Thanks for the information.
Yup, I’m already starting on the NO TAKING THE GLASSES OFF UNTIL I SAY SO AND HERE’S WHY discussion. The little guy is a bit on the young side in some ways but he’s not especially impulsive or oppositional and I don’t see this being an issue. But I appreciate the reminder!
We were able to find reasonably-priced flights to and from Detroit, and were able to rent a car for a reasonable price also, so we’re flying to Detroit then driving an hour and a half to our friends in NW Ohio, rather than driving from southern Maryland to NW Ohio and back, especially given some recent problems with our ‘good’ car.
Eclipse glasses ordered, should be here in about a week.
I’ve connected with a friend who will join me on the Drive North On Back Roads Looking For a Place to Pull Over in Farm Country expedition. This will be a lot more fun with two of us. And she is great with phone navigation apps, so she’ll navigate and can (we hope) tell me where the traffic is.
I went and ordered some glasses from Amazon – only to discover today that my local library will be giving them out starting April 1. The amazon glasses aren’t scheduled to arrive till the middle of this month; maybe I’ll just cancel.
Gotta hear it for libraries, though!
I made some eclipse pinhole viewers/keepsakes.
These have the Finger Lakes on them, cuz that’s where I am. I’m selling these. PM me if you’d like one. I can put anything on the front, if you can get me a pic of it, or names of your viewing party.
going to be an hour+ west of you, in Wyoming County. I was talking to someone from there this weekend, he said the county is expecting to triple their population for the day; their normal population is only 40,000, so we’re talking maybe double the cars leaving a large sporting event, but across the entire county so I don’t expect traffic to be a big issue. If the weather is absolutely perfect (fat chance!), might be able to view it from the air! Hotel is booked, car drop is secured (the last 4ish hours we’ll drive together but driving 90ish mins from different directions to meet up & drive the rest of the way together)
If you have a cabin, it’s a moot point, but from the finger lakes you can drive south to I-86 & then it’s highways all the way home, It’s not as bad as you might think. Watkins Glen to Suffolk County is only 5 hrs, though I don’t know how far out on the Island you are
@Ulf_the_Unwashed we’re wondering about attending that Mets game too. And thanks for the tip about the eclipse glasses; I went to our local public library site and they’re giving them out starting March 18. Yay!
@Spiderman we’re in Nassau county and know that the trip time from upstate can be very variable; one time (a summer weekday) it took us 8 hours to get home from Rochester.
Believe me, I know it; however, barring an accident, it’s much better once you get out of NYC area I’ve never really encountered traffic. It’s getting thru the city that sucks!
Getting through Watkins Glen during a heavy traffic event would add significantly to that, though. It’s no big deal when the traffic’s light, but whenever it isn’t anyone who lives around here (including a lot of the people who actually live in Watkins) tries to stay the hell off the roads through Watkins.
Will wave in your general direction. Yes, I think more than an hour, even without traffic.
I ordered a camera obscura from Paintcharge and this is what he made for me:
I will be the envy of all at the Dallas-Fort Worth observatory eclipse party!
Where will you be?
We are going to be here: https://www.fwmuseum.org/
Huh, no thumbnail. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.
The camera obscura will travel from NY to AZ, only to back track to TX 
Maybe I should take the day off
I really think you should. This won’t happen again for decades and then you will have to go somewhere else to see it.
Come to the museum and I’ll share my camera with you
We’re flying down to Austin to visit friends and family and see the eclipse. I’m hoping that the roads won’t be insane- we’re tentatively planning on taking back roads to near the Lampasas area, which should be in the path of totality.
We’ll be in Torreon, Mexico.
Gorgeous work! You will be very envied.
Pretty freaky to realize that this is just over 4 weeks away.
My friend is coming here (DC Metro) from Chicago a few days beforehand, and we’ll all drive up to upper NY on the Saturday before. I’m dreading the weather, as clouds seem likely, but it’s still going to be nice to get away for a week to relax, if nothing else.
Our plan for trip prep will involve designating a corner of the living room, to pile non-perishable stuff that we want to take - e.g. games, pillows, towels, some foodstuffs as we do some meal planning beforehand (hoping to just need to buy meat and produce while we’re up there).
That was my approach. Pick a place where you can have a good vacation even if the eclipse is cancelled for whatever reason.
I’m feeling pretty good about weather where I’m going, but it only takes one small puffy cloud in the wrong spot in the sky for 5 minutes to really ruin the day. So make sure the rest of the trip will be worthwhile.
My family just reserved an AirBnB at Angola-on-the-Lake, a small town on Lake Erie in NY, for the eclipse. It will be all of our first experiences with a total eclipse. Can’t wait!