Eclipse 2024.

I don't mean a new SUV.

Living in Dayton and working in W Chester OH, I'm going to be right in the middle of it by late afternoon.  I had originally planned to just go out in the parking lot with some $2 glasses, watch a few minutes and go back to work.  Now I'm thinking half-day vacaction or just staying home.

The more articles I read about 2017 the more I want to avoid traffic completely.  Articles that say "Other areas that could be busier than normal include Interstate 71 and Interstate 270 in the Columbus area, *Interstate 75 from Dayton to Cincinnati* and Interstate 77 between Akron and Canton."  (Bold is exactly my daily drive.)

"Traffic congestion on rural Interstate routes lasted for up to 13 hours after the eclipse."  "The headline at right, from the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, sums it up: 'The rare eclipse was memorable. The ride home was something they want to forget.'”

This trade magazine had a pretty detailed article from the 2017 experience:  PDF of Transportation Research Board magazine

Now do I take a half-day and leave at noon?  Or just say screw it and enjoy a 3 day weekend.  Anyone else have plans?
 

I shortened my stay at the Challenge in an effort to get home in time for the eclipse but man, I'm wondering if it's even possible...

EDIT: Maybe I should add details and see if anyone here has thoughts.

My plan is to leave Gainesville immediately after the awards ceremony and get to Charlotte Sunday night, likely around 11 or 12. I'd then get a couple hours sleep and hit the road at like 4 which would get me to Cleveland around noon or 1PM. 

I thought that being back in town two hours before would be OK but, no?

The local tourist railroad is running a trip from Utica, NY north right up into the totality in Old Forge, NY, and I got myself a ticket (about 120 miles round trip, only $39!). They said that Old Forge, which normally has a population of 600 people, is expecting 175,000 visitors. Or, at least 175,000 people trying to visit. There's one road in and one road out, and they already said something like 10 hour delays to ge tout of the town. So, I'll be smiling and waving as we go by on the train. 

I'm in Austin and a couple weeks ago there was already a sign on I-35 that said something like "DO NOT PULL OVER DURING ECLIPSE."

They've had signs up on the highway here for over a week warning people to "Arrive early, stay late". I should get home from work about an hour before it starts, assuming traffic isn't too stupid. That's probably a poor assumption.

I'm Praying for a clear, cloudless sky.  Totality is marching right over our home, central Indiana.

Travelers will have staggered arrival times all weekend, but 100% will want to leave once it's over.  Expect traffic to be the worst right after the eclipse.  That's when everyone will want to head home all at once. 

I was all excited about this and now that is turning to concern. We bought tickets to go to a local ski resort and see it there but that is close to where NickD is talking about (Snow Ridge). I have already punted on that plan and I am thinking about going to Oswego because it is in the path and has better infrastructure. Maybe that will be overwhelmed too?

My mom is taking s bus trip just south of Cleveland to watch it. Here, eat of Pittsburgh, we're looking at 97% totality. The kids have a half day of school, I picked early chemo, so we're going to try to catch it from the highest point we can get to without traffic. 

my parents are headed to TX to watch.  Probably going to pick up some glasses for the family to view.  

NY Nick said:

I was all excited about this and now that is turning to concern. We bought tickets to go to a local ski resort and see it there but that is close to where NickD is talking about (Snow Ridge). I have already punted on that plan and I am thinking about going to Oswego because it is in the path and has better infrastructure. Maybe that will be overwhelmed too?

I know they're shutting everything down in Watertown, because they're expecting 200,000 there. I have a friend who lives in Carthage and works in the Watertown hospital with elective surgeries and they gave him the day off because they're canceling all elective procedures.

Indy - Guy said:

I'm Praying for a clear, cloudless sky.  Totality is marching right over our home, central Indiana.

Same here, I'm just West of Bloomington. Our plant is shut down for it...I'll be watching from my back patio.

Hoping to take some back roads south to find a spot...  

My daughter decided she wanted to see the eclipse for her birthday. So we're headed to northern VT between Stowe and Jay Peak pretty close to the centerline, where we booked a campsite a couple of months ago.

I'm pretty sure the entire thing was a ploy to extend snowboarding season, we're going to Jay on Saturday, but I'm not going to complain. Heading up Friday morning to try to get ahead of traffic, snowboard Saturday, putz around the area on Sunday and Monday. Leave Tuesday.

