Never saw anybody parking at any of those. We got to Franklin and pulled up next to a small grassy area behind a strip shopping center. About 10 other people were staked out there, some with cameras and telescopes, etc. Nobody asked for money.

Everybody had a great time. We parked about 30 minutes before totality. Here's the experience:

1. The light becomes noticeably different starting about T-30 minutes, but to the naked eye the sun looks the same.

2. Things gradually get dimmer as you go along. At T-5 minutes the light level is lower, but it's unlike dusk. The sun's still up there looking very bright. It's really like nothing else you've experienced in terms of what the world looks like. One thing to notice is that shadows are very different. If you put your hand out, the shadow on the ground is incredibly sharp.

3. At T-1 minute, the sun is still too bright to stare at, but the world is getting much dimmer. As you count down, it's really the last 15 seconds that are amazing, or even the last 3 or 4. The eclipse just goes "whoom", the light disappears, and suddenly it's dark, and the sun is now a black ball with a fiery halo around it.

4. It gets pretty dark in totality, but not like 10:00 p.m. dark. The sun is still lighting things up some. Stars come out. Streetlights go on.

5. Totality is like nothing else. The world just looks very, very different. Not like dusk, not like night. It's Total Eclipse World. For 2 1/2 minutes you're someplace else.

6. Totality ends in seconds. A bright edge appears on the sun, and the world lights up. In less than 2 minutes everything looks mostly normal again.

Everybody gets in their car and goes right after totality ends. It took about an hour to get out of Franklin, and hours to get to any semi-clear roads. We ended up on I-81 in Virginia, and it was still crowded at 11:00 p.m. with out of state cars.

There's another US eclipse in 2024. I doubt if I'd bother to go, once was enough. I was really really cool though and it was worth the 12 hour trip back.

Wow. That was a great read!!! Thanks for posting.

Next, can we hear about what it was like to paint your garage or change your oil last week?

fart cutter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow. That was a great read!!! Thanks for
> posting.
>
> Next, can we hear about what it was like to paint
> your garage or change your oil last week?


Yeah, sorry it was boring. Kinda the equivalent of showing somebody your vacation pics.

Does an eclipse like this destroy vampires and/or zombies?

Dollar Store glasses seem to let me down