The Great American Eclipse

Today was the big day, and I'm not sure if any of us will ever forget it.  We set the alarm, although we were up early, excited about what was going to happen a little later.  A massive move by millions of people took place today, all moving north or south into this one zone of totality, where the sun would be completely eclipsed.  We packed our things, got in the car, and drove north, leaving the house and going up 400.  Already, the end of 400 was backed up for about a mile.  A man in a truck sat alongside all the bumper-to-bumper traffic, selling flimsy eclipse glasses for $20 each.  Earlier, that kind of price got us five plastic ones a month ago. What he was selling was worth a little under two dollars, and here he was, trying to take advantage of those folks who have been desperate for glasses.

The eclipse glasses are important, but hopefully everyone else remembered to wear their cat ears as well.

We actually had two extra pairs of glasses, and one of our friends that we'd be meeting needed just one extra, so we were more than happy to pass them along.  As for the traffic on the way to our destination, that was it.  Daddy knew a lot of back roads pretty well, having seen a lot of White County.  So we avoided the cities of Cleveland and Helen, and made our way up 255, up Cooley Woods Road, Blue Creek Road, past the place that sells those remarkable strawberry milkshakes, and further north up 255 until we reached Josh's house without any problems whatsoever.  No stress at all!

A quiet moment in the shade on the front porch. Not long before we'd all be gazing upwards. The sun was bright and warm, but all that was about to change.

The Miller residence is wonderful, a place set in the mountains away from traffic and noise and congestion.  We looked on the map earlier, and one handy site calculated that this location would see the full total eclipse for two minutes and eleven seconds.  The start of it would be 1:06 pm, and the end was 4:01 pm.  The total eclipse was somewhere between 2:35 pm and 2:37 pm.

If you're going to have an eclipse party in North Georgia, it's pretty obvious you need Moon Pies. Just sayin'.

Soon, other friends were arriving too.  One family brought the Moon Pies, which was a secret wish of Daddy's.  These were mini versions, and Daddy might have had three before the end of the day.  But there was plenty of other food too:  we brought hot dogs, drinks, chips, and others brought sausages, desserts and more.  We went inside to gather the food, and ate it outside for dinner and a show!

Pac Man. About 1:06, the moon began it's trip as we all looked upwards in our eclipse glasses.

Right on schedule, the moon made its appearance, beginning to block out the sun.  Finally, the glasses were put to good use.  We were in the front yard, looking just like this:

Mandatory "looking up" pose. The show in the sky was just getting started at this point.

Madison was able to see it for herself, and thought it was pretty cool.  But it was just getting started, of course.  Soon the atmosphere around us would be changing, although it would take a while.  It would be about an hour and a half before the full eclipse came, and there was plenty of time to socialize, seated in our lawn chairs, looking upwards.  Here's a shot of Madison relaxing, doing just that:

Chillin'

Another way of observing the eclipse is by way of the cereal boxes Madison made.  Josh is looking through a hole on one side, one that also has a pinhole popped in it.  The light going through the pinhole makes an eclipse show up on the opposite side of the cereal box.

Josh testing out Madison's decorated Eclipse Viewing Box. Note the Frozen stickers. More importantly, it actually works, as Josh is seen here watching the eclipse via a box of Sugar Smacks.

Madison had three of these made on Friday, and they were decorated with all kinds of stickers.  They actually came in handy!  We brought all kinds of games, and Daddy even brought his laptop so we could play the song of the day, Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart."  It was a festive atmosphere!

Here we are, all ready for the big eclipse!

Everyone was anxious.  The weather was perfect though!  We had these beautiful blue skies, although a bit of cloud coverage was threatening.  In fact, just fifteen minutes before the complete eclipse, this cloud appeared here.  If you look closely, you can see the fingernail eclipse shape in the middle portion of this cloud.

Wings of the Eclipse

The cloud almost played the spoiler.  We were all tense and worried it wouldn't move out of the way.  Yet Madison was looking through her glasses, and spotted when the sun emerged again, just in time.  And with five minutes to go until the eclipse, we realized that the cloud had completely vanished without a trace.  Seriously, the other clouds were off on the horizon, but this one had disappeared.  Nothing could stop us from seeing the eclipse now.

