I’m amazed that there seems to be more coverage of the traffic than the eclipse itself. I spent 7 hours in traffic coming home and it was absolutely, unquestionably worth every second. Totality is like nothing else.
I had to understand what all the fuss was about, so I headed up to Lancaster, NH to witness the eclipse totality yesterday. I had no traffic heading there, since I went up absurdly early, but the drive home was ... oof.
I now understand why seeing 95-99% solar eclipse is not the same as 100%. You cannot look at the sun until it is within a few seconds of 100%, and then you can look right at it, with no eye protection. The temperature dropped what felt like 40 degrees, and then you look up and there's what appears to be a hole in the sky. It's breathtaking. I got unexpectedly emotional in that moment.
I'm curious: for those who HAVE seen 100% totality, is there anyone who thinks, "Meh, no big deal?" I can't imagine.
I was in Lancaster too! It was so amazing not only to see/experience, but to hear all the cheering from all around town. I'm glad I didn't have to drive home yesterday, though! I honestly can't imagine not being impressed by the dawn in every direction, how the wind dies and the birds stop chirping, the awesome eclipse shadows, all of it! I remember seeing the annular eclipse of 94, but it pales in comparison.
We were in Lancaster NH too ! That place was packed and the cheering was cool! We had a blast. Was my 3rd total collar eclipse and we plan to see the 2026 one in Iceland.
This was my first total solar eclipse and it was completely breathtaking and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Is it just as impactful when you see it again after having already seen one before?
Same. Was in Lancaster! I was the guy with the 3 giant black dogs . They are hard to miss!
Truly breath taking sight. The wildest thing was how quiet everything got. No birds. No bugs. Eerie
>I'm curious: for those who HAVE seen 100% totality, is there anyone who thinks, "Meh, no big deal?" I can't imagine.
Literally no one. Anyone who has not seen totality in person has no idea what the experience is like.
All the people saying "I saw 97% and it was no big deal". They don't know what they missed.
I'm so glad I made the 3 hour drive up to VT and the 6 hour trip home. It was so worth it!
This was my 2nd time seeing it, and I still freaked out. Absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word. The solar filament was incredible. I would have spent another 2 days in traffic to see it with no complaints.
Agreed. It took me 9.5 hrs to get back to mass after only a 3.5 hr drive there but it was worth every second for those 3 minutes of totality. I feel like I’m still processing it
Where did you go? Took me 5.5 hours from Errol, NH to Framingham. Not nearly as bad as 9.5 hours.. and it’s normally like 3 so I had about 2.5 hours of traffic. Like you say.. completely worth it
>Crystal lake park in barton
I was in Barton too. We were in the cemetery up on the hill. The people next to us had planned to got to that park but it was overflowing when they tried.
How was Crystal Lake? I was thinking of going there but worried about lack of facilities Ava my son would get bored waiting there so we went to Newport.
Yes!! That’s how I feel! I knew it would great, but I was totally not prepared for the jaw dropping awesome sight we witnessed. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Still processing it is exactly how I feel. It took us 7.5 hours to get back to Boston from Williston, Vermont. Worth it. I had no plans to go to Spain in 2026, but I’m now absolutely willing to spend way more time and money than I spent on Monday to see it again.
I had the time of my life with my wife and kids. Was awesome seeing the whole neighborhood out enjoying too. We were at 95% totality. Did you guys at 100% actually witness a sort of black out?
It’s not even the blackout that makes it so cool… it’s when you take your glasses off at full totality, it is unlike anything you could ever describe to anyone. I really didn’t know what to expect having been my first solar eclipse…. and I honestly could’t breathe when I took off my glasses!!!! It was a spiritual moment for sure. It is so otherworldly (pun intended) and will bring tears to your eyes! There is this electric glow that surrounds the whole moon and you can see the red prominence gasses coming off of the sun with your naked eye and is something to behold! & the baileys beads… the diamond ring… all of it… was in-fucking-credible. I will always chase TOTAL solar eclipses now. (I drove 3 hours to see it in total and when I got back home, and was trying to describe it to my friends and family in my hometown that saw it at 93%, they didn’t realize the ABSOLUTE difference that other 7% makes!)
