Ever the astronomy nerd, I was looking forward to the total solar eclipse for months but wasn't sure how or where I'd watch it. Thankfully, my travel friends were also committed to totality, and had a gracious friend in Nashville willing to host all of us. It was a long drive for a short tip, but we spent more time there than in the car and the eclipse alone was totally was
worth it.
We made the most of our Saturday with a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, complete with line dancing lessons in its Taylor Swift Educational Center.
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| Outside the museum |
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| Shakin' it off with line dance lessons |
Edley's BBQ was a fantastic meal before the Saturday night show at the Grand Ole Opry. Our time at the museum was great preparation for their performance of "Rocky Top" (to be fair, I'd learned that song from the Country Bear Jamboree attraction at Disneyland), but my personal highlight was seeing Crystal Gayle, one of the only country music singers I knew as a kid, perform "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue"--and her hair still hangs to her knees. Afterward we strolled down lower Broadway people watching and listening to music pouring out of all the honky-tonks. We'd heard that this was a popular spot for bachelorette parties, but it was still a surprise to see that many--either some were faking it or every wedding in the tri-state area was out there.
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| Dinner at Edley's |
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| Grand Ole Opry |
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| Honky tonks on lower Broadway |
Our friend's ward was right next to the Nashville temple, and it was a pleasant surprise to run into DC friends who were also there for the eclipse. After church our group split up so I could connect with family while my friends continued sightseeing. I'd been to Nashville several years ago to visit my cousin Brad, but when I was planning this trip it was unclear whether they'd still be there as their house had sold and they were moving to Florida. As it turned out, they spent the weekend preparing their house and dropped off the keys with the realtor before we met up for dinner. It was great that the solar alignment allowed for a family alignment since I don't know when I'll see them next.
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| Nashville temple |
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| With cousin Brad and family |
The day of the eclipse, we started our drive back to Virginia to still be within totality but a few hours closer to home. Jay manged to find a small park in a small town in Cookeville, TN--and even that had other people like us from out of state there to watch the eclipse. But it had plenty of space to spread out, and we opted to be near a reservoir for a greater view of the horizon. I came as prepared as possible--glasses from my friend at the Air & Space museum, and the plain white back of folded maps to see the shadow bands right before and after totality.
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| Testing our eclipse glasses |
As the eclipse got closer to totality, the shadows started changing shape. Everything--leaves, our hands, etc. all had crescent-shaped shadows.
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| Crescent-shaped shadows from the tree overhead. |
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| Our view right before totality |
I'd read up on totality, but still wasn't prepared for it. There was a significant difference between 95% and 100%, and even knowing it was coming I still gasped when the moment of totality began. The sky was instantly significantly darker, the air cooled, I could see stars, and it was the twilight of dawn/dusk but all along the horizon. Hard to describe how powerful it felt.
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| Totality! |
And just like that, it was all over. It had felt so significant in the moment that I almost felt disrespectful not sticking around and observing it at least going back to 50%, but there was traffic to beat...or get caught in. These 2-lane interstates were clearly not designed to have the entire eastern US descend upon it, so I checked out all the state license plates while we were stuck in gridlock most of the way home. Despite that, I'm already looking forward to April 2024 when the next total solar eclipse crosses North America. Looks like the beaches of Mexico will be an option for that one..
