@jim I cut it down because I've planted it in the wrong spot and it's been taking over my patio. It used to climb up the pillar but those canes seemed spent...so I'm trying to give it another shot. Hopefully I can train it back up the support for the patio and it will be glorious! It has a "mate" on the opposite side of the patio with a similar pillar, but it gets a little less sun. (And doesn't do as well) I've debated pulling the pair of them and giving them somewhere else to thrive...Hence the massive cut back! @straw Thank you so much for the compliments! I've really enjoyed your show-and-tells on fertilizer options!

100% in little Sparta, TN, a pretty two hour drive from Huntsville, AL. We kept to the back roads the whole time, saw very little eclipse traffic. We enjoyed a spectacular experience with a small contingent of like-minded stranger/friends on a private little knoll; I'll never forget it. It was my second total eclipse and I felt so rewarded to know that my 47 year old memory was vividly accurate! It was a fabulous, memorable experience.

I rarely get up at 4:30, and it was kind of fun walking around while the city was mostly asleep. We live near the East River and went there to watch. There were about a dozen other people. It was friendly and kind of like an impromptu party. One guy had a huge telescope that he hauled on a wheeled cart over a mile to get there. He let us all look through it, an we could see a little bit, but the clouds blocked most of it. Another woman drew little chalk pictures of it and gave one to us. So not much eclipse to see, but it was beautiful watching the sun rise and reflect off the glass buildings across the river, and seeing all of the colors in the clouds.

I don't remember the year, but the only eclipse I ever saw was in the spring, more than 25 years ago. Neither DH nor I were thinking about it, but an eclipse was already underway when we walked out of the shop in a garden center. It wasn't only dark, it got quite chilly, too. There was a hush -- birds and insects reacting, I suppose. It took my breath away, something I only realized when I began to breathe again as the sun was revealed. I was truly awed -- the more so for not having expected it.