We had a wonderful trip to Kentucky to see the eclipse. It was clear and very hot (heat index of 100F) at Lake Malone State Park and about 1000 other folks shared the small park with us on eclipse day. There were only 25 campsites in the campground but close to 100 additional overflow sites were occupied the night before the eclipse. Then on eclipse day the traffic into the park was steady all morning, swelling the crowd to what I'm sure was a lifetime record for visitors, both in numbers and in geographic variety. We were lucky to have made a reservation last January for one of the electric sites so we could use air conditioning and not melt.
We avoided the awful traffic jams by staying put on eclipse day. A friend of ours who traveled that day reported at one point going 11 miles in 3 hours in western Kentucky! Our total trip was 5 days, with 2 days there and 2 days back and an overnight with my sister in Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan.
The eclipse was special. The darkening of the afternoon and then the magic of totality were all wonderfully dramatic and huge cheer went up from the crowd at the sight of the corona around the dark sun. Then relative silence as folks just gazed at the spectacle, then another huge cheer 2 minutes later with the appearance of the diamond ring as the moon started to give the sun back. Truly unforgettable.
Very cool. Something you'll never forget! Glad that you were able to get down there for that. We're going to try to catch the next one (2024) somewhere around the U.S.
Hi Merlin I added your pictures to your post