All around, the air grew still.  A darker tint filled the air.  Sunlight still shone down, but things were dark.  It was remarkably cooler now, and silence was eerie.  We stood together, all eyes upward, watching this amazing thing happening.  It was so incredibly surreal.

Taken pointing a camera through the eclipse glasses, moments before totality.

Through our glasses, we saw the sliver of light get thinner and thinner.  The expectation is that the sun will just disappear.  And sure enough, that sliver of light was gone, and we were thinking, "Okay, that's it.  The totality!"  But that wasn't it.  This was it:

This was taken without a filter, for we were looking at it with our naked eyes.  Gasps and exclamations of wonder filled the front lawn.  It was a ring of fire, white with tints of blue.  The night sky was above us, stars now visible.  Right there above the horizon stood this flaming sphere, astonishing us all.  These pictures can't compare to the experience of seeing something like this firsthand.  It was something we all were so very anxious to see, with such a high level of expectation. And yet even so, it was beyond anything we could imagine.  We just sat there, staring, astonished at what was happening in the skies.  Simply awestruck.

For two minutes and eleven seconds, we watched the total eclipse burn over heads.  And all too soon, the sun began to make it's appearance once more, creating that diamond ring effect:

The diamond on the ring. Easily one the most amazing things you can ever see in your lifetime. 
Note the stars in the sky.

Just like that, it was over.  Of course, there was another hour and a half to go before the moon would move back out of the way again, but soon everyone had their glasses on again, looking upwards as the moon made it's path away from totality.

We were laughing at all these pictures on social media of people looking up into the skies with those reflective glasses on. Here's a group shot, as everyone is getting ready for the greatest show in the skies.

It was something everyone must see once.  We were on social media, checking on other people's photos, and many made the trip to the mountains to see this.  Others were satisfied with 99% blockage, which is what we would have seen if we stayed home.  But we would not have seen what we did.  I cannot emphasize this enough:  if you're able to see totality, you simply must.  Even if you have to drive a few hours.  It was unforgettable.

Madison was just as blown away as the rest of us were.

Catching some eclipse rays.

We were so glad we took her out of school for this.  Back at the school, it would have been 99% blockage, and that would have been interesting to see.  But for two minutes and eleven seconds, we all saw something that we'll never forget.  No wonder certain people "chase eclipses" when they come to certain regions of the world.  Today was an excused absence from school, something you don't get everyday.  Why were you absent?  Oh, there was an eclipse.

For the next hour and a half, we were playing games.  Madison was playing corn hole, while several of us were playing this new game (at least to us) called "mölkky."  There was also a game with a bolo toss, one that she was enjoying very much.  One thing that Madison can always say she did was this:  go swimming during an eclipse.  There was a pool at the house, an above ground one.  Madison and the other kids were having a great time swimming around as the moon made its farewell across the sky.

Periodically, we'd look up through our glasses, checking on the progress.  It was something magnificent to see.  The sun came back out again, and things got brighter, heating up.  Shadows stopped dancing and crickets stopped chirping.  Finishing our last round of mölkky, we went inside, ready to feel a bit of air conditioning.  During the eclipse, the weather was much cooler.

We sat around talking about the wondrous experience we shared, something truly unforgettable.  At 4:01, it was all over with.  The next one won't hit our country for another seven or eight years, and it will be quite a few hours away.  This was just perfect.  It was about an hour north of us, and the weather was ideal.  The traffic wasn't too much of a problem on the way up, and the location was perfect, with great friends on a great stretch of land in the mountains.

The trip home was huge.  Never before - ever - have we seen so much traffic on these back roads.  And supposedly, the traffic went on late into the night, the major interstates jammed with cars returning home from the eclipse.  On an interesting note, we were forced to try an alternate backroad, and wound up seeing some zebras.  There's a zoo nearby, one we'll have to check out soon.  Madison cried out from the back seat, "Zebras!"  Yeah, that's not something you see everyday.

It took us a really long time to get to the house, but the entire time we were telling ourselves, it was all worth it.  All the other drivers were probably thinking the same thing.  It was unforgettable, not just living up to the hype, but surpassing it.  It was the Great American Eclipse.