I really only expect it to be bad in the major metro areas. I'm hearing stories of hotels canceling reservations, booked 6+ months ago, in NY to try to resell them at high prices. (Pretty sure that's not how contract law works, though.)

I could go about 10 miles west or north and be in the path of totality, probably not worth dealing with traffic though if it is going to be cloudy. I might get the dirt bike ready to go in case it is clear, that way I would be able to bypass some of the traffic to get to a better viewing spot. 

Here's a picture of my Eclipse during the last eclipse. From Pittsburgh. 

I'm not sure I buy onto the traffic hype but an interesting perspective that I heard is people may arrive at their destination at various times but once it's over, EVERYONE will be leaving at the same time.  Similar to fireworks displays. When it over...it's over.

It passes directly over my county.  The entire county, at the urging of the County Sheriff has cancelled all school for the day.  Part of the issue is our dark is 3:15pm and school busses would be moving at that hour.  

Cedar Point Amusement Park, a seasonal business, is opening for the day with some limited rides and limited park access (not the whole place.)  Unpressidented for them to be open before May.  

John Welsh said:

I'm not sure I buy onto the traffic hype but an interesting perspective that I heard is people may arrive at their destination at various times but once it's over, EVERYONE will be leaving at the same time.  Similar to fireworks displays. When it over...it's over.

That's the issue.  People pile in for days ahead of it, and the minute it's over BOOM everyone hits the road.  One article mentioned being like 70 sold-out football games ending at the same time.

I could not be more in the path of totality. Lots of hype for this locally. Schools and businesses announced closures months ago. Lots of events this weekend in anticipation. They're prepping for as many as 50k people at the local airport. In a town with a population of 50k people. Similar projections for pretty much every city/town in the pathway, and I'm just not sure where all of these people will be coming from. 

I can't see how it lives up to some of these expectations, but hopefully it has some economic benefit and people get what they want to see out of it.

To that end, locally they are trying to hold, "events", focusing on having post darkness entertainment to delay that mass exodus. 

We are sort of doing a family get together in Hot Springs, Arkansas. (a 12 hour drive)  Some in the family wanted to do Cleveland.  Voted down. Instead we will get there 2 days before, and not try to leave until 2 days after.  Fuel up the cars in the days leading up, stock the AirBnB with food, and wait out the craziness.  Just bought a couple of books.  Easing into the "no hurry" mode.  I'm guessing the saturday and sunday before will be a zoo, sort of like pregame festivities, then Monday afternoon a massive traffic jam.

We picked Hot Springs for the surrounding mountains and roads to carve.

This is probably very obvious, but grab your welding helmet/goggles and pass it around  to your friends/family. So much better than  silly things like papers with holes in them. 

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

This is probably very obvious, but grab your welding helmet/goggles and pass it around  to your friends/family. So much better than  silly things like papers with holes in them. 

I was curious about this.  An article from NASA (I think it was) said you would need a fairly high numbered filter to be safe, like 12 I think?  And that high wasn't a common item to have around.  (Also mentioned 12 might be close, 14 might be too dark to really see the event.)

I think I have some goggles in the basement but plan to spend the $2 at Meijer this weekend.

EDIT- found it https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/27/solar-eclipse-glasses-welding-lenses/73102983007/

I did get a pretty good laugh at our one salesman's expense over the eclipse. He was over in our department and made some remark to the effect of "Oh, I just found out my kid has the day off from school. I don't remember getting days off from school for an eclipse when I was a kid." I looked at him and went "It's a once-in-a-lifetime eclipse." His reply was "Yeah, but still, we didn't get any days off for it when I was in school." I just repeated "Once-in-a-lifetime." He did not get the concept that he didn't get a day off for school, because it didn't happen when he was in school. But I did, and everyone else did, and we all laughed. Guess there's a reason he's a car salesman.

Pretty solid Indiana contingent here, I'm in Columbus. I'll be happily watching from my back yard, and if I have to go somewhere, I'll probably take a motorcycle. Columbus and Nashville are expecting a ton of people, especially since we are right off of I65 and there's some thought that people will want to stay south of Indianapolis to avoid city traffic if they're coming up from Kentucky or Tennessee or somewhere. Even if the expected number of people don't show up, it's still going to clog things up badly and all it takes is one accident on 46 between the interstate and Nashville/Bloomington to cause chaos.

I live a few minutes north of the path of totality. I plan to work from home and if the weather is decent we'll take the Willys on a back road to get us into the 100% path. Should be fun.