August 2017 Solar Eclipse

Errr… mono, do we need to call social services?

Just checked Salt Lake City and expedia gave the “hotels nearly full” warning with hotels at 90% booked. Checked Nashville Tennessee and “Nashville is a popular destination on your dates” with 75% booked.

If looking to go to Oregon, eastern Oregon is more likely to be sunny. But in August, the western part of the state should be fairly clear too.

But, from what I’ve heard all hotels in the path of totality have already been booked. Campgrounds will slowly become available as their booking slots open up though.

I’m in Washington so I imagine I’ll just drive down to Portland and stay overnight, then figure out someplace in Eastern Oregon to drive to.

Sounds like I should get that hotel room booked though!

Wow, that’s nuts. Is SLC supposed to be a good spot for it or something?

Not really

Huh,

I guess my old hometown, Sevierville, TN (Smoky Mountains) is gonna be more or less in the path.

Since it’s already a hellish tourist trap stuffed to the gills with traffic, outlet malls, and t-shirt shops, I can only imagine that Eclipse Day is gonna be particularly awful!

I’ve got the night of August 20 booked in Portland, OR. Now just need to figure out somewhere to drive to in the path of totality. I really like Lincoln City on the coast, but it’d be silly to drive to the coast where clouds often don’t burn away until the afternoon.

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps/states/OR_web.jpg

There’s apparently 25,000 expected in the tiny town of Madras, OR and I want to avoid those shenanigans.

Maybe I just look at street view on Google Maps and figure out somewhere in the middle of nothing I can pull over.

Between Madras and Salem is mostly just mountain roads without much of a place to stop. Sisters & Detroit look to be right in the path of totality there but those are mountain towns that might not have much space if they get crowded out.

I plan on driving from Portland down to Salem-ish and finding a good place to pull over.

That would certainly be a quicker drive. I’ll probably just have a plan A on the west side of the mountains, and a plan B to head east if there are clouds in the forecast.

I have a room in Jackson Hole during it! Eclipse+Tetons! Whoot!

There is a rest stop right outside of Lincoln Nebraska that we are probably going to head to for this. Yeah, a rest stop doesn’t sound like a place for viewing an eclipse, but it’s right in the center of the “full eclipse” zone, has plenty of parking and a bunch of benches for relaxing on.

Tickets and Hotel booked in Kansas City. A Total Solar Eclipse is at #1 on my bucket list so I’m pretty excited about this. I hope traffic doesn’t suck the day of. My wife insists I’m overestimating demand and that there aren’t going to be that many eclipse chasers. I hope she is right.

Ill by flying into St. Louis on Saturday before the eclipse. Ill be meeting my sister, and then we will be driving somewhere south of St. Louis to watch it. It is something I have wanted to experience my entire life.

I’m planning on going myself. Right now thinking of holding fire until the morning and seeing a weather report. Basically anywhere from St Louis to Land Between the Lakes is my target.

Maybe we grab any other midwest Qt3ers for a eclipse meetup ;)

EDIT some resources

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html

Please tell me Land Between The Lakes is a real place…

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Land+Between+the+Lakes+National+Recreation+Area/@36.7777636,-88.0652558,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x887afa602862ab65:0x330108019c1dcfe2!8m2!3d36.7777636!4d-88.0630671

Just south of Land Surrounding the Ditch

That was exactly my plan, too. Drive down to Kentucky, then head back home. If a meet-up could be arranged, that would make it double plus good.

We’ll see! That is the plan of last resort, as it is the furthest point that is reasonably achievable in a day. St Louis is optimal, or Carbondale. Land Between the Lakes is about 6-6.5 hours for me.

But it’s on the table ;)