I Drove over 1,000 miles to see the eclipse (picture of the eclipse at bottom of page)

It was touted as "The Great American Eclipse" and it was! It is an event that doesn't happen very often and I debated for a few weeks whether or not I would make the journey from Massachusetts to somewhere along the path in order to see it. I ended up deciding to go. And I am glad that I did. But it sure was an exhausting trip.

Some background on the trip.

The most important factor in the trip, and where I would go, was weather. It would have been a big disappointment for me to make the trip somewhere in the US and then be rained out -not getting to see the eclipse.

So I did some research and the national weather service compiled weather data over the past ten years to predict where along the path it might be clear. The highest probability was in Casper Wyoming. It was around 88% chance of a clear day.

Well, still a risk and I wasn't sure about it. Should I book a flight? And try to get a hotel? It was difficult to get a hotel anywhere along the totality path.

What did I end up doing? And where did I end up going?

(914 miles)

I have a relative in North Carolina. He lives about a three hour drive from the eclipse path in South Carolina.

So, what I did was I drove down to him. Stayed with him for the weekend before the eclipse and then drove to a hotel just outside the eclipse zone in South Carolina on the night before the eclipse (Sunday Night).

On the early morning of the eclipse (Monday) I kept a close eye on all the local radio and television stations watching for the weather that day. Charleston South Carolina was going to be rained out! Yikes, But further northwest in South Carolina it was going to be clear. So, I drove to a place called Greenville South Carolina.

And it all was a success. The weather was excellent with just a few clouds all day. And come eclipse time the sky was clear. I got a great look at it and I got a few pictures of it.

You can watch the whole video of my journey and the eclipse right here:

I didn't get any good pictures of the eclipse but I met someone there at the site that did! He sent me a couple of very nice pictures. My thanks go to him for sharing it with us all. ( Dr. Nguyen Nguyen)

"Total eclipse photo courtesy Dr. Nguyen Nguyen of How2Nguyen.”