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R William McAllister wrote:

"After driving 4 hours to the Middle of Nowhere Wyoming from our Denver hotel to view the 2017 Great American Eclipse.  Nearly immediately after that, my best half & I became a part of the equally historic. Great Wyoming 12 hour traffic jam back to Denver to catch our flight back to Houston, TX."

Haha, yes! My wife and I drove from Hampton Roads, Virginia down to Columbia, South Carolina (where I was born) to view the eclipse. We picked the Columbia State Fairgrounds as our viewing location ... as did about a thousand other people. It was sweltering hot that day. Luckily, a large on-site building was open with air-conditioning and restrooms. I brought one of my sextants with me and that attracted a fair bit of attention itself, with people walking up to me to ask what the heck I was looking through. I was eager to explain, of course. It was cloudy that day in Columbia, and we and many people around us feared we would not be able to see the eclipse at all.

But, as luck would have it, the clouds parted just as the eclipse began. It was spectacular, even though totality lasted only about two and a half minutes at that location. There was a lot of cheering, clapping and general ooh's and ahh's. Almost immediately after totality ended, people started packing up and leaving. The very friendly and kind people parked next to us offered a sip of champagne. We gratefully accepted. But even though we waited a bit to leave, the roads were basically a parking lot. It was one of the longest drives I've done. And I've driven to Florida and back ... and I was in a traffic jam in a suburb of D.C. that shut down the intersection of I95, I395 and I495 for hours in the summer heat with no A/C in my car. The drive out of Columbia ranked p there with those events.

All in all I'd say it was worth it, though.

Cheers!

Sean C.