Derek Davis
"I did quite a bit of trvael for the past two solar eclipses in the US, with mixed success. I remember the 2017 eclipse very well because it was right after the binary neutron star merger GW170817, and I was a young graduate student. I feel like if I had more responsibilities at the time, I would be less excited about going on holiday the weekend after this amazing gravitational wave event. Where I went in South Carolina it was a beautiful day until about 20 minutes before the eclipse, when a classic afternoon thunderstorm came in, which really messed with my plans. It was still really awesome because it was pitch black during totality. At the time I was a bit disappointed, but at the same time I was privy to this even cooler astronomical event happening 2 days before. I was very committed to this year's eclipse, and drove for 5 hours into Vermont, after flying to upstate New York from California, in order to escape the forecasted cloudy weather. It was a really magi