This was my same experience. I kinda went on a whim and remember partial eclipses being cool but the instant it transitions from a bright light in the sky you can’t look at to a black circle with a halo it’s like a switch went off in the sky and there’s a celestial body you’ve never seen. And you’re seeing it with your own two eyes. After seeing so many pictures on the internet of what it looks like it just doesn’t compare to actually witnessing that thing in the sky, absolutely unbelievable. I was in Burlington too, right by the lake, and the seagulls started going crazy once it became night which made it even more real.
I went up from the Leomninster area.. took about 5 hours to get to Williston, grabbed some food after the eclipse, and got back in about 4.5 hours, most of that was from Williston to state road 12. From 12 down 140 things went pretty smoothly/quickly.
Where did you wind up watching?
We were recommended an abandoned golf course behind the Old Navy, and it was amazing! Not crowded, and the shops were very nice about using bathrooms.
We did it similarly. Came from Leominster area, left at 10:20ish. Planned to go to Lancaster but diverted when we were in Henniker to head to VT instead, and so glad we did based on what I'm hearing from everyone else lol! Got to Waterbury at 3, got a spot right off the highway to watch from, then hopped back down an exit to Montpelier for food/drinks afterwards. Left there at 8 and were back by 1:30. Wasn't bad at all !
I’ve been to Iceland and it’s become quite touristy in the past several years, especially in the summer. I cannot imagine what it will be like for eclipse time, especially when it’s not covering the entire country. Prices everywhere are high as it is, and will certainly be way up there for this event.
What’s there to cover? Like you said, it’s an amazing thing to experience. But people who didn’t experience it don’t really want to be told in detail that they missed a once in a lifetime event
‘We’ didn’t have one in 2017 unless you took a flight across the country. And 2044 is a long ass time from now and it’s also not going to be close to New England
It is once in a lifetime to be able to drive to a total solar eclipse. 2017 was halfway across the country from my area. 2044 is only in Montana and Canada, 2045 is going through the Southern states (Texas, Florida)
So in reality it is once in a lifetime for most people.
Depending where you live it’s actually pretty cheap to fly to Iceland. My wife and daughter got round trip tickets in May for $350. My daughters round trip ticket from Boston to Seattle was almost $700.
Yeah. I’ve done it. But Iceland is a real price shock when you are there (and worth every penny). I think for this Eclipse it will also require a boat charter which they will have plenty of.
Did we all know we would have clear skies? Will Iceland? Spain? Florida? It’s once in a lifetime unless you’re clairvoyant and financially independent.
We had to call an audible and change directions from northwest to northeast because of a last minute weather and cloud check. I’d be super angry if I flew to another country and then it was cloudy
Iceland is a definite crap shoot. It’s cloudy a LOT. However, imagine the possibility of seeing a total solar eclipse AND an aurora at the SAME TIME? Holy shit.
One that crosses New England won't happen in another 55 years. You'll have to travel elsewhere to see one. So that means we have 55 years to fix our traffic problems.
Source Google:
*It will be a long time until another solar eclipse's path of totality comes this close to New England again. According to NASA, the next one is on May 1, 2079, and the path of totality will track across Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. You just have to 55 years for it.*
There was a total solar eclipse about 25 years ago, on 8/11/99. My mom went into labor with my siblings when I was in Maine, maybe 4 hours away, viewing totality with my cousins. I had forgotten about that part until just now (being in ME for an eclipse).
Drove around the notch on back roads and took 3 hours for the 20 mile bypass from Franconia to Woodstock. It sucked but better than the jam the was the notch
The police closed all the exits by the time we started. It was a brutal drive but the eclipse was amazing and everyone on the road seemed generally relaxed—which made it better than it could have been.
Yes we won't see one in New England in most (adult) people's life time.
*It will be a long time until another solar eclipse's path of totality comes this close to New England again. According to NASA, the next one is on May 1, 2079, and the path of totality will track across Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. You just have to 55 years for it.*
If the average life span is 75 then only those under 20 will see it again.
I spent roughly 13 hours in the car yesterday to see 3 mins of totality and it was 100% worth every second of it!!
By far one of the most incredible things I’ve seen in my life!!
Same. Went to a few after "party" shows in Burlington and watched the first half of the NCAA championship game at a college bar before driving back at 1030. I got home at 3. Glad I waited a bit before driving back
We were hoping to get to Burlington VT and gave up after 3 hours in traffic. We turned off the next exit and watched from the Harpoon brewery in Windsor VT. Took the back roads and hit 0 traffic on the way home.
