The morning of the eclipse, we downloaded an app which would alert you when to look for certain things during the eclipse. Myles and Terry scouted out a location to watch the eclipse. They set up the canopy and chairs, and everyone chilled until the eclipse began. The event was very surreal and unlike anything else you will ever experience. The air became cool and animals started acting differently. As the sky got darker, there was what looked like a sunset in all directions around you. Planets and stars also became visible. You could tell the exact moment the moon completely covered the sun as it became suddenly dark as night. We were able to look directly at the moon-covered sun for 2 minutes and 31 seconds during totality.

Needless to say, the images below (and even any that you’d find online) don’t do it justice compared to the experience of seeing it with your own eyes. Note that the below images are not very accurate to what was visible as we did not use a protective lens over the camera. Because of that, there appeared to be a flare of light in the image off to the side of where the actual moon/sun were. We recommend looking online for images to see a more accurate representation of what it looked like.

Directly after totality ended, we packed everything up and headed to Cracker Barrel for lunch. We all hoped to get on the road before traffic got too bad. That didn’t happen. After eating, Terry and Tacy headed back to Indiana, and Myles and Lauren headed to Pigeon Forge. Immediately, Terry and Tacy got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic which they texted us a picture of. We quickly texted back a picture of open roads for us. The roads didn’t stay open for long, though. What should’ve taken us 4 hours to get there ended up taking close to 6. And the 4.5 hours it should’ve taken Terry and Tacy ended up taking them 9 hours (they didn’t get home till 1 a.m.).

End Day 7.