I had pondered 91 from Vermont to 89, but Google maps was insisting 93 would be an hour faster. Sure, Google, I’ll do what my phone says without question!
Using that same logic, I followed those directions off of 93 through downtown Franconia. Not sure how traffic would be free flowing on side roads, but Google says it is. Maybe it’s the single lane through the notch that’s messing things up. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Nope, it’s that there isn’t any cell service and Google doesn’t know the entire town is a parking lot.
Hours later, once we got back to 93, just north of the notch, I was in shock NH state police were alternating allowing 20-30 cars at a time from the highway then the on ramp right before the Old Man. Free flowing through the notch and then a disaster from Lincoln to Boston.
Should have rented a helicopter.
In retrospect, worth every second and would 100% do it again.
I thought my bad routing on the trip home would have been an isolated experience, but I sent feedback to Google anyway. Now it sounds like it was anything but. I wonder if Google will make any changes to address it, or if they’ll figure it was such a rare set of circumstances that it’s not worth the trouble.
(Assume you meant luck.) We pick a hotel in Georgetown Texas, with three minutes of totality, but also knowing that we might need to make a drive along I35 north or south. We drove to 70 miles north to Waco, and as you reported, got really lucky with the clouds clearing just in time. And unlike others here, we had absolutely no traffic problems.
I had ordered “Texas 04-08-24” eclipse tee shirts for the family a few months ago. We didn’t see very much in way of local swag, unlike in Nebraska in 2017. Got a lot of “Where did you get those?” questions.
They were selling lots of eclipse-related T-shirts and magnets in New Hampshire and Vermont. At the barbeque joint Smokin’ T’s in Lancaster NH there was only one T-shirt left that said I got Mooned at Smokin’ Ts.
In St. Johnsbury you could have a T-shirt printed while you waited.
I satisfied myself with a magnet with a picture of the eclipse and a moose.
I thought the line from Crockett was “You all can go to hell—I’m going to Texas!”? Anyway, don’t know if it’s a real quote or just apocryphal. IIRC, it was supposed to have been said in connection with the whole “not getting re-elected to Congress” thing.
Despite all my travel on Sunday being in heavy rain (and hail!), it all worked out. Got to stop at many record and comic book stores, and stocked up at $1 and $2 LPs and 'books.
Monday dawned clear, and the wispy cirrus clouds made no difference to the eclipse viewing.
I scrapped my idea of heading to the bottom of Indiana, because a friend texted that he was at a state park in SE Illinois (Lincoln Trails?). I joined him and his new best friends (it was like a Dead concert, maaan…), and we had a great show. The instant after totality was over, we jumped back in our cars, because it took forever to get out of the park, and the county roads were solid cars, moving, but slowly.
We’d been listening to “Dark Side of the Moon” all day, but on the way home I had “The highway’s jammed with broken heroes…” running through my head.
Did it seem to anyone else that this eclipse had much, much more hype than any previous ones? It felt that way to me, but this was the first one I’ve travelled to see in totality, so I may have just been more likely to notice people talking about it.
I agree. Hard to really trust my memories, but that one did seem a much bigger deal, and I encountered a hell of a lot more traffic, then, as well, getting back home.
I actually think this one was hyped a lot more than 2017. For the people who missed 2017 and heard how great it was, from people like me since 2017 was my first TSE, and also because we in the US won’t have another one for 20 years, I think those are reasons why the hype was greater now, than then.
My wife and I are still making our way back home. Today we travelled through Hopi Nation lands and the Hopi Cultural Center in Shongopovi AZ. Shongopovi and Kykotsmovi are at the heart of the Hopi nation.
We learned a little bit about Hopi culture. For example, for weavings (like blankets and such), historically it was the Hopi men who did the weaving, not the Hopi women. And it was the Hopi who taught the Navajo how to weave.
It’s a little bit interesting that on our drive out to Texas we stopped in at Window Rock AZ which is the capital of the Navajo nation.
So on this road trip we’ve touched a little on the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Nation. And both the Navajo and the Hopi do like their fry bread
My theory is that this was the first one in America post-pandemic. The impulse, and the ability, to travel and have gatherings is not taken for granted like it used to be.
This one also had the virtue of a much longer maximum period of totality, and also of covering a substantial portion of eastern Canada. So unlike 2017 it was an international eclipse! Most importantly, it covered the area where I, Wolfpup, descendant of traditional howlers at the moon, reside.
We did a similar thing in central Texas. We were 5¾ miles southeast of the centerline. At the centerline there was 4m 25.7s of totality, and at our location we had 4m 24.5s of totality.
In 2017 in Idaho we were 7¾ miles north of the centerline. At the centerline there was 2m 10.5s of totality, and at our location we had 2m 06.2s of totality.
The length of totality this time was more than double of what we had in 2017!
I didn’t get that sense at all. We’re far enough post-(heart of)-pandemic that I don’t feel it really factors into any decisions to travel now. Or at least, if it does, I’m not observing it. In 2021, when I started travelling again, that was a big deal. By 2022, it was already pretty normalized. I just knew more people who went to the first eclipse than this one. The last total eclipse to hit the lower 48 before that that I see was way back in 1979 (and that was in the less populous regions of the northwestern states.) I found the hype bigger in 2017 because it had been so long since it last happened. This time, it was like, oh, we just did this seven years ago.
ETA: On the other hand, judging by SDMB threads, this eclipse thread does seem to have a lot more lead-up than the 2017 one I found. Like 5x as many posts. So there’s a point against my impressions.
