We stayed in North Myrtle Beach right on the water, which is a very clean and uncrowded area.  The day of the eclipse, my buddy had a great idea to drive an hour more south to Georgetown.  That area was supposed to be in the path of totality.  Totality was what he was looking for, where you are able to see the entire sun covered by the moon, and there may be a ring of fire for a few seconds.  This is a completely different experience than just seeing some of it outside of the path.

We were on the highway when we hit traffic.  Apparently, anyone in South Carolina that day who was interested in seeing the same thing was on the road at the same time.  As we inched along, the eclipse started.  I looked out of the window and saw a gander of Canadian geese walking in a single file along the side of the road, headed in the direction of Georgetown.  We noticed cars pulling off and setting up beach chairs and coolers, and we followed suit.

Only when we got out of the car and put our special eclipse-viewing glasses on did we notice that there was no wind, no breeze, and the crickets and bugs in the brush were quiet.  It got noticeably cooler in temperature as well. This eerie feeling came over us; and before we knew it, the light started to dim.  We stared up in silence, and I attempted to take a few amateur photos with my phone through the viewing glasses.  I’ve seen partial lunar eclipses and thought I knew what to expect, but this was special.  After a few minutes of silence and twilight-like brightness, the moon started to pass the sun on the other side.  We got back in the car and headed back to the beach, but we all kept commenting what a cool experience we just had.