I5 from Portland to Albany is wide open now. There is a light haze here.
I never could get excited about eclipses. I like the atmospheric effects, but really, big whoopee. They were more exciting back in the days when you didn’t know they would occur, and so they were ascribed to a sign from god or the devil or Zeus or whomever.
I’m planning on driving ~1 hr north to Atchison KS which is in the path of totality. There are some events going on in town, some free and some cost to get in, and I haven’t really decided what I’m going to do once I get there. Other than planning to pack a lunch and some bottled water, and making sure I have cash and a full tank of gas (and my eclipse glasses!) when I leave in the morning, I’m pretty much winging it. And I’m hoping to be back home by 5pm because I have grandkids to pick up from school and daycare.
And if the sun doesn’t re-start after the eclipse, 50 million people in the USA will have to drive all the way home with their headlights on.
I plan to watch the PBS Nova special Monday night. They will have people filming the eclipse as it crosses the country. It’ll be a big rush for them to present the footage that night.
You could not be more wrong. Make the drive.
I have flown from the UK to see it. I am currently in Wyoming and the prognosis is very good.
I have seen partial eclipses and total eclipses and even a 99% eclipse doesn’t cut it.
I will be seeing the eclipse from there. The prognosis is very good.
I wasn’t that interested, but my husband was all psyched about it and must have brought it up a dozen times before we finally decided. It turned out to be really cool and I guess I’m not sorry we went, but still not sure if it was worth eight hours in the car.
No. I had to work, live far outside the totality, and even if I could get a couple of days off I wouldn’t try to make a 14+ hour drive. Too punishing.
Totality was totally worth it.
Absolutely! We drove four hours to be with friends in a cabin in NE Ga in the totality band. We went from 97% to 100%. I’ve never seen anything like it! Completely worth the time and effort!
The difference between the 99.5% totality available from my front porch and the 100% I experienced was as significant as the difference between a photo of a gourmet meal and the actual meal itself. Absolutely worth the effort, glad I went for it. Pics and story here if anyone’s interested.
I flew 2000 miles to visit my parents and then my father and I drove 2 to 3 hundred miles to Salem Ky. Unfortunately there were some clouds but we saw most of it (I accidentally looked at it bare eyed while watching the clouds but looked away quickly and there seems to be no damage.) It got dark and the clouds above the Ohio river took on sunset hues.
Going home was something else again; there was a traffic jam on the Western Kentucky Parkway that seemed to extend over 100 miles. Truly it was the queen mother of traffic jams and I’ve got pics to prove it. Took us 12 hours to get home.
I guess it was worth it, as it was the first time I actually observed an eclipse and saw the action and the first time I saw it actually get dark. The traffic jam though…
No traffic down, but heading back up from Clarksville TN was a nightmare (via I-57). The bit of Western Kentucky we drove through was fine for us via I-24, but there was a segment of 57 where it took us an hour and a half to go seven miles. At the beginning of the trip, the Waze ETA was 10:22 pm. We only arrived a few hours ago (6:20 a.m.) worst traffic I’ve ever been in.
I drove an hour south to Chester, IL, home of Popeye the Sailor Man. The day of the eclipse. Traffic was worse than normal, but not standstill (except right after totality ended, but we weren’t in a hurry and waited until it cleared up).
Apparently Chester, IL is also in the path of the next total eclipse in April 2024. They were selling t-shirts that said “twice in a lifetime event”. I might go back.
Oy, such traffic. But it was well worth it, to see my 4th Totality (not counting the Transit of Venus).
I live in the Portland area, some 60 miles north of the centerline. Bicycled down (don’t own a car) on Sunday to my brother’s house – he lives in south Salem. No problems and no significant traffic. Well, there was one problem. I don’t handle heat while cycling very well these days and the last part of the ride was fairly hot, so I was really dragging the last half of the ride through Salem. I should have started my ride earlier in the day.
On the way back, same problem. I couldn’t start it early, because the eclipse was at 10:15. Should have planned for an extra day and come back Tuesday morning. But I knew this was going to be a big problem, so I took it real easy. As in, about 50% longer to ride back than go down. There was a long steep hill near the end of the ride so I took a long break in the town near the bottom of that hill.
Anyway there was a lot of traffic on the way back, big slowdowns in a few places which I cycled past. One advantage of bicycling.
Wanted to skip both the crowds and the traffic, so drove up Saturday morning (about 350 miles one way) to middle of nowhere BLM land in SE Idaho. Camped out three nights (a treat in itself for me, ThisOneGal just tolerated it). Drove back today. No traffic, perfect weather (maybe a little smokey). Totally worth it.
Drove 5 hours to Carbondale on Saturday. Drive home was 11 hours due to traffic.
Totally, 100% worth it. Make it to totality in 2024. It will change your life. Mind = blown.