People came from all over. I had two friends from Iowa who came; one was from Ames and brought his two kids. Cars were lined up on the roads outside of town. Motels were charging too much and were full anyway.
It was a big deal for Carbondale, but to me this was an even bigger deal: it was not only on the line of totality for this eclipe, but also on the line of totality for the one in 2017, which followed a different line but also came right through Carbondale. Someone tracked the spot that was on both lines as somewhere over Cedar Lake.
It's an interesting phenomenon when people come from all over the countryside to be on a single line, whether that line passes through Carbondale, Dallas, or wherever. You have a convergence of people who have all come for a spectacle and presumably all have an opinion on whether it was worth it to do all that traveling. In a sense, all traveling is worth it, and Carbondale is a really special place, eclipse or not, but I think the convergence of the two lines is worth pointing out and I think Carbondale should present itself as eclipse capital of North America, at least for the moment.
But, it's over now, and basically that ship has sailed. People came; it got dark; it made the press; everyone saw the darkness; and then, they all went home. It was, after all, a Monday.
