Yes,
we saw it! We waited a bit long to
decide to see the eclipse. By then, the nearest campground we found was two
hours away from the path. After hearing (every day for weeks!) the TV news reporters
talk about the crowds and heavy traffic, I made John get up fairly early and
leave by 9:30 am to get there in time.
Turns out there was little traffic until we reached the town we had
selected (Orangeburg, SC). Orangeburg is pretty small, between the larger towns of Charleston, Columbia, and August, and had several city parks for
parking and viewing. Plus the park had a bathroom which can be important as you
wait. We spent time talking to people from Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and
Virginia. Nobody local went to this park. Parking was haphazard as people just parked
wherever. There were no vendors selling anything except one lady sold eclipse
glasses and that was a very reasonable $2 a pair. It was nice!
Up
to the last minute we were worried about the weather. In general South Carolina
had lots of clouds and some rain. We were VERY lucky in having only a bit of
clouds during the early part of the partial and everything was clear for the
full eclipse. As we drove back to the campground, we hit heavy rain. So, as I
said, LUCKY!
We
had eclipse glasses and I made a pinhole projector. Hey, kids can’t have all
the fun!
They
say a full eclipse is much more exciting than a partial eclipse, and they are
right. It was also nice to have some people around but not crowds. Someone
noticed that crickets started chirping as it got darker which I might not have
noticed. Plus the cheering, gasps, and comments added to the excitement.
One
of the pictures came out with both the sun being too bright and some reflection
that showed the crescent below it.
None
of our pictures really show how dark it was or how fantastic the view was. We
don’t have great pictures, but we have great memories!
No comments:
Post a Comment