We left the riverside after totality but just had to stop in Highlands for coffee and ice cream and to catch the last glimpses. The mountains is where we wanted to be for totality, not the end of partiality. Oh well, you lives and you learns.

As our group decided to move, we knew we wanted to get on the roads early to have time to set up. In the morning, we just wanted to get moving. All of us got to decent spots. Although we were not together.

We left shortly after totality because we had a 90 min drive or so to return to our base. While there was traffic, it was almost all on the interstate so not too bad, until we were less than 10 miles from our base. Traffic came to a stand still. We could not exit at our base as it had become blocked by police. We had to go 20 miles out of our way. What should have been less that 5 niutes of driving took at least an hour. I made phone calls to others in our group. Most of them were able to avoid the chaos.

We choose our base because it was close to the intersate, and we did not want to be trapped by twisty, narrow roads. Several of us had been involved with such chases in the past, and know that good roads make a difference.

My friend in the area (NC) said elevation was the key. We drove through Highlands where there were tens of thousands of people mobbing a small hipster/nouveau-riche town, and went on to a lovely stream at the NC/SC/GA triple point (I had noted on my map that the center-path of totality went right through). Afterwards we ruefully agreed that we should have believed the crowds and stayed in Highlands. We stopped there for coffee and ice cream and watched the last bit of partiality as the moon slipped off the disk: second mistake! This time we should not have stayed. It wasn’t so bad driving into the zone of totality because people were drifting in at their own pace, but at 4PM as partiality ended, every one of those tens of thousands of people got into their cars at the same time and clogged those twisty little mountain roads for hours.

OMG! What a picture!

So sorry about the cloud. I am glad you got the eerie darkness.

Being slightly manicial, I know that a short distance (1 mile) can make a difference. The possibility of clouds was why we had an unscheduled road trip. We wanted to guarantee success.

Dont feel old, but E – child is an adult and living on their own. If something happened to E child, then it would be proper to use the term young.

Maybe we should attempt to define young with more precision, say 30 years old or younger.

Sonny was 62 when he died.

Thanks for the research. Which countries have done the best job of recognizing and controlling the threat of the COS? Good question, and I don’t know the answer. Off the top of my head I would think Canada, France, and Germany come to mind. On the other hand, I wonder if any of the States of the Union would qualify. Maybe we could use the US Constitution to serve our purposes with its dual sovereignty clauses. It is too early for me to have my attorney hat on.

We got to watch the sun get eaten away down to the tiniest sliver, and saw the flashing beads effect, which was neat, and then right at the moment of totality a dark cloud obstructed. We were dead center in the path though, and got the full two and a half minutes of eerie semi-darkness.

It appears,after a bit of googling,that “we” have to be a sovereign State in order to petition the World Court..Has Tony applied for Sovereignty for the Bunker? No,seriously, why WOULDN’T charges of Child Slavery,Human Trafficing,Kidnapping,Forced Abortions etc. get Their attention? The question is;which sovereign State will go to Bat for us?

😎..see what an asshole I can be? …to scientoology!