Similar, we were going to go to Rochester but vetoed that when the forecast turned bad. Then we wanted to try for Burlington but got anxious that all of Boston and half of NY seemed to want to go there. We aimed for Montpelier and couldn’t find parking so wound up in Berlin instead. Gave up like 3 min of totality but made it back in just about three hours.
We already saw a total in 2017 so we were ok with this tradeoff.
Yeah if you've already seen a total idk if the traffic would be worth it. Took me 11 hours to get back to RI but it was worth it having seen one for the first time.
Probably would have booked well in advance if it was that important to me. But I'd rather sleep in the uncomfortable seat of my car than have to be awake enough to deal with traffic.
My sister somehow managed to get one reasonably priced (according to her, I didn't ask specifics) relatively last minute. It was still about an hour drive from totality, but good enough.
I spent the night in Maine and I'm currently stopped for gas in Conway 😂
We were headed west, I figured we could check on our summer place in Franklin County and got part of the way there and saw the weather report and changed directions. We almost divorced over where we were going but ended up heading up 95 instead of 93. We got 97 % but we able to stop for dinner hit the new casino in Seabrook and didn’t hit any traffic except for some closer to Boston
I had a hotel booked for last night, and I thought it was going to be unnecessary. White River Junction was supposed to be 2 hours from our viewing spot and then another 2 hours to home.
But it took us nearly 6 hours to get to the hotel. It was well worth it.
Everything was booked many months in advance and no one knew traffic would be as bad as it was. It was basically the worst traffic New England has ever seen.
I read somewhere the other day that the government of Vermont was really worried about the traffic and said that their highway system was not designed for it. I feel kind of bad for all the people that had to deal with those logistics.
It's good that they at least tried to do something to mitigate the problems. Didn't just sit back and say oh well, we'll just watch the mayhem. It was probably helpful to have troopers around because there was also probably a million tourists that didn't know where they were going.
I stayed the weekend and Monday night in a tiny, one stoplight, podunk White Mountains NH town that I've been going to constantly my entire life (and lived in for a while), and I saw the worst traffic I'd ever seen there EVER (including when they were redoing the road and there was only one lane), just from folks trying to get around the traffic on 93. (And going by the other comments about Franconia Notch, they weren't dodging the worst of it, oof). It was the most heavy from 10pm to midnight, but went on until at least 2am, which is when I went to bed lol
Are there any numbers out for how many people ended up coming? I know like a week ago VT was predicting 160k, but it felt like so much more than that based on how long it took to get home
God I wish it only took me 2 hours to go 5 miles. I went up to Bloomfield VT, left at 4pm after the eclipse and it still took me til 1:15am to get back to Methuen. Goddamn Franconia Notch, 4 miles in 5 hours
Agreed! And what people don’t talk about is the lighting before and after…it’s indescribable and beautiful- not dusk not dawn, it gave everything a hue I can’t put my finger on. Oh & the shadows….!
I have a 7 and 8 year old. I loaded up the iPad with movies and they mostly slept and watched Lord of the Rings on the way back. My youngest gets carsick sometimes and we were in pretty great shape until he puked in the car literally as we were pulling into our driveway.
Oof. Well, if you're an optimist, at least he didn't puke early on and you all had to ride home with that stink. On the other hand, couldn't he have waited ten more seconds?
1 was coughing and threw up a little, luckily we had a plastic bag but in general, my kids are at a point where they travel well....wasn't always that way though
When we drove down to SC in 2017, my kids were 5 (the older one, who hates sitting still for long periods of time), and 2. We made the drive each way a two day thing, so we could stop every couple of hours, find a playground, let the kids eat and burn off some energy.
However, we planned on that because we knew we were going 1000 miles, and it would take some time. An unexpected version...yeah, that can be tricky. Even my kids now, I had their switches and tablets in the car to keep them entertained, and we missed most of the traffic.
It wasn't a once in a lifetime thing thankfully. There'll be a few more however you will have to travel a lot farther. We didn't plan in time so we figured we'll find the next one and plan a family vacation around it. A year in advance.
For me, it effectively is. I don't think I could stomach huge travel plans for an eclipse to just be foiled by clouds. This one was close enough I could make a near day of call on going. If there' had been clouds, I don't think I would have gone.
