I Was in the Path of Totality! But Was it Worth the Trip?
I drove 8 1/2 hours one way this weekend to watch the eclipse in North Carolina. Having never seen a total eclipse before, it was amazing. Magical even.
Experiencing increasingly cooler temperatures, the still bright yet increasingly dim sunshine and then breathtaking and almost sparkling sight of the moon completely overtaking the sun, I was ridiculously enthralled.
We did get the night time conditions, though not the crickets chirping that others did. Â Unfortunately neither my camera or my phone captured blog-worthy pictures of the actual eclipse, but that’s what NASA is for.
Hear the crickets? During totality of #SolarEclipse2017 the crickets begin to chirp because they think it’s night: https://t.co/cOKssim1bY pic.twitter.com/sztula7lkD
— NASA (@NASA) August 21, 2017
But was it worth it?
I’ve seen some amazing things in my travel and the eclipse definitely ranks in the top 10. But I had it easy — I was staying with family friends, so all I had to pay for was the gas to drive down. I left at 3AM in the morning and didn’t face any of the traffic others have reported. My friends live in a small town a ways from major highways so we didn’t compete with the hordes that crowded other cities. And because I was with people I love to spend time with, it wouldn’t have mattered as much if it was cloudy or rainy like Missouri.
Yet as awesome as it was, I don’t think I would have been nearly as satisfied if seeing the eclipse had required a lot of money or miles for flights, hotel rooms, and a rental car. For anyone planning to see the eclipse April 8, 2024 (which I might), I personally would recommend visiting somewhere in the path you’d want to go anyway.
But that’s just me, would love to hear others’ eclipse viewing adventures!
It so was! We watched it from a friend of a friend’s house in Nashville who are on a hill in the woods. We’re already discussing Chile 2019.
Yep! Drove to Rexburg, Idaho from EWR.
I would do it against (mostly on pts)