A ride to totality, anyone thinking about it?

[Mulley]

That was one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed in my life. I didn't expect it, but when the totality hit, I was overcome with emotion and I burst in to tears.

I hope everyone is home safely.

No ride report,  because out wasn't a ride.  I will say it was THE most amazing thing I have ever seen with my own eyes. 

I agree completely. I was already expecting to be moved but it still exceeded expectations. It was a truly magical experience. One of the best that nature has to offer. I compare it to my first time sitting on top of California Pass in Colorado with a 360 degree vista. I wish everyone could have experienced it. It makes me want to plan a trip to Chile or Argentina to watch the next one on July 2, 2019. That would be an awesome adventure ride.

[kylepeterson]

we waved by, and were passed, by a group of four riders (BMW, Vfr, klr, etc) on our way home from Sparta, tn, on tn-399. they rode well, like a group from br would. it was that "good riders, good roads" feeling you get on the way home from an epic trip.

(yes, Google tn399, it's an excellent road, but not long enough)

we had a terrific time. good company, our kids played and played.


what we saw:
lightning bugs on knee deep soybeans.
polite star gazing nerds (quiet, almost reverent)
multiple stages of moon blocking the sun
cooler temperatures brought on by the eclipse
almost full night time darkness, just past dusk
360 degrees of sunset, beautiful
the suns corona, with my naked eyes
the "diamond ring"
the "SHADOW BANDS!"
people gazing at the heavens like they were saw God
quiet amazement that led to cheers from the crowd blown away


so, ya, it's totally worth the drove/flight/float/ride, however you get there for the next one, do it. it's spiritual, emotional, amazement.

enough with the sappy stuff, here are some incredibly low quality videos of what it's like:

https://youtu.be/YUGpYVDaPm4

https://youtu.be/2yo-2pmhDKQ


you rally have to watch to see the shadow bands, they are like seeing a ghost, disbelieving what you've seen, then looking infinity harder to attempt to see that ghost again.

these will never do the real life thing any justice, it's not even close to 1% of the experience.

glad we went. if you do it at all, go 100% !!!

this picture was taken at 1:31pm , during the full eclipse, there is no light trickery or post processing here, yes it was that dark.

[Hammerdown77]

we waved by, and were passed, by a group of four riders (BMW, Vfr, klr, etc) on our way home from Sparta, tn, on tn-399. they rode well, like a group from br would. it was that "good riders, good roads" feeling you get on the way home from an epic trip.

(yes, Google tn399, it's an excellent road, but not long enough)

That was probably us. Two Beemer GS's, a blue Triumph Sprint, and a Gen 2 Suzuki DL1k V-Strom. Someone waved us past on 399 after we turned off of 111. Shortly after we passed, we turned on Fredonia Rd. to head towards Dunlap. It is a really sweet road right there at the end before it hits 127.

We had gone up to Spring City, right on the line of the middle of totality. Traffic on the way up was surprisingly light, only really getting into the slower stuff when we'd come into a small town or intersection with traffic lights. Pikeville was our backup plan if Spring City was too crazy, and it was not crowded at all. We continued to Spring City, and as we began to hit the outskirts of town, we saw traffic jam hell. We also saw that every parking lot, field, sidewalk, hell any place you could park a vehicle, had a sign up that said "$10 Parking".
Screw that.
We did a little shoulder surfing and took surface streets out of town, skirted alongside the lake, and ended up on Hwy 68 in the parking lot of Jerry's Service Center. It was about 100 yards from a nice little Sunoco gas station/market, with a bathroom, and good cheeseburgers, so we set up camp there under the metal awning. We would be the only ones in that lot the whole time, which was pretty amazing considering that the little gas station market just on the other side of us had about 4-5 carloads (and were charging $10 as well). Perhaps it was the big guinea wasp nest under the awning, but they left us alone so win for us!

On the ride back we hopped on 302 down to 30 and as we were coming into Dayton, we saw traffic jam apocalypse. It was like the scenes in the first season of "Walking Dead" where all the cars were sitting on the interstates going out of Atlanta, smoldering, bodies all around (not really). So we jumped off on side streets to get around, then hopped back on 30. We decided to just head towards Fall Creek Falls on 30, all the way to Spencer and then work our way back down toward Dunlap. It made for some awesome riding, and little to no traffic until we got on 111.

Awesome day.

[Mulley]

we waved by, and were passed, by a group of four riders (BMW, Vfr, klr, etc) on our way home from Sparta, tn, on tn-399. they rode well, like a group from br would. it was that "good riders, good roads" feeling you get on the way home from an epic trip.

(yes, Google tn399, it's an excellent road, but not long enough)

That was probably us. Two Beemer GS's, a blue Triumph Sprint, and a Gen 2 Suzuki DL1k V-Strom. Someone waved us past on 399 after we turned off of 111. Shortly after we passed, we turned on Fredonia Rd. to head towards Dunlap. It is a really sweet road right there at the end before it hits 127.

We had gone up to Spring City, right on the line of the middle of totality. Traffic on the way up was surprisingly light, only really getting into the slower stuff when we'd come into a small town or intersection with traffic lights. Pikeville was our backup plan if Spring City was too crazy, and it was not crowded at all. We continued to Spring City, and as we began to hit the outskirts of town, we saw traffic jam hell. We also saw that every parking lot, field, sidewalk, hell any place you could park a vehicle, had a sign up that said "$10 Parking".
Screw that.
We did a little shoulder surfing and took surface streets out of town, skirted alongside the lake, and ended up on Hwy 68 in the parking lot of Jerry's Service Center. It was about 100 yards from a nice little Sunoco gas station/market, with a bathroom, and good cheeseburgers, so we set up camp there under the metal awning. We would be the only ones in that lot the whole time, which was pretty amazing considering that the little gas station market just on the other side of us had about 4-5 carloads (and were charging $10 as well). Perhaps it was the big guinea wasp nest under the awning, but they left us alone so win for us!

On the ride back we hopped on 302 down to 30 and as we were coming into Dayton, we saw traffic jam apocalypse. It was like the scenes in the first season of "Walking Dead" where all the cars were sitting on the interstates going out of Atlanta, smoldering, bodies all around (not really). So we jumped off on side streets to get around, then hopped back on 30. We decided to just head towards Fall Creek Falls on 30, all the way to Spencer and then work our way back down toward Dunlap. It made for some awesome riding, and little to no traffic until we got on 111.

Awesome day.

That's was us. Crazy coincidence. I was in a gray Ram 1500 and Kyle in a Hyundai SUV. I followed you until traffic cleared and got left behind going down the mountain into Whitwell. My daughter kept her eye on you the whole time. She didn't like it when we couldn't see you anymore. I love it when she notices bikes.