Total Eclipse!
August 21, 2017
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we are looking up at 3 guys standing on a glass platform about 4 feet below the ceiling and looking down at us and smiling. There is a opening in the ceiling (about 3-4 feet on each side) and they are standing with their heads through the opening and outside. We can see the sky above them

We see a close-up of the glass platform explained in the last picture. Fred and David are standing on the platform and bending forward to look down at us. Above them is a glass dome that David is lowering over the opening above them

picture shows a car with Pam in the back seat, grinning and holding a cup of coffee.

Picture shows David sitting to the right of a campstove with a large coffee pot on it. He is smiling and talking, and reaching his arm out to a tall box to the left of the coffee pot. A towel draped on his arm extends from his body to the box.

Picture shows a picnic table under a large tree, filled with boxes and bags, jugs of water, etc. Stephanie and Erick are on the right side and Dick is on the left side, Fred is standing near the tree, all are smiling at us. Behind them we see lots of lawnchairs and another picnic table, a canopy, a large telescope on a tripod, and people walking around.

Picture shows a group of about a dozen lawn chairs, facing to our left, most of them with someone sitting and leaning back, looking up in the sky. The sky is clear blue to our left, with the rest of the sky filled with thin white clouds.

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Two pictures show a man wearing a blue shirt and tan shorts, and Fred, each taking their turn to hold up a box about two feet deep and a foot wide, and a foot and a half high. The box is closed all around but has a hole about 6 inches across, and each man holds the long sides of the box with his forehead inside the hole. Behind them we can see a large canopy, a grill and a car, with a woman and two boys who look about 8 and 10 years old.

Picture shows Fred in front of a large telescope. He is holding a piece of white foamboard about 3 feet above another piece of whie foamboard on the ground. The foamboard he is holding is about 2 feet high and a foot and a half wide, with a 2-inch square cut out of the middle. He is looking down at the foamboard on the ground, about a foot square.

Picture shows a square hole cut out of the foamboard, covered with aluminum foil with a tiny pinhole in the middle.

The first picture below shows (l-r) me, Pam and Eric, and Stephanie looking at the sky.
The second picture shows Pam with her dog Tawny, who always keeps track of Pam and follows her everywhere! In the video you hear David saying "POTUS is on the move," meaning that Pam is on the move and Tawny steps into action as if he was assigned to be her security.
In the third picture, Stephanie and Erick take advantage of a large opening in the clouds.
The 4th and 5th pictures show almost everyone sitting in the lawnchairs to watch (the two people on the right joined us from the next campsite), with David at his telescope behind them.
In the last two pictures, folks have umbrellas because it was starting to rain, but fortunately it ended quickly.

Picture shows 4 people standing and either holding or wearing eclipse sun shields over their eyes.

Picture shows Pam sitting in a lawnchair and leaning back to look at the sky while holding her straw hat. A medium-sized brown dog sits behind her, looking off to the left. On the ground behind the dog is another straw hat, and behind them we see a tall tent and cars, and a picnic table under a large tree.

Picture shows Stephanie and Erick in lawnchairs and leaning back, holding cardboard glasses in front of their eyes while they look at the sun. The sky is mostly blue, with some puffy white clouds.

Picture shows 12 lawnchairs with 7 people, all but one leaning far back and looking up at the sky (Erick looks like his is taking a picture of us with his smartphone). David is standing behind them, looking into his telescope which is aimed at the sky.

Picture is a close-up of the last picture. We can see the colorful cardboard sun shields wrapped in front of their eyes, and see David looking into his telescope which is aimed at the sky. It has a filter over the lens. Behind him we can see the canopy where the man had a box on his head.

Two pictures show 8 people in lawnchairs, leaning back and looking up at the sun. They themselves have sun shining on them, but 4 of them are holding large umbrellas behind their heads.

To the right is a video that starts 10 minutes before and ends a few minutes after the total eclipse of the sun. While the rest of the family stayed on top of the hill, Fred and Paula came with me down to the edge of the woods to listen to the birds and crickets. The birds started to sing in earnest just a few minutes before the total eclipse and continued singing through the first few seconds of total eclipse (the last song was heard at 10:30 on the video). They didn't sing again even after the sun came back, although they flew out of the trees and circled around, seeming confused!

Picture shows a family sitting at a table in a food court. The mother is holding a baby, and there is a little boy with a T-shirt displaying robotics on his back. His father is getting some of the pizza that's on the table, and reaching out to the little boy.

Picture shows a family sitting at a table in a food court. The mother is holding a baby, and there is a little boy with a T-shirt displaying robotics on his back. His father is getting some of the pizza that's on the table, and reaching out to the little boy.

Picture was taken from behind a windshield, showing the street barely visible, with the painted lines disappearing about 40 feet ahead. Passing us on the left are some vehicles splashing up so much water that we can't see anything below their headlights.

Fred and I had a plane to catch and we were worried about getting stuck in traffic, so thankfully we left about 15 minutes after the total eclipse.

I say "thankfully" because we hadn't gotten very far when suddenly, the torrential rain that I told you about descended on us. There was indeed some traffic but we made it to the airport just an hour after the total eclipse, and had time to join other travelers who had also come for the eclipse, like the family in the picture to the far right who said they came from Baltimore to see the eclipse too. Some of them said they had managed to see the first few seconds of the total eclipse with the corona before the clouds obscured it.

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