I saw my first solar eclipse in 2017. I drove about 3 hours with 2 of my friends to Sparta, Tennessee, and watched it while sitting on a golf course. A few years later, in 2024, I went with the same friends to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for a long weekend and watched it from the outdoor seating area of a local brewery.

Both times, it was amazing and hard to describe. The sky starts to darken a few minutes before the actual eclipse, and small shadows take on the shape of a crescent moon. It looks like dusk, but in every direction. Seconds before totality arrives, you will hear screaming in the distance. The screams get closer and louder, then in the opposite of a flash, you and everyone around you are screaming as you can see the eclipse with your naked eyes. The duration of the eclipse depends on where you are, but regardless of how long it lasts, it feels short.

I don't have any surviving photos from the one in Tennessee, but I do have a few from the one I saw in Arkansas.