The Eclipse

[Dave]

I made a quick to Goldendale, WA and back today. Goldendale is about straight north of the Madras / Prineville Oregon area where they had about 200,000 guests (100,000 in Madras, 30,000+ at one site outside of Prineville, plus all the other scatter around the area). At 6:30 this morning the two north bound rest stops I past had cars parked along the freeway for a quarter mile each side of the rest stop. People had just pulled over to sleep. At 11:30 the McDonald's in sleepy little Goldendale was packed. Way more cars headed north of highway 97 than normal. Going through the Columbia Gorge was heavier than normal but OK. Hit highway 205 just across the river from Portland and it was stop and go clear to I-5. I-5 was moving but packed full with campers. I stopped at a rest stop just north of Vancouver. Absolutely every parking spot was filled. I ended up parking in a no parking zone. There was a line of guys waiting to get into the men's room. I jumped off the freeway and drove the last 50 miles on back roads. Every time I could see the freeway they were either stopped or just crawling.

 

[Ouachita]

A thought..........
Path of totality of 2017 eclipse together with path of totality 2024.
X marks the spot...
Who is putting a crosshair on USA?


I have a theory...

The New Madrid should be ripe.

 

[Katpau]

I drove a little over 100 miles each way from Roseburg to Lebanon OR and back the morning of the Eclipse on I-5. The road was no more busy than on any Holiday weekend. It took me about 2 hours each way including some miles on back roads on each end of the trip. We were able to travel at 65 to 70 mph on the Freeway most of the way with just a few exceptions where we slowed briefly. Most of the traffic had California plates. I think more people went East for some of those big events planned over there. The roads on that side are not set up for that much traffic. It worked out great for us though.

 

[Dave]

I drove a little over 100 miles each way from Roseburg to Lebanon OR and back the morning of the Eclipse on I-5. The road was no more busy than on any Holiday weekend. It took me about 2 hours each way including some miles on back roads on each end of the trip. We were able to travel at 65 to 70 mph on the Freeway most of the way with just a few exceptions where we slowed briefly. Most of the traffic had California plates. I think more people went East for some of those big events planned over there. The roads on that side are not set up for that much traffic. It worked out great for us though.

My sister went from Puyallup down to Salem. She said they headed back north right after the eclipse and got ahead of 95% of the traffic. I was really surprise how many people waited until this afternoon to head home. Of course with the possible roads out of Madras a person might be better off waiting until next week.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

We made the trip to the Dale Hollow dam to see the full eclipse. I didn't buy into the hype, but my daughter wanted to see it. I'm really glad we went. It was quite an impressive sight, and something we will remember forever. I did get some good video, but for now these pictures of my computer screen will have to do. We motored down Sunday evening, and it was a ghost town. Just a few boats trolling for walleye on Monday morning, and by noon the boats were wall to wall. Luckily, we were tied across the back of a cove, and only 2 boats came in to anchor. Quite a memorable trip.

 

[Bigfoot]

Gotta say again, it actually was amazing. I'll probably travel to the next one to be in the path (not like something that d ever do).

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

Gotta say again, it actually was amazing. I'll probably travel to the next one to be in the path (not like something that d ever do).

We are smack dab in the middle of the next one. C'mon up.

 

[Bigfoot]

Gotta say again, it actually was amazing. I'll probably travel to the next one to be in the path (not like something that d ever do).

We are smack dab in the middle of the next one. C'mon up.

I actually will take you up on that.

 

[slick4591]

We are smack dab in the middle of the next one. C'mon up.

Same here.

 

[Ouachita]

I'm in the totality for the next one as well. So if any of you CT brothers and sisters need a place off the beaten path, send me a PM. From the east side of the property, looking southwest, it should be an awesome sight to see that 3,000 mph shadow coming across the mountains moving at us right before it gets dark.
I wish I could post pictures here. We stayed here at home for this eclipse. It was 88% here, but we had partly cloudy, scattered and broken clouds, that allowed us to get some really great pictures as the rain laden clouds moved between earth and sun. Also had a great time watching hundreds of butterflies lite on the low water bridge where we were swimming and fishing. Crickets carried on a bit too.

 

[Askme42]

We parked people on the farm since our town was expecting a crowd and has very little parking.


Ended up with around 500 vehicles. Nice easy money and they picked up after themselves.

I was very skeptical of how it could be so amazing. Now I understand. Totality was an amazing experience that pictures can't even come close to doing it justice.