Georgia, Summer 2017 part 1a

I spent August and most of September in Georgia, spending time at Fort Yargo State Park, Old Federal COE campground on Lake Lanier and Dillard, GA. 

While in Dillard I went with my mom to boat church.  During the summer her church has a service held on Lake Rabun.  It is for boaters and people like us who don’t have boats.  The boats come in from all over the lake, and the preacher and a small group of kids go out on a boat.  For us non-boaters, they have the top part of the boat house set up with pews and speakers.  The pictures below were taken during the last service, where they throw the preacher in the lake.  But actually he jumped. 

Unfortunately by the time I realized I was going to be spending the summer in Georgia, the campground I normally stay at in Dillard was full around August 21.  That was the total eclipse.  River Vista RV Park in Dillard was just feet from the center line of the the eclipse and filled up very early.  So I ended up staying at Fort Yargo State Park (which saw a partial eclipse), but I drove up to my mom’s in Clayton, GA so I could see the total eclipse.  My nephew and his family also drove up there.  My mom lives in a condo and they have a field on their property that was a great place to view the eclipse.

I was worried about traffic so I left for mom’s really early.  I did hit a little bit of traffic in the morning, but going home took me about 2 times as long as normal.

 

In driving up I decided to stop at the Walmart and Home Depot parking lot just to see what it was like.  I had read that many people would be viewing the eclipse from there.  I saw this sign just before the turn for the 2 stores.

The parking lots were just about full and it was very crowded with people “camping” out.  Some in RVs, others in cars with chairs, coolers and other stuff.  Some places were charging $20.00 just for a place to park.

 

Before the eclipse we sat outside and watched the hummingbirds. 

We also tested out Jackson’s eclipse glasses, with plate attached to further prevent any eye damage. 

 

We had our glasses, but I also bought the film and created eclipse filters for my 2 cameras that I used.

Below is one of the few photos  in my blog of me.

That green plastic thing is a colander on Jim’s head.  I brought the colander to the field so I could use it during the eclipse.  I didn’t get a good picture, but below is why I brought it. 

Once the eclipse started, you could hold up anything with holes and get pictures of multiple “eclipsed suns”.

Pictures of the eclipse are in Georgia, Summer 2017 part 2.