yak

An amazing bucket list trip with my son despite the 15 hour drive home to PA. Many thanks to the Virginia DOT for their diligence on those night construction projects that had people sitting for hours waiting to merge into one lane at multiple locations on i81. We wound up in the tiny town of Madisonville, TN near Sweetwater very near the center line and 2 min. 39 sec totality. Weather was perfect although pretty hot. I was surprised at the lack of crowd considering the location but I think 95% of the cars were from out of state. We had no trouble parking on Main St. I saw very few people taking advantage of $20-30 parking areas when there was plenty of open space in and out of town. I offered my extra glasses to total strangers but nobody needed them. One dude offered to find a needy family to give them to and proceeded to sell them. The main show snuck up on me quicker than expected. I thought there would be a longer transition from crescent sun to totality but there was a very noticeable change in the quality of light even before it got noticeably darker. Did anyone else notice that? Images and shadows become noticeably sharper and everything becomes clearer somehow like your vision has suddenly improved and you've enter into a type of hyper-reality. I know that sounds weird but it is one of my most vivid memories. I set up my iPhone to record the last few minutes. The visuals are awful but it captured cool stuff like 17-year locusts going into full freak out mode, dogs barking and the small crowd's reaction. Definitely some notable prominences visible near the top of the solar disk. The diamond ring effect induces a weird and awesome sense of rebirth. It was an amazing experience overall and well worth the two day pilgrimage and traffic headaches. Glad to hear most everyone hear found the same...

Using a cheap hotel in Johnson City, TN as base camp tonight and trying to convince my son to leave at 6 a.m. for the summit. Kinda worried about traffic nightmares. I was planning on going to Sweetwater, TN but they are apparently turning people away if they haven't prepaid for parking. Lots of price-gouging going on for glasses, parking etc.. I plan on giving away my extra glasses just to screw a few folks trying to take advantage of people seeking a once in a lifetime experience. Hope y'all enjoy the show!

I think this video really demonstrates why folks in a populated area are probably MORE at risk from a strong tornado than someone living on an isolated farm, for instance. Tornadoes don't avoid populated areas and when they hit, there is that much more debris to increase damage. Anyone stranded in their car or any kind of weak structure would never have survived the kind of debris storm shown in that video. Adding my best wishes for JoMo. What an experience...