CHEROKEE COUNTY, N.C.- Monday August 21, 2017, is a day I will not soon forget, and I am not alone in this feeling. Our local government, fellow citizens, and the potential thousands of visitors all have been looking forward to this day for months, some even longer.

Floridians enjoying the mountain views

My wife and I had visitors stay with us from Durham, N.C., Central Florida, and even a friend from Sweden traveled all the way to our small town for this epic, once in a lifetime event.

The experience really started for us around 1:00 p.m. when we set off on our adventure to the top of Hibbert Mountain, on the outskirts of Murphy.

A place I have been going for almost 20 years. I have never seen so many people atop Hibbert Mountain. Let me clarify, I’ve never really seen anyone atop of Hibbert Mountain!

Trying to capture the Eclipse

Armed with multiple eclipse glasses, I tried to maneuver myself into the best possible place to record the total eclipse with my camera mounted on my tripod. I found it pretty frustrating, and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. The eclipse glasses worked great for staring directly at the sun, but that’s all you could see out of them. So here I am with eclipse glasses on, blind basically, trying to find the Sun through my camera, that also had an eclipse lense protector on it.

The total eclipse was everything I thought it was going to be, and more incredible than I could have ever imagined. You just can’t prepare yourself for that magical moment when the temperature drops, the light fades away, and you are left with “the eye of God” looking down at you, as you are looking up at it in absolute disbelief and awe.

Overall I think it was a great success for the people of Cherokee County, N.C. We were blessed with amazing clear skies, and somehow avoided all thunderstorms that were predicted to obstruct our eclipse viewing desires.

The not so great part was at the end of it all, when all of our biggest fears came true. Gridlock traffic revealed itself to us all shortly after the eclipse was over. Our friends from Central Florida left our house around 3:30 p.m. I messaged them around 7:30 p.m., to see how their drive was going, only to find out that they had only made it as far as Blue Ridge, GA. It took them nearly 4 hours to travel what normally should have taken them 45 minutes. That’s bad, and that’s also why so many were warning about staying hydrated, and carrying along plenty of water with you on your travels. [cincopa AUJAHDeaqHwz]

FetchYourNews.com, FYNTV.com, &  LIVE Broadcasting on FYNTV.com Mon.- Fri. 8-10 a.m. If you see news call 706-889-9700, To watch all of our videos, subscribe to our YouTube Channel – Fetch Your News.

Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that covers Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. If you would like to follow up-to-date local events in any of those counties, please visit us at FetchYourNews.com