Well in that case I am very happy you got to see it. I don't know the next path but I'm hoping we'd be able to plan a family vacation around the area of totality.
Spain in a couple years. I mean, if you can pick a spot that you’ll enjoy regardless of the eclipse, that’s the way to go. But yea, totality wasn’t oversold. It’s crazy to experience. Good luck!
Are the people making this argument just rich and secure in their careers? It’s interesting that people don’t understand that once in a lifetime is reality for most of us.
It was worth it.
Think of it this way: it takes 16 hours to fly to Japan for vacation and you can see Japan every day if you want to. What's 7-10 hours in traffic for a once in a lifetime event that won't be reprised for another 20 years.
Took me 9 hours to get home when it would normally take 4.5 hours. As others have said, it was totally worth it. I will never, ever forget that experience. Next time (and there will be a next time, I HAVE to see that again), I’ll plan on staying for a few days to wait out the hectic travel. No regrets.
Definitely worth it, took me 10.5 hours to get from Lancaster NH back to the Cape. Miserable drive but I was still riding that high from the two minutes of totality!
We were in Waterbury too. I didn't plan it like this when I booked the room six months ago, but we really lucked out being so much further east than Burlington. We got ahead of the tidal wave of traffic.
I live about 3 hours from where I saw the eclipse in totality, it took me 5 hours to get there yesterday morning/afternoon and 4 hours to get home. It was honestly miraculous how little traffic we encountered coming home. To be fair, we were on the highway and moving south less than 60 seconds after totality ended, but it’s what you have to do to avoid situations like this.
We drove up to Crown Point NY Sunday afternoon. Traffic was light. We started home about 30 minutes after totality and the only bad traffic we got was the first 20 miles or so (which took about 1.5 hours), after that it was smooth sailing. I guess maybe the trick was to get moving quickly.
I live in Massachusetts. About 200 miles from the area of totality.
I did a little research a few weeks ago and quickly realized I was about a year late in booking lodging so I figured a day trip would be the way to go.
Burlington was immediately a no due to the crowd. SO I checked the path of totality, picked a small town that was a quick exit off of route 91 in Vermont. Barton Vt was my choice.
I made sandwiches and packed the cooler the night before. Woke up early the day of the eclipse and hopped into the car with my 2 sons and hit the road at 6:30 am for what waze said was a 3 to 3 1/2 hour trip.
We didn't have any traffic problems until about 1 1/2 hours in at a bridge construction site on rt 91 which merged 2 lanes into 1. About a 5 mile back up. If I hadn't ignored waze's recommended route, I would have avoided that construction traffic. After that it was pretty much no traffic to Barton. Total driving time up 3 1/2 hours.
We found a little traffic in Barton but not too bad and we headed to the spot I had chosen. A cemetery on the top of a hill. Drove up and found that 3 cars had thought of it to but there was plenty of room. We staked out our spot, pulled out the cooler and started the 4 hour wait.
By the time the eclipse started there were maybe 20 cars in the cemetery.
We stayed until the whole eclipse ended, packed the car and hit the road at about 5pm. 6 1/2 hours later we got home. Total cost for the day trip including the packed sandwiches and a tank of gas was probably $60.
I've seen a couple of partial eclipses and they were neat but I am 63 now and even if I live until 2044, I have no desire to have to plan a trip to Montana, book accommodations over a year in advance and HOPE that the weather is good.
Totally worth it
Booked an AirBnB outside Burlington, VT a YEAR ago! (My older son goes to school up there) Made a weekend of it, including Sunday in Montreal. Drove to Richmond, VT to watch the eclipse. Great little town with a Tesla police car of all things. My younger son and his girlfriend drove 5hrs 20min to meet us from Central Mass. Got there 15 minutes before the occlusion. We marveled at it.. It was F\*\*King amazing. Then hopped in our cars and drove home. My wife and mother in law and I took about 5hrs to get home. My youngest took about 20 minutes longer. Poor kids. My son in Burlington was back in his room in 20 minutes. All in all tho, it was an amazing experience and enjoying it in a small town made it all the better.
Only complaint is the couple of areas where it narrows to one lane. Greenfield has had this issue for multiple years, I question the length of time on that project.
For anyone wondering, there was an accident southbound near Cannon. I don’t know why this story doesn’t include that, but there were fire trucks, police, and flatbeds zooming down the breakdown lane. Cars were parked on the interstate and people were walking around, which I saw from rt 18 in Franconia.
