Aug 21, 2017

Vacation Day #9

Today was the day of the Great American Eclipse. If you don't know you have to have special glasses that look a lot like the 3D glasses you get at movies. They were sold out everywhere. That's all we kept hearing. When we were going to the Dixie Stampede the other night the lady at the gift shop just happened to open a new box to sell. I figured I would buy a pair if not to use just to say we found one haha. They were going for $5. This morning I heard there was one place in town you could still get them and they were $20!!

The map above is kind of hard to tell but Tennessee was one of the places to be for the eclipse. We heard a lot of people talking about how many thousands and thousands of people had come into town just for the eclipse. Here is a more close shot of just where we are and surrounding areas...
We are in Gatlinburg right above the shaded part in the middle. So we officially got to 99.9% coverage of the sun. I have to admit. I'm impressed with how neat it was to watch. It was one of those things that I thought Oh really who cares? But...I was surprised and intrigued. It really was a neat experience and as everyone kept saying "a chance of a lifetime". Jeremiah even looked and enjoyed it more than he thought he would. He was so nervous because of all the warnings that he didn't think he wanted to look. But now he's glad he did...
Guess it ended up being a good thing our vacation just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was eerie how dark and weird it felt which is really hard to explain how weird feels. The air felt heavy. It was a very warm day that even got a weather warning for how bad you needed sunscreen to be outside. There wasn't really any wind. And as busy as it was no one was really moving or making noise. It was like the whole world stopped for a moment. Very eerie and weird. See what I mean? As quick as it started it was over and the sun was back out. Everyone was talking about how we experienced something so amazing and we all went our own ways. Back to scheduled vacation after we finish the rest of our lazy hanging at the hotel day.

6 comments:

The Knitting Cross Stitcher said...

Have just read all your vacation posts at once..you are certainly packing in the experiences,glad you are relaxing too.The eclipse was shown on our tv in the uk..oh to be there.

Maggee said...

Glad that you experienced the eclipse, and that it was 99.9% viewing! My daughter/family went out to Nashville, and it was about 96% there. I watched on tv...:) I was interested in what the birds did during the darkness... will have to research that! Enjoy!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

We had one a little while back in the UK but there wasn't so much fuss about it! We were allowed out of the office to watch but I was a bit underwhelmed by it. Glad that you had a good experience, apparently there's another one in 2024?

Brigitte said...

So you were definitely at the right place to experience the total eclipse. I had the chance to experience a total eclipse here in Europe back in 1999. Standing on our terrace I felt about the same way as you did when it became dark and all the noises in nature came to a halt.

Julie said...

We experienced the eclipse here some years ago, a very strange experience, good you were able to see yours, serendipity our Jo would say!

Astrids dragon said...

We were supposed to be at 80%, but I didn't think it got very dark. Still a neat thing to experience, you were certainly in a great spot for it!