Home»All Photographs»17.08.26.Solar Eclipse & Smoky Mountains

On the way to Georgia to meet Pam's newly born grandchild, Jason, we drove through Columbia, SC to find ourselves in the 100% area of the Total Solar Eclipse. Unfortunately, at the very moment of totality, a cloud obscured the main event,but not for long. Our pictures caught the beginning and the end of the eclipse. What impressed me the most is how at 2:41PM, in the middle of day, the sky became completely dark -- enough to see stars -- the temperature dropped 10 degrees F in less than a minute and a wind of approximately 20 MPH rushed through. Very exciting (note: the video at the end of the gallery captures some of the excitement, but failed to capture the darkness as the camera overexposed the video).

After visiting our new grandchild and family in Georgia, we chose to avoid Rt. #95N and drove north through the Smokey mountains taking Rt. #81N on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Smokey mountains are beautiful and it's tallest mountain is higher than NH's Mount Washington. We hiked up the Clingman's Dome Trail to the highest point in the Smokey's at 6643 ft. (Note: Lest we give the impression that we are great mountaineers, let it be known that the Clingman's Dome trail is only 1/2 mile and starts near the top of the mountain.

Along the trail we met some great people, many of whom are pictured in the gallery. Two of the most memorable were a couple from Brighton, MA (Pam & Tony) who had just become engaged. Tony got on one knee right in the middle of the total eclipse. What a great story they will have to tell their children (Tony is the man wearing the Red Sox shirt).

At a museum we had a long conversation with Jesse Running Bear who had some great Biblical insights to share based on his studies of an English translation of the Aramaic New Testament. We must have spoken for close to an hour while Beauregard his 1/2 Wolf, 1/2 Akita stood patiently waiting for us to finish.

Speaking of Bears, not only did we meet Running Bear, we also encountered four climbing bears -- momma and 3 cubs (couldn't help myself, Jesse).

We spent that night in Gatlinsburg, TN and drove through Pigeon Forge, TN during sunrise the next morning. This is Dolly Parton country and the locals all seem to love her. Last year when a fire destroyed hundreds of homes, she gave each family $10,000. Just one of her many charitable acts.

We drove approximately 1,000 miles that day and arrived home at midnight -- just in time to find Pam's newly hatched Monarch Butterfly sitting on our deck slider.