My friends own property in the eclipse path, and I hope to have my kick-ass solar scope by then. We are going to camp out overnight, smoke an insane amount of beef and pork, drink crazy amounts of home-brewed beer, and watch our first total solar eclipse. This is going to be an amazing event. If you miss it, you have to wait 7 years and go to Illinois/Indiana, then nothing for 30+ years. So, get in while you can.
That sounds like a pretty great experience. Perhaps with enough beer you will get to see two eclipses at once. It appears to me that the lines of totality for the two events cross near Cedar Lake in Illinois. I wonder how many people have seen two total solar eclipses from the same place. I still haven't seen one, and this event will be the third one that I intended to see. I wish you clear skies!
I saw one in I believe 1994, but it could have been 93. It was in the middle of the day, and I stayed home from school to watch it by myself. I built a rudimentary sun watching box from cardboard and white paper and sat out on the deck with no else one around. I was a pretty young kid (11), but it was obviously an awesome thing, because I remember it pretty vividly still. Looks like I get about 80% of an eclipse this time. Good enough for me! Looks like August 21, 2017 is a Monday, so I guess I'll be playing hooky once again. Edit: yes, it was May 10, 1994, and Detroit was the eclipse max. Guess I lucked out.