Chinook RV

Anyone making a special trip to or live in the path of the eclipse? I was heading down to Tennessee but got a better offer from a member here to surf his driveway since he's in the path in South Carolina. I already have a solar filter for my Nikon and the solar glasses.

Saw my first total eclipse and it was awesome. I was driveway surfing down in South Carolina at Xatlatc's property and all we had to do is hang out in his driveway. He's a gracious host and has a wonderful family. Here are a few pics (of many) that I took.

Nice work, Skillet. Those pics are intense!
We were boondocking in Northern CA, and witnessed about 70% coverage. Never really got dark, and wasn't nearly as impressive as what you've shown... still pretty cool either way!

That was my first total eclipse and I say if you get the chance, see one. Colors got muted, temperature cooling, and bats started flying around. We even saw the shadow bands (snakes). https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/exploring-shadow-bands

If plans hold up, in 7 years the next one will cross the US starting in Maine and Xatlatc and I hope to be there in our Chinooks. Come join the tiny rally!

You know, I was one of those "so, it gets dark every day" people (plus, I shy away from crowds, and I wondered about "fake" glasses and wrecking my eyes). But after reading about the experience from you and other folks, it sounds really awe-inspiring and I somewhat regret not seeing it. I hope I get another chance in 2024. Meanwhile.... very cool photos and really neat that Xatlatc hosted you and you got to see it together!

October 2016, Skillet met up with me and mine for the Jack Daniels BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tn. when he mentioned his desire to return to Lynchburg for the big eclipse. That was the first time I heard about the upcoming eclipse. This June, the newspapers starting hyping the event for those of us in the Upstate of South Carolina ( and across the whole country ) to expect large amounts of people that live outside the totality path to visit the area. I believe the longest totality was 2m40s in Kentucky. On my driveway my NASA app said we had 2m36.6s. I invited Skillet down for the event and he accepted the invitation.
My wife, two of our children and a daughter-in-law went to a dam on Lake Keowee in order to view the 'dusk' effect of the eclipse. During totality, the horizon in all directions appears to have the sun going down. Really cool. Once the eclipse started ( it took over three hours from start to finish ) I thought it was over hyped. Just before totality it felt weird outside. It was like when it starts to snow, it's so quiet. But when I saw the 'diamond ring ' appear right before totality, I changed my mind. Wow. I took my glasses off and everything looked odd. The temperature fell and we could really feel the difference. Everyone who took pictures with their cellphones had terrible pictures because the light from the sun is different All the pictures are blurry. During totality my wife heard a rooster start crowing and we had bats flying around the house.
The large amounts of people did show up. It usually takes my son to get home from here to downtown Atlanta two hours. It took him 5h45m and said it was worth it. If you get a chance to get in the totality path in 2024, do it.
Below are pictures at the dam, before and during, and a blurry photo at my house. I'll try to upload a panoramic of the 'dusk' effect too.
In closing, I think it's incredible that our moon just happens to be the perfect size to make total eclipses of the sun occur. Hmm?

Blurry and dark at the house. A great time was had by all! Look at the shadow bands on the concrete, It looks like snakes.

I started planning for the trip about 5 years ago, but nothing definite until 3 weeks before the event that I got my Chinook in Northern California and drive it home. We fanatically started booking for camp sites, etc..

We drive almost 2000 miles all the way to Jasper National Park (Canada has 150 year anniversary promotion this year), and drive south via Lake Louise, Banff, Waterton. Then after crossing the border, we visited Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. Our last stop was in Idaho to watch the totality, then drive home non-stop to get home before the school started the next day.

It was our first total solar eclipse, and it was very different experience from the partial ones. I did not have tripod with me, and my lenses is too short to get good photo, but I did managed to get a few pretty good photos. Did not notice any shadow band on the ground, but I guess I was too concentrated on the sky and horizon. It was an amazing sight!

chin_k,

What a great way to bring home a new Chinook! Beats my method of driving to Texas in January and getting stuck in an ice storm

Blue~Go wrote:chin_k,

What a great way to bring home a new Chinook! Beats my method of driving to Texas in January and getting stuck in an ice storm

Heheh. I've done that... got stuck on the wrong side of New Mexico one Christmas Eve.

For the eclipse, I made it to Alliance, NE, and it was absolutely awesome. The light got all creepy, and it was sunset everywhere, and then BOOM! The Magic! Cheers and applause.

The Chinook didn't get to come, though. We used my mother's camper as it's a bit more roomy and has a working refrigerator The next one will be much closer to home, and I'm hoping to catch it as part of a longer camping trip out in W. Texas.