Do it now. I made my reservations over a year ago. A friend heard about my plan and thought it was a good one, so started looking at reservations for her family. Prices are going way up and availability is going way down. You don’t have a lot of time left.
I’ve been looking forward to this eclipse since the last USA TSE in August 2017 (which was itself on my radar since I missed the 1991 eclipse because it was too difficult to travel to). I made up for that 26 years later in 2017 when I flew from my home in Connecticut to St. Louis at the edge of the path of totality, then drove to the center. We found a nice city park in some suburb, and had perfect viewing conditions!
On this occasion, despite the eclipse path that goes through the Northeast, I decided to travel to Texas in hopes of better weather than driving to somewhere near Connecticut. The skies in northern New York state and New England in April are much more likely to be overcast than in Texas, I think.
(The weather in Mexico would likely be even better than Texas, but I don’t think it’s all that safe to travel there. Plus it would add a whole another layer of difficulty to coordinate, plus I have family in Texas that I can also visit if I go there.)
I bought plane tickets last September. We are going to fly into Houston and pick up my mom, then drive to San Antonio the day before the eclipse. I had hoped to get a hotel room nearer the center of the path, but I waited too long. When I looked for a hotel room a few weeks ago, there was nothing available in any city or town near the center of the path of totality (such as Uvalde or Waco). So we got a hotel in San Antonio (just inside the path of totality) and plan to drive toward the center that morning.
Fortunately I still have several pairs of eclipse glasses from 2017. Here’s hoping for good weather, minimal traffic, and a good viewing spot!
I’m currently looking at Durango and also Ingram. I could go further north and I am in Canada but I just don’t want to risk shelling out the money to look at a bunch of clouds.
I don’t know how prices look now, airfares may have risen just from people flying into Texas. But everything I have is refundable, so I’ll look at the forecast 3 days before, and just cancel if it looks low probability.
Thanks.
I hadn’t been sure whether I’m in the totality zone or not. Looks like the line (not the center line, the edge line) is about ten miles north of me. Bah, I was hoping to be able to see it from home, if only briefly.
It’s often cloudy here. I’ll probably try to lay in some glasses and keep an eye on the weather reports; and try heading north on the back roads if it looks like it might be clear.
At least one city about ten miles north of the line is making a big deal and expecting lots of tourists. But wouldn’t most of the tourists plan to go somewhere where it’s less likely to be cloudy? I would expect a lot of relatively local people who don’t want to have to make an overnight trip, though I don’t know whether they’d tend to congregate in the cities or whether all the back roads will jam up also.
In 1979, an eclipse at the Stonehenge replica in Maryville WA was a druid affair:
https://bruceramsey.net/index.php/eclipse-at-stonehenge-1979/
Give yourself a LOT of extra time - you will not be the only ones doing this.
I second this.
We wound up in a place really in the middle of nowhere, in north central NY. I’d tried several different places and got shot down immediately from all of them, and kept moving west until we got this one. Other places that were somewhat better located (for our purposes) were asking 600+ a night right then; our place’s owners clearly had not heard of the eclipse!
This was back in August or so, I think. I’m actually happy with where we wound up; it’s a larger place than the others I’d tried, which let me invite a couple friends along, and it’s on a lake, with a pier. So if the weather cooperates, we should have a great view.
I’m also telling everyone to bring their passports along - as we will be less than 15 miles away from the Canadian border. Anyone know of anything good to do in southwest Quebec or southeast Ontario? (we could go to Montreal for a day. if nothing else; it’s less than a 2 hour drie).
If you’ll be in Ingram let me know! It would be nice to say hello in person.
Interesting.
The next total eclipse to touch much of CONUS won’t be for over 20 years, in 2045.
Well, it’s possible I could be alive for that one, but I’d be 91.
If you aren’t super picky and are in the area, we will be hosting/co-hosting two eclipse events. One in downtown Providence (Roger Williams National Memorial), and one in Uxbridge, MA (River Bend Farm). No official details yet, but ya know, eclipse time. We already ordered 500 pairs of glasses.
We made our reservations – I was surprised how hard it was to make them, and then surprised that I was finally able to find a place. But we’re set for the Big Day.
I’ve seen several partial eclipses, but never a total eclipse.
I booked my hotel in San Antonio and the plan is to rent a car and drive to Ingram because watching the eclipse by “stone henge” sounds awesome.
Hotel and flights are booked! I’ll be staying in San Antonio and then rent a car to drive to Ingram. That just seems like such a great spot to watch a total eclipse. I’m pretty excited.
Any chance you’ll be in SATX on Saturday? I’m planning to coordinate a doper fest that day, there. I’ve got some flexibility for the event planning, so if you’d like to join please drop me a PM.
I’ll send you a PM.
That looks really neat! However, the reserved parking there is already sold out and I’m nervous about heading anywhere where there is a large crowd.
(Because I don’t want to get stuck in traffic arriving or leaving, plus if there are clouds in the vicinity you want to be able to jump in your car and relocate if possible before totality arrives.)
Yeah I’m just kind of winging it at this point. I know things are going to start selling out so I had to just make a decision and I was able to find a really good deal for both flights and hotel. Figured the driving part was something I could work on once I had the important parts booked.
Have you reserved a car rental yet? Better not tarry!