Diane,
This is a nice panoramic. The Milkyway brightness is not as bright as most Milkyway panoramics, my included from last year, Here. I used a 14-24mm f/2.8 Sigma lens at 14 mm, but I took all 7 photos at TIFFS since I could not read the D850 raw files at that time.
The closest dark sky location I go to is in Big Sur just north of Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. It is Bortle 2 Sky. I have to contend with fog, sometimes it’s clear as a bell, and other times it starts off clear only to fog up, as it did two nights ago and snubbed my latest attempt to capture the Milkyway on 4x5. I have a few more days around the new moon to try again this month. Are you interested in meeting up there?