This was my second total eclipse (also 2017), and more impressive this time for me.  Much brighter corona, and the extra minute (almost 3) helped for more relaxed viewing.  And last time, I didn't get my glasses off in time to see the "diamond ring" effect.  This time perfect, and that was, in my opinion, more impressive than any photos or videos let on.

I drove over to the Yellville City Park.  Nice,  spread-out crowd, public rest rooms, and enough good parking still available.  Out in the open so the nice 10-15 mph breeze made the wait enjoyable.  Nice lawn chair, small cooler with water and snacks, and some nice people in immediate area to chat with leading up to the totality.  

When it was over, everyone headed out immediately.  I took a few minutes and let traffic clear.  A bottleneck or two around Harrison, as expected, but fine.  I choose Yellville because I just figured heading down US-65 out of Harrison would be in the "thick of it" with close-in Arkansas and Missouri folks.  Heading home, and merging off US-62 back onto US-65 east of Harrison, I found I was right.  Lots of cars.

Enjoyable day, beautiful weather ... doubt it could have been much better short of being in my own backyard like ALL YOU GUYS DOWN THAT WAY, hihi!!!!

This was my first and only total eclipse, and it was impressive.  The 4 minute totality seemed to go quickly.  

I don’t think the Russellville area had nearly as many visitors as expected.  There were a lot, but I think most of them came this morning and brought their lunch.  It seemed that many here had unreal expectations of how much people would pay for a parking space and there seemed to be more than plenty of free spots.  They heard about crowds, raised prices, and food shortages in restaurants, so they brought their own peanut butter sandwich.  I still think the big winners were the porta-pottie rental people.  They didn’t even have to clean a lot of them afterwards.  

However, after totality, thousands (or maybe hundreds) streamed out of here and 90% of them headed West on I-40.  The traffic ran between 10 and 40 MPH all the way to Fort Smith at one time.  Going east, traffic was light and the normal 70+ MPH.  I guess everyone east of here went somewhere else, and everyone in Oklahoma came here this morning.  I don’t think it was nearly the economic boon that many expected, but hopefully the visitors left a little of their money behind.

It was an interesting day, for sure.

73,

Dennis/RZ