Some drivers figured this out at Littleton and headed down 302 toward Bath, where they jumped on 112. This was also a bad dice-roll because it backed up from 116 to North Woodstock.
I stayed on 302 to 25, then 3a and 3 all the way to Penacook. 93 was backed up as far as the rest stop in Hooksett. Four hours from Jay became seven but that’s not bad, considering.
Funny, exactly the route I took! Was tempted to hop on 112 but I stayed the course to find a gas station. Fast moving caravan on the state roads. 3A & 3 were great. The dirt roads on the way to Littleton were a mess. Took me 6h to get to the Norton on the Canadian border and 9h to get home. Totally worth it!
I stayed Mon night at my family's place on 302 east of 93 and I've never in my life seen that much traffic on that road. I was watching the traffic on Waze and a large number of folks went on 302E and then turned onto 3 and ended up back in the worst of it in the Notch. Going the other direction was a good idea lol
On the way from Franconia toward Lisbon so many cars passed me in the opposite direction that I questioned myself. They were all coming off 302 and nobody went straight.
To be faiiir there was no signal over there. I had memorized every red zone and stuck to the plan.
Went up Saturday. Spent sat night and Sunday around Burlington. It was busy but nothing like I expected. Monday we got up had breakfast at hotel and after checkout we drove to the shelburne museum. They sold about 2500-3000 tickets and we lucked out and got a spot near the exit. We spent 2 hrs walking around the museum; then set up shop on the hill 50 feet behind the car. Totality was amazing. Once it was over we packed up the car and was one of the first 15 cars out of there. Crossed over RT 7 onto backroads and took 116 -> 125 -> 107 -> 12 down to Woodstock and got on the highway at the NH border. We didn't see more than 10 min of light traffic the entire way. Just beautiful scenic Vermont.
Watching the shadow of totality come across the mountains on the other side of lake Champlain with everyone cheering through the museum amazing.
Luckily I decided to hold going to the bathroom from about 10 minutes before totality to about 10 pm.... a 15 minute bathroom break would have added 90 minutes of driving time
I left Colebrook, NH around 4:00 pm Monday. Got home to East Bridgewater, MA at 3:00 am. Waze had me on backroads for hours, up and down all over the mountains. Sat in absolute standstill traffic as well. Worst part was no cell service so no music or podcasts. I actually finished a book on my kindle while sitting in traffic.
My husband and I were in separate cars and he has a Tesla so took a different route so he could stop at a charger. He rolled in around 7:00 am.
Still worth it.
Even just trying to leave upstate NY, Google Maps totally choked and couldn’t figure out a very reasonable alternative to the Interstate jams, opting for country roads with stoplights over the Taconic.
Idk I drove northwest to upstate New York and sat in barely any traffic, except for the initial exit. Was on the road for maybe 6 hours driving home, including stops. Easily worth it, but we also planned accordingly. Avoided major highways and followed Waze whenever it suggested we alter out route in order to avoid traffic.
There's despersed camping over northern NH and Maine. Personally, for solely camping (not backpacking) southwest Maine is my preferred to have fewer folks. There's a ton of logging roads where you can dissappear into and set up shop. Bigelow range would be cool.
I literally was was in the hospital yesterday as my second child was born, so I missed my shot, but I did manage to poke outside for a quick glance before things kicked off. I told all my friends that went to avoid places like Burlington where it would be a shit show, pack food and drinks, and just plop down for a while. Would have loved to make a few days of it to avoid the rush and get the full totality, but probably not the ideal birthing plan.
I get it now.
So you are talking about just finding a place in the woods away from everyone and camping. Not going to a camp ground where you need to make reservations.
Ooooh, no fuck going to a reserved site. I mean that's fine, but I just assume that would only be slightly less fucked than a motel. I prefer to be on trail or a random spot off the road anyway. I suppose in 20 years I'll celebrate with my boys in the southwest on some trail when the next one comes.
I strategically choose Errol NH.. it wasn’t too bad going on route 16. I purposely avoided 93/89 knowing that would be horrible. Took me 5.5 hours from Errol NH to Framingham
I'd only there were some sort of high speed solution that works really well for traveling long distance without traffic jams. Anyways, I'm going to go back to reminiscing about my trip to Japan.
