Haley, Sandy, and I decided to get the full eclipse experience and see totality for ourselves. After far too many hours researching, we decided to drive up early Monday morning, take some meetings in parking lots in St. Johnsbury, VT, then spend the day relaxing at the Dirt Church Brewing Company in East Haven, VT. There were probably 100 people who joined us from all over the country. The vibe was awesome, drinking hazy IPAs while playing cards and slowly watching the moon traverse across the sun. Eventually the 2.5 minutes of totality came and it was truly amazing. It seriously got 10 degrees colder and the 360 sunset was legit.

Since we made the decision so last minute, all the fancy $100 solar eclipse filters for my camera were sold out. Not to worry, I found the right shade of welding glass and after 3D printing a filter adaptor, made my own over the weekend.

The only downside to the whole thing was the traffic coming home. Haley was right and we were crawling through Franconia Notch. We left around 5:30 pm and didn’t make it home until 1 am. Half way through the ride I lost my voice (no, I was not screaming at the top of my lungs during totality), but thankfully we had some good audio books to get us through the drive.

Overall 10 out of 10, would do it again. Not sure if I would plan a huge vacation around it or fly for it, but if I’m ever within driving distance and the weather is forecasted to be favorable, I’ll be there.

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