I’m already booked with a tour group I’ve traveled with before. The organizers are associated with NASA and have all kinds of neat technical stuff to help find the best site. We will be in Nebraska.
This will be my 5th total solar eclipse. 1. Australia, Flinders Range, 2. Libya, 3. China 4. South Pacific out of Tahiti.
I hope to still be around for the 2024 one!
People, please make every effort to get to the center line of the path! You really don’t want to be near the outer edge because the* total* part of the eclipse there will only last a matter of seconds and be hardly worth the time and effort you made to see it.
Southern Illinois is ground zero and people there will see the* total * part of the eclipse for only around 2 and a half minutes. This is where you want to be or as close as you can to this location.
Current plans have me in Indianapolis the night before the eclipse, and my route home leads through southern Illinois. All I should have to do is time my departure right, which is well worth it.
I’ve been thinking about this and I predict it’s going to be a real zoo here in western Oregon. At least I-5 and other highways in the area will be.
The centerline of totality goes by just south of Salem, only 55 or 60 miles from the Portland area. A lot of people are going to see that and say “Hey, that’s only about an hour away.” Normally they would be right, but not if lots of other people have the same idea. I imagine similar traffic jams will happen near other large cities near the path of totality.
I think I’ll avoid the crush and bicycle down via back roads. I’ll have to get up real early to make it on time, but I’d have to do that anyway.
Well, that was my assumption, yes. That’s why I’ll be driving down to Silverton the day before the main event.
Hmmm… any recommendations on things to do in eastern Oregon? With the eclipse being a Monday, I’m thinking my wife and I might take a nice Friday-Monday vacation if we can find things to do out there. Crater lake has been on our to-do list for a while, and it’s not too far from the eclipse path. Of course, a million other people are likely to have the same idea…
Oh jeez. Now I’m worried. I was able to book a room in the Willamette Valley (rain/cloudy plans: wine tasting). But we aren’t in the path of totality. We will need to drive somewhere to see the total eclipse.
Funnily enough, I’m going to be travelling to America to see the eclipse with an astronomy tour group, and we’ll be based out of… Cody, Wyoming. The list for the tour group was full a week or so after the Indonesia eclipse.
Nashville is already gearing up.
I notice the path of max totality grazes the top of Malheur county in Oregon. Most of Malheur is Mountain time. The rest of Oregon is Pacific. I wonder how many people traveling to see the eclipse in that area will not know about this issue and miss it.
I noticed some maps list towns along I-84 near there like Lime (defunct) and Dixie (incredibly defunct). (Pop. 2 before the freeway was built. They “moved it” out of the way and it never came back. There is literally no there there.)
We are planning a short flight up to Oregon to see it or perhaps to just to fly along the path of totality for a bit to see it from 11,500’.
This may depend on where the rooms are. If south of the path, the traffic won’t be as bad, because the bulk of Oregon’s population is in the Portland area. But planning is the key. Get out a map and plan some routes, perhaps trying some back roads. Also, allow for plenty of time to get to a viewing site, just because of potential traffic problems.
As far as weather, August is usually a very dry time in this area. It’s not guaranteed it’ll be clear, but chances are very good.
Haha! Got everything booked up. Stop in Portland on the way down, then a couple of days in Crater Lake. See the eclipse around Madras OR, and a night near Mt Hood on the way home.
Make the trip. An eclipse is spectacular.
The more I look into this, the more I appreciate being 30 minutes from totality.
I have tried to look on my own about these special glasses you need. The internet would have me believe it is totally necessary, so i figured someone here would know better. Do i need to buy these special glasses or no?
For enjoying the total phase of the eclipse, you need nothing except your eyes. If you want to look at the Sun during the partial phase you need eye protection, or you need to be somewhere where somebody has set up a projection telescope.
There is some risk when totality ends, because people can become mesmerized and keep staring at the Sun as it very quickly becomes blindingly bright. That’s a risk even if you have glasses, because you have to remember to put them on as totality is ending.
Yes, you need the glasses. This is what the link in the OP says:
Ok, thank you, I just didn’t want the wife or I to come into any harm! Hope they aren’t too expensive! 
They’re actually pretty cheap. You can find them on Amazon as well. I already ordered mine (I didn’t want to wait until the last minute)!