The ride to Totality (Solar Eclipse)

I want north of Kansas city...Media way over-hyped the traffic...they were calling for hours of gridlock..I drove up and back today without having to slow down but once for a few min....I was right in the bullseye of totality...It did not get pitch dark... like 2AM dark... like the news said it would..but It did get sorta dark...I could still see 50 yards...crickets started and a red squirrel started barking frantic....It was cool...I was just so surprised by the mild traffic...by the way the news talked it was gonna be armageddon. They always make a mountain out of a molehill..should have known.
 
Davey1965 said:
I want north of Kansas city...Media way over-hyped the traffic...they were calling for hours of gridlock..I drove up and back today without having to slow down but once for a few min....I was right in the bullseye of totality...It did not get pitch dark... like 2AM dark... like the news said it would..but It did get sorta dark...I could still see 50 yards...crickets started and a red squirrel started barking frantic....It was cool...I was just so surprised by the mild traffic...by the way the news talked it was gonna be armageddon. They always make a mountain out of a molehill..should have known.
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We had all that traffic and more, in Southern Illinois. Took me over three hours to backtrack the one hour I spent getting in this morning.Got as far as Louisville and called it a day, while stuck in a construction jam that took 15 minutes to cover a mile. :(Hope to avoid that with an early start tomorrow morning.Totality was awesome! Hope my pix came out.
 
We watched it in Kingston, TN. We had 2 minutes 14 seconds of 100% totality. It was awesome! We saw the shadow bands (snakes) right before and after totality. Lying in the middle of the street during 100% totality looking with the naked eye. Will never forget it.
 
amad said:
Will never forget it.
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+1. One of the most awesome things I've ever seen.

Getting there (Sparta, TN) was much easier than I expected traffic-wise. Just over 2 hours, about what it takes on a normal day. Traffic was brutal coming home though. Took nearly 4 hours. It was still worth it.
 
My ride to totality started at 4:00 AM in Jacksonville, FL. Rode to Murphy, NC which was 515 miles in 8 hours. Got a gas receipt and started back but stopped between Hiawassee GA and Clayton GA to watch eclipse. It was awesome, perfectly clear blue sky. I kept watching Google maps for traffic and it looked like it was a nightmare at I95 and I26 so we took backroads through Aiken SC to Savannah. It took 13 hours to get home including stops to watch eclipse, lunch and dinner. Awesome ride.
 
Ashley said:
My ride to totality started at 4:00 AM in Jacksonville, FL. Rode to Murphy, NC which was 515 miles in 8 hours. Got a gas receipt and started back but stopped between Hiawassee GA and Clayton GA to watch eclipse. It was awesome, perfectly clear blue sky. I kept watching Google maps for traffic and it looked like it was a nightmare at I95 and I26 so we took backroads through Aiken SC to Savannah. It took 13 hours to get home including stops to watch eclipse, lunch and dinner. Awesome ride.
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You could log that as an Iron Butt. :06biker:
 
This was one of the few "presentable" images I managed to capture, shooting with a dark filter but not a solar-approved one, and -2 exposure.

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I had the camera on 3-second interval shooting, so could not change the settings mid-flight to open up the aperture. No totality photos for me.
 
paulcb said:
A colleague at work who's an amateur photographer took some pics of the eclipse today from outside our office in Plano, TX (far north Dallas).

This was taken at max eclipse (~77%), about 1:09 pm CST for us. Didn't get noticeably darker but it was sure was a lot cooler for a while.

Looking forward to 100% eclipse here in Dallas in 2024.

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That pic looks amazing!!
 
The eclipse was phenomenal. Better than one could imagine. At Dixon Springs SP in southern Ill the skies were clear. We had an elevated site atop a rock formation that gave us a great view. In this part of the park it was not crowded at all. When the eclipse went total it was like speeding up the forty five minutes after a sunset into about thirty seconds. Spectacular.
Heading home afterwards was a very slow ride. 60 miles in 3 hours. Very hot. I think it was in the town of Eldorado in heavy traffic that I was about to catch up to another blue ST when it turned into a parking lot. I tried to follow but could not get through. Hope you finally found open roads. An hour later heading north on Ill route 1 had to wait out a storm with lots of lightning. Rode through light rain for an hour. Wife and I got home after 8 hours that should have taken 4 & half. But well worth it.
 
Mary and I rode down to Rapid City, SD.

I had 5 locations picked out in WY and NE all within about a 3 hr ride.

Totality was at 11:50-ish so we had plenty of time to get wherever. Were riding at 6:30 AM.

Turned out WY was going to have the better weather so we headed for Glendo and stopped just short.

Attached photos with my Panasonic point and shoot using our paper solar viewing glasses as a filter for the Pacman shot and no filter for the totality pic. Had 2 min 25 secs of totality. Man did that go by quick!

This was extremely cool. May have to make my second trip to Moonshine in 2024 if its in the path.

Spent yesterday riding the Black Hills and today will start for home via Grand Tetons and other interesting sites.
 

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Did a ride up to Oregon with an old friend who I hadn't ridden with for many years. We camped out in the totality zone with another friend who drove down from WA.

An amazing experience, I didn't know what to expect, hadn't really researched it at all.

As for the riding, 2300 miles in 3.5 days to watch a 2.5 minute event seemed like a good enough excuse to go for a ride.
 
cornSTalk said:
An hour later heading north on Ill route 1 had to wait out a storm with lots of lightning.
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I was racing that same storm, so we very nearly crossed paths a second time after our near-miss in Eldorado. I was watching it with increasing concern, and maybe five miles before making it to I-70 I got out of the tie-up and onto the county roads (some of them unpaved) to the west of Ill-1. Made it back onto Route 1 just about at the I-70 interchange and put the hammer down for an eastbound run. After about an hour I was pretty confident that I had outrun the monster and dialed back the right wrist to a less frantic pace.
 
We saw the one in August while in Idaho. Had 7 pair of the eclipse glasses, two types. Took several pix during the full 2 minutes of the totality, and some pix showed Venus. Mercury and Mars (I think) were also supposed to be visible, but they didn't show up in my photos.

These events are so amazing and I wish everyone could see one sometime during their life.

AT that time we also visited Jellystone NP, another amazing thing to see for everyone.
 
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