For me, this was THE biggest lesson from the August 2017 eclipse. Before the eclipse, traffic and crowds build slowly. After the eclipse, very many are leaving immediately following totality, and the end of the partial eclipse.
It’s highly advisable to plan a lengthy activity after the eclipse.
@thorny_locust the Finger Lakes sound like a good viewing spot, but too far Northwest for us since we need to be at work on Long Island on Tuesday morning.
Here’s a page that lists events in Central NY: Best 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Viewing Spots in the Finger Lakes .The ones in Geneva and Seneca Lake sound good.
As for us we’ll spend Sunday night in the Catskills where we have a tiny cabin. Then on Monday morning we’ll drive north 2-3 hours to catch totality. Maybe we’ll attend the event at NBT stadium in Syracuse listed in the link. Or we could drive to Delta Lake park north of Rome. Or Indian Lake in the Adirondacks. All 3 of those are 4-5 hours drive home for us if traffic cooperates which I know is a big if.
No problem for me, as long as overcast doesn’t ruin the whole thing. In my particular geographical area, closer to the center line of totality means driving further south, which gets us into winery country. And I have no problem figuring out a lengthy activity when in the midst of wineries, winery restaurants, wine tasting bars, and wine stores! 
Watching the world turn dark…then light…while buzzed in an outdoor wine tasting area? Sounds great!
I fortunately have a clear day (total luck) and am advising my students to go south, from Northern Indiana where we all are, to closer to Indy where we can enter the path of totality.
Since I’m traveling with family, I might see if we can schedule a winery or brewery (outdoor seating, ofc) for this.
Our home is 35 miles from the center of the path.
Location, location, location.
I expect both the city of Geneva and Seneca Lake State Park to be quite crowded; Geneva’s trying to make a very big deal out of this and that park’s basically in the same area. I’m planning to stay west of there, out in the farm country; especially if there’s no actual meetup.
I live in the Zone of Totality, and my vacation for Eclipse Day has been confirmed!
We have a large existing and fully current thread on this topic:
Folks there are actively discussing all their plans right now. I’m not sure what this thread is intended to add that’s new or different.
With not much more than six weeks to go I guess I should start to live up to my name: you probably know by now that the second Great American Eclipse is coming, on 8 April, when the best visible Total Solar Eclipse for many years will cross the North American continent from west to east, crossing from Mexico into the USA near San Antonio, Texas, passing over Dallas, Indianapolis, Toledo, Cleveland, and passing into Canada around the area of Burlington, VT.
This looks like being a good one with a length of totality of between 3.5 and 4 minutes in the USA.
So are you planning to see it? To make a special journey to see it? Southern Michigan is reported to be the most favourable place to see it in the USA. And the track passes right over Niagara Falls which should provide some sensational eclipse photographs.
As an addicted eclipse chaser I’ll be seeing it from Torreon, Mexico this time, this will be no. 8 for me and no. 10 for my partner!
Fyi, i also updated the thread title, as the eclipse is now almost upon us.
I’ve been in Geneva NY just once, on a weekday in August, and it was more crowded than I expected. It looks like they’re tourism-focused and hope to bring in people for eclipse events?
Yes to both – that is, Geneva does other things in addition to tourism; but the entire Finger Lakes area is rather tourist-focused. It’s very pretty country, and has a lot of wineries and more recently breweries and distilleries, which both draw in and in many cases rely on tourists. There are also foot/bicycle/car races, some fairly impressive waterfalls as well as the lakes, and quite a lot of assorted other stuff depending on right where you are. (And right when – we get leaf peepers.)
And Geneva’s making a three-day advertized shindig out of this – they’ll get a bit more than two minutes of totality. I expect other places in the north part of the Finger Lakes area will also have things going on. I’m kind of adverse to crowds and hope to find a good spot in open farm country; though I’d be open to a meetup if close enough to me. Or might try to find a local friend or two to watch with.
The traffic’s a pretty drastic mix. Please be patient with and careful around the farm equipment traffic and horse-and-buggy traffic.
The Finger Lakes region has decent Riesling wines. We did some wine tasting when we were there.
And for It’s A Wonderful Life, the 1946 Frank Capra movie, the fictional town of Bedford Falls was inspired by towns in that region. One of those towns, I forget now which one, has or used to have an annual fair based on the movie.
And then the Suffrage movement has some notable history based from that region. I forgot the details but when it comes to me I’ll fill that in.
Seneca Falls.
Various places and various people; but in particular also Seneca Falls.
And you’re entirely right about the Rieslings; some of which (and some other area wines) have won international awards.
Bingo. Thank you @thorny_locust . I’ve been to that Women’s Rights Park. Quite informative. And the Rieslings are good.
OK, I made hotel reservations for Ft Smith, AR which is outside totality, but close enough drive to it.
https://theeclipse.company/ has Russellville at average 45% clouds. I found less clouds in Texas, but did not want to drive that far.
Worst case I can visit Mt Nebo State Park
I was in Driggs, ID for the 2017 eclipse – It was a supported bicycle tour – we took back roads into Driggs and stayed at a school overnight so not sure what the traffic was. The next day I visited the Grand Targhee resort – apparently form the top of the ski runs you could see the moon’s shadow move across the valley 
I still have my glasses from that.
Brian
I took my kids to the middle of Oregon on a two lane road to see the eclipse. It was pretty awesome. Where we were was IIRC about 2.5 minutes of totality. Had we driven another 90 minutes south to be big viewing spot it was more like 5 or 6 minutes. Anyhoo, we boogied out of there back to the campground in WA as soon as the sun started peaking out the other side. No traffic. Fellow campers that stayed for the full cycle back to normality took about 3 hours longer to make it to the campground.
keep in mind that that part of the country is deserted with one road down most of the length.
Having witnessed that eclipse, I would certainly go out of my way to see this upcoming one even though I am in Seattle. I’ve got a lady friend in Toronto, with the totality maybe an hours drive away. So, I’ll be heading out or Toronto and welcome any locals with some good hints on where to go. Niagra might be a winner as said lady friend has a friend that lives on the canadian side of Canada.
And from NY, you could have driven to somewhere in the path of totality, though it would have been a long drive (about 8-10 hours from DC, so add 4 hours from NY).
We’re looking at a similar drive in the opposite direction, for this year’s trip.
My friend is going to drive here from Chicago a couple days before, then get in a car with all fo us for the trip to upstate NY. Then reverse that, for the return trip (she’ll take advantage of the visit here to get together with friends in the area).
She is going to be suffering from SERIOUS ass fatigue by the end of it all!
My university alma mater (which will be in totality, but which is further than I want to drive and will I expect have heavy traffic) sent out an email offering free eclipse glasses to alumni; and to mail them out if desired. So I ordered a couple of pairs. No idea exactly what I’m going to get; but they’re supposed to arrive in the mail in the middle of March.