We got up early and drove to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and viewed the eclipse. Because it was a last minute change due to weather, we wound up paying $30 to park at the local high school and watch it from their football field. On the plus side, they had relatively clean bathrooms (the portopotties at the park had gotten so bad that it was literally more hygienic to just go in the woods), and they had decent concession stand food and prices. I would like to imagine that they used the eclipse money to buy more science books for their school library, so that I don't feel gouged. Everyone we met there was super friendly, though.
The eclipse took a while to get to totality and a while for it to get back to regular, with about two and a half minutes of actual full eclipse, which went by in a flash. The glasses and binoculars were awesome for watching it approach the total eclipse, and then you could watch it for that very short time without protection. During leadup and exit, the light gradually changed and got darker, but once it hit totality, it was very suddenly dark twilight, with sunset on the whole 360-degree horizon, and we could even see planets in the sky. Bobby got some good pictures on the real camera, but even with the lenses, phones didn't pick much up. Poor Akasho was very nervous during totality, and he tried to run and hide, so Bobby and I held him between us until the sun came back, and then he was fine.
The whole experience was really amazing and awe-inspiring, and it was everything we hoped it would be and more. Totally worth driving all the way out here. And now the long and grueling drive home...the traffic is the worst I have ever been in, because you have thousands of people trying to leave on roads that haven't seen this much traffic in the last decade put together.
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