We didn't have a specific destination we wanted to go to, we just wanted to be near the center of the zone of totality which would give a period of totality approaching three minutes. We kept driving and randomly decided to stop in a town called...Princeton! It was a quaint little town that had been planning on having visitors coming from far and wide for the event. Since there was no traffic, we ended up arriving about 3-4 hours before the eclipse. This allowed us to stake out a perfect spot in a nice little park near the center of town. The day ended up being extremely hot, but we were able to hang out in the shade most of the time. As the eclipse started, we would occasionally venture out into the hot sun to gaze at the progress through our sporty eclipse glasses (that Spencer managed to find last minute from a person on craigslist that also happened to work at Lilly). The eclipse happened quite slowly over the course of many hours. Spencer quite enjoyed the much reduced intensity of the sun near 95% eclipse.
As the long waited moment arrived, there was a sense of electricity in the air and among all the other park eclipse gazers (~200-300 people). The sky was perfectly clear. A nearby hippy gave an amazingly accurate countdown starting at 20 seconds. All the while, we were trying to decide if the long drive and wait in the hot sun was worth it to see this brief event. When the totality arrived, we were utterly speechless. It was the most beautiful, eerie, unreal thing we've ever experienced. The sky is 10,000 times darker during a totality compared to full sunlight. As a result, it near instantly appeared to look like late dusk-- in every direction. The white glow of the corona was amazing. It extended so far away from the blocked out sun--much further than pictures made it appear. It appeared to be in motion (though now I can't remember if it actually was in motion...) The temperature instantly fell 10-15 degrees where it went from brutally hot to quite pleasant. The kids had been complaining that all the playground equipment was too hot to play on since it was in the sun. Instinctively, during the totality, they assumed that since the air cooled, the playground equipment also must have cooled so they took off running to play on the equipment. Spencer had to shout to have them come back so we didn't lose them and also have them miss the moment. There were shouts and cheers from the whole crowd who had a great time with the eclipse. As the eclipse neared the end, we saw the beautiful pinprick of bright light (see photos) when the sun began to be uncovered. It was all worth it and will be something we'll look back on our whole lives and remember with fondness.
The drive back home turned out to be much more eventful with all the traffic leaving back north at once. In the end it took about 3 extra hours to get home (total of 7 hours), most of the time was spent about an hour from Princeton due to a massive traffic jam trying to head over the Ohio river bridge. We had planned on this so we had plenty of food and drinks in the car to help us manage the trip.
When Spencer went back to work the next day he was talking with some colleagues and found out that his friend Bryan Norman was actually in the same town in KY no more than 200 yards from where we camped out for the eclipse. Bryan is an excellent photographer and captured a number of amazing shots (below) from virtually the exact same spot we watched from. For that reason, we're passing these shots off as exactly what we saw from Princeton KY.
We're looking forward to the next total eclipse passing through Indianapolis in April 2024. Hopefully it won't be cloudy, like it usually is in April :(
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