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While
most people from Metro Atlanta headed for the northeast corner of the state to
be well-positioned for a total eclipse of the sun, we decided to avoid the
sure-to-be congested mountain roads by going East on Interstate 20, 170 miles,
onto to South Carolina.
After
spending the night in Augusta (platters of fresh oysters for dinner,
promenading along the River Walk) , we crossed the Savannah River the next
morning in search of an uncrowded viewing spot. Refueling at the first exit,
the gas station attendant informed us that we were just at the margin of what
would be the “totality”. Not good enough! So, we decided to go further on in
the direction of Columbia and at an exit that just ”felt right”, we got
off and headed up country on a road parallel to the path of the solar eclipse.
(No GPS, just an old-fashioned sense of geography).
We
eventually arrived at a small town that had seen far better days and wondered
if our search for perfect isolation and gone just a bit too far. Turn here,
turn there, and we landed on US 1… and everything changed. All the usual stores
and fast food restaurants lined the highway and then, just on the right, we noticed
some folks setting up chairs in front of a modest brick church which appeared
to be the preparation for an Eclipse BBQ.
We
turned in, parked the car and ambled over to the organizers of the event who
confirmed that, indeed, there would be a gathering of people for the viewing
….and we were welcomed to join. Cushioned seats, air-conditioned church to pop
in and out of in case it got too hot, and a complimentary BBQ . Was this a
“Godsend”?
Turned
out most of the people who eventually came were actually from Aiken, about 25
miles to the West, who had acquired the church recently and were using
the event to launch it as an extension of their own Presbyterian church back in
Aiken.
We
learned from talking with our newfound friends that the town of Aiken itself is
a little-known retirement community, mostly folks from all over the country who
wanted an alternative to the hustle and bustle of better-known retirement
options such as Ashville, North Carolina or Boulder, Colorado. Among the
attractions of their new-found paradise were well-developed horse riding
stables…supplying the horse power for steeplechase racing and polo matches,
sometimes with participants from Argentina! Among these folks, I met a fellow
history buff who shared with me her knowledge of the region beginning
with Oglethorpe’s founding of Augusta as a trading post , then spoke
about the plantation of Rhode Island-born Nathanael Greene
(Washington’s most trusted General…and whom Washington visited after the war)
who would die of heat stroke...dumb Yankee, then a quick note on Woodrow
Wilson being born in Augusta, and , finally and more contemporarily,
James Brown .
After
a couple hours of socializing, people actually tracking the eclipse minute by
minute gave us the 15 minute countdown. Truth is, if they had not, we might not
have been prepared for the total eclipse. The sunlight at ground level was
darkening so gradually that one’s eyes adjusted naturally such that the
approaching eclipse was almost imperceptible, like wearing UV sunglasses on a
bright day. Then, all of a sudden, it went dark, totally dark….so dark that the
opaque eclipse-viewing glasses completely blocked out the actual eclipse. So,
just like my Dear Leader, I chose to disregard those pointy-headed scientists
(who are always spoiling your fun!) who advised against looking directly into
the eclipse …. and did so anyway, for a split second . What a phenomenon! It
surely made a lasting impression, though I hope not so much on my retina.
Link
to Photo Album:
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