It was 95% here. Definitely dropped the outside temperature noticeably.

I still can't get over the weird lighting just before, during, and immediately after. It was like being in a baseball stadium at night, under the lights. That, or when a bright mortar goes off at a nighttime fireworks display. It was dark, then it was dark and suddenly also bright at the same time. Truly amazing to see it in totality just once. The pictures I'm seeing posted from other forum members is what it looked like here about 3-5 minutes from totality.

The eclipse experience at my house was a total eclipse via cloudage...

I flew into Upper Cumberland airport, Sparta/cookeville Tennessee. Took mom and dad. It was awesome. My old man really enjoyed the event. There were over 125 airplanes show up from Piper Cub to Gulfstream GV. An amazing day. It go so dark then totality and three minutes later light again. You could have heard a pin drop on the ramp. Everyone was in awe.

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Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
So how'd your human sacrifices go?

Pretty well, except for one of us that is.

Just one?

That was enough to bring the sun back?

If only we'd known....

I'm just waiting for the "After Eclipse Sale" to start at the mattress stores

We got lucky here, it was heavily overcast but we headed over to Sullivan's Island. Got into Poe's with no wait then hit the beach. About 20-30 minutes before it started the sky's began to open above us. The rest of Charleston still looked overcast, North Charleston was a lighting show with heavy rains. Life altering it was not, but still a cool experience.

I got some glasses for sale if anyone wants them. Don't miss out for next year's event. Have the peace of mind knowing you were one of the prepared ones. $20. I'll give you two for 30 bucks.

Well for all of the doom and gloom predicted here, it seems as if it was almost nothing. They said 20,000 to 30,000 people came into our area to watch. For context, Busch Stadium seats 45,000 people.

I have heard of no spike in criminal acts, injuries, or traffic accidents.....just fuel prices.

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Well for all of the doom and gloom predicted here, it seems as if it was almost nothing.

Well... no doom and gloom here. We went over to my sister's house and watched it from her deck. Perfect viewing.
My Mom made fried chicken, carrot raisin salad and some German potato salad. Oh, and since this comes once in a blue moon, we had some Blue Moon! It was great!

Very cool, waiting now for the next eclipse on 4/8//2024. Carbondale Illinois is once again the epicenter for totality!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: midwest guy,

Definitely worth the effort to get to 100%, totality was epic, with the stars and 360 sunset.

Slightly out of focus -

My wife and I had planned to pack up the 3 dogs and ourselves and head south to southern IL. When we read about the possibility of cloud cover and the extreme heat and humidity we decided that the mix would not be good for the dogs health.
We headed to Lake Michigan and took the Odyssey ( 200' boat docked at Navy Pier) for the lunch, prime rib buffet, 4 cocktails each, eclipse cruise.
It was cloudy but the water was calm and the temp. cooler on the lake. After lunch we headed upstairs to the observation deck to try and see the eclipse. The ship issued glasses to each passenger. We were able to monitor the event when ever the cloud cover broke, all while being served drinks, a very pleasurable experience.

We made a weekend of it to see family and left a place of 90+ % in Iowa to see 2:20 of totality in Washington, MO. Clouds were threatening but weren't an issue. The big party was at the fairgrounds where they expected 5,000+. We went to the Missouri River front which had several hundred. It was a great experience. I bungled my cell phone video taking and ended up taking 1 blurry pic instead of a video of the 360 sunset. The cicadas started talking about 10 mins before and after totality. I was chasing a 3 and 5yr old to keep them from burning their eyes out, so that took away some of the fun but it was worth it. Traffic up the Avenue of the Saints was very thick afterwards, I saw plenty of license plates from the costs and even Alaska, and they weren't rental cars. People turned out for this and drove far or detoured or made it a stop on a trip.

We stopped in Rigby, Idaho on our way home from Salt Lake. I had a old Navy buddy playing in a bluegrass band at an outdoor gig at a private cabin. The sky was 100% clear and we enjoyed good music, good company and a 100% eclipse that lasted about 2.5 minutes.

The temp dropped substantially and the colors were rather strange.

Afterwards we fought crazy traffic until about Butte.

Another unforgettable day.

Mike

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Originally posted by MattW:
We got lucky here, it was heavily overcast but we headed over to Sullivan's Island. Got into Poe's with no wait then hit the beach. About 20-30 minutes before it started the sky's began to open above us. The rest of Charleston still looked overcast, North Charleston was a lighting show with heavy rains. Life altering it was not, but still a cool experience.

Watched it from Ilse Of Palms. I was so mad we had planned for this trip since the beginning of the year. Then some clouds were trying to screw with my plans. Then THREE minutes before totality the sky magically opened up for us. It was beautiful, we are already talking about plans for 2024.

I've planned for months to ask my girlfriend to marry me today. Right as the "diamond ring" appeared as the sun poked back out around the moon. We were both enjoying the moment so much I decided it will happen some other time this trip. There goes our cool engagement story. Got too caught up in the moment.

Not sure if Ft. Sumter is very romantic, but that might end up being the spot instead tomorrow. All that planning down the drain.

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I've planned for months

I got a pretty good shot with my camera.

Awesome, Skins2881!