We packed a tent and coolers and headed out Saturday morning with an idea but no plan. I had been watching the forecast and far western KY kept improving. Finally chose to go "somewhere" East of the Shawnee National Forest in IL across the river in KY for a few reasons. It was fairly close for us to drive, 300 or 400 miles. The forecast was giving us a better than 80% chance of no clouds. There's really nothing in that area but hills, farm land and little KY towns pretty spaced apart . There's only a couple of places to cross the Ohio to get into that area and they're about 50 miles apart. So I figured fairly remote, if the clouds role in to the NW in the center of the Carbondale madness, the 2 bridges are going to bottleneck the crazies trying to make a mad dash to find the sun, then that area would be a perfect place to enjoy it and not have the crowds or madness. Military strategy, we had a good defense in that area lol. Question was where to camp? Not knowing the area very well and unbeknownst to me, my girl got on FB and started searching for some folks in that area. Lo and behold she started up a conversation with a wonderful couple who had a big plot of wooded land right in the general area we were targeting.. After she spoke with them on the phone and turned on her charm they said we could camp there under the condition it was just us. They were really concerned about their property and the hype of the tons of people flowing into the Carbondale Hopkinsville corridor. We assured them it was just us and we would gladly pay and take care of their property like it was our own. Still hesitant they wouldn't tell us exactly where it was at, they just said call when we cross the Ohio. When my girl told me I said hey, we either got a place to camp or we're gonna be on one of those real life mystery crime documentary's! So we headed out and along the way we planned our escape for after the eclipse kind of making notes for escape routes if we got stuck in traffic.
Regardless it all worked out great when we got down there, the folks were awesomely gracious and we all hit it off and had a blast. Come to find out they wanted to experience it in a similar manner as we did. Alone and reflective with someone you care about. I had targeted the area south of Morganfield KY and thats where we ended up. about 5 miles from the center line. The trip back wasn't bad. It really paid off taking some time to plan escape routes. We didn't spend more than 10 miles on any road with an "I" in front on the way back. Hardest parts of the trip home were the Ohio and Wabash river crossings, definitely bottle necked at both. But as soon as we crossed we hit the secondary's and the thirdendary's and even fourthendaiy's lol. Think storm chasing experience helped, the escape plans, plus two of us sharing the navigating and driving was a plus.
It truly was an awe inspiring experience, well worth the minor headaches here and there on the road. I really can't add much more than what other's have already said about the actual event other than as awesome as it was, it was truly humbling at the same time. Really put's you in your place in this vast universe. Oh, and during totality , seeing it in person the pure 3 dimensional view really stood out. Pictures and video cannot reproduce that. Amazing!
Besides the Eclipse we really did meet some great new friends and hope to spend some time with them again soon and repay their hospitality. Truly wonderful and memorable all around.