The South caught eclipse fever. My nephew’s wedding drew my family into Tennessee’s path of totality Monday. Sunday, wedding day, I counted car plates from 15 states in the hotel parking lot. There were buses full of seniors, there were families with matching eclipse T-shirts, there were motorcycle entourages. It was a festival.
The wedding at a chapel in the woods was short and sweet. And hot! The couple went off and the rest of the family enjoyed a miniature golf game in Gatlinburg. Then the newlyweds joined everyone for a Japanese hibachi meal in Pigeon Forge.
The youngest of us went to an escape room. That’s a game scenario where you have an hour to figure out how to get out of a particular situation, in this case an art theft scheme. I asked if anyone in the group had become more aggressive to solve the problem. The bride said that in the interest of marital bliss she would refrain from comment.
This area is famous for pancakes. We noticed so many pancake places and my sister said that her hotel, Wild Bear Inn, gave them coupons for what was billed as the largest pancakes on the Smokies.
They delivered. They were huge as promised. Some had bacon cooked right into them. It actually took a while to get syrup to the table. Ahhh, that’s how they get you I thought. Free pancakes, but the syrup is $25 bucks. No worries, plenty of syrup came and we emptied a couple of pitchers. Then we sat on big rockers on the porch and looked at the mountains then hugged each other multiple times before leaving.
The area love of pancakes is legendary. My daughter stopped at the Pigeon Forge Hard Rock Cafe for a collectible pin and found one fashioned like a guitar featuring a tall stack with butter and syrup.
She planned this trip down to a playlist featuring music of the states we passed through as well as sun references. We especially thank her husband for driving the rest of the way after she realized she forgot her contact lenses and had to borrow my glasses.
She changed the viewing destination several times based on what we would hear people say about areas that would be crowded or what place that would be difficult to reach. We finally settled on Townsend, Tennessee, from a parking lot at Cades Cove Cellars Winery. Folks were stretched out on towels with their special glasses in the field and we waited as the temperature slowly dropped and it gradually got darker.
It was very dramatic as the total eclipse came. There were cheers in the darkness and we could hear the cicadas grow very loud and birds began to fly overhead. Then it was over, and people packed up and got in their cars and jammed the highway, having been forever changed to be a part of this whole, big thing.

Questions? Comments? Write to darraghcastillo@icloud.com