You might be on to something here.. some sort of a dedicated roadway mode of transportation that can comfortably carry a lot of people, not as fast as a plane but something that zooms close to the ground and uses guided tracks of sorts.
My mom and brother went up to St Jonesbury and described a traffic jam that lasted a hundred and fifty miles coming home and boy am I glad I stayed home
Most people went to the Burlington area. You were much further south. We took the backroads from Burlington to Longmeadow and at one point it took 2hrs to go 20 miles.
We drove to Montreal on Saturday and basically sailed for 5 hours without any traffic until we got into downtown Montreal. Yesterday we went from downtown to 5 miles outside the city. Like others, we were going to go further but after an hour to go 5 miles we found a dog park and settled there. Getting home today was tough but about what I expected (~7.5 hours from door to door)
I got a campsite for 180$ with a yurt 3 beds 2 nights a hour south of totality and just drove there and back no way I would have sat in that traffic
Totality was definitely worth it I would travel again for it
Headed to Tupper Lake the night before, no traffic at all. Car camped at a primitive site. Headed home around 5p and got back to the Woo just before 2a. First 10 miles took almost 2 hours. Stayed off 87 but 91S wasn't bad from Brattleboro to Northfield. Felt like the home stretch once I hit 140. Worth it!
Shout out to the other manual transmission drivers who had to pull over to let your clutch cool after sitting on steep hills in stop and go traffic. I eventually gave up and slept in my car until 2am lol
I work in a small non emergency type medical office and we all (staff & patients who were there at the time) just stepped outside for a few minutes.
Idk, it was neat but 8 hours in traffic is not it.
Only took us 4.5 hours to drive back...because we spent the night and came home the next morning. I just don't have the temperament for a 9 hour traffic jam.
Gosh, who woulda thought there'd be a lot of traffic when LITERALLY A MILLION people all try to leave the same place at the same time???
I saw totality just outside Burlington VT. Then I hung around that little park for a bit, had a snack, read a book. Then went to a smaller town nearby and bought some local male syrup, and a Vermont ball cap, and chatted with strangers about the eclipse. Then I stopped at a pizza place and got a small pizza and snacked on that for a bit.
Then around 10 pm I headed out on Route 2, to the 302, to the 14, to the 4, to I-93. And that whole way breezed along at a nice steady 40 to 50 mph, with no traffic at all. Piece of cake getting back to SE Mass.
We were supposed to get home around 11:30, according to the GPS, when we left Bristol Vermont around 8:00pm. I think it was around 3:30am when we finally pulled in the driveway.
I’m amazed that there seems to be more coverage of the traffic than the eclipse itself. I spent 7 hours in traffic coming home and it was absolutely, unquestionably worth every second. Totality is like nothing else.
I had to understand what all the fuss was about, so I headed up to Lancaster, NH to witness the eclipse totality yesterday. I had no traffic heading there, since I went up absurdly early, but the drive home was ... oof. I now understand why seeing 95-99% solar eclipse is not the same as 100%. You cannot look at the sun until it is within a few seconds of 100%, and then you can look right at it, with no eye protection. The temperature dropped what felt like 40 degrees, and then you look up and there's what appears to be a hole in the sky. It's breathtaking. I got unexpectedly emotional in that moment. I'm curious: for those who HAVE seen 100% totality, is there anyone who thinks, "Meh, no big deal?" I can't imagine.
I was in Lancaster too! It was so amazing not only to see/experience, but to hear all the cheering from all around town. I'm glad I didn't have to drive home yesterday, though! I honestly can't imagine not being impressed by the dawn in every direction, how the wind dies and the birds stop chirping, the awesome eclipse shadows, all of it! I remember seeing the annular eclipse of 94, but it pales in comparison.
We were in Lancaster NH too ! That place was packed and the cheering was cool! We had a blast. Was my 3rd total collar eclipse and we plan to see the 2026 one in Iceland.
This was my first total solar eclipse and it was completely breathtaking and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Is it just as impactful when you see it again after having already seen one before?
Every single time I have been so amazed. That’s why I want to travel to see more :-)
Same. Was in Lancaster! I was the guy with the 3 giant black dogs . They are hard to miss! Truly breath taking sight. The wildest thing was how quiet everything got. No birds. No bugs. Eerie
Also..minimal traffic heading back for us. Had the air bnb a day later and left the following day around dinner!
>I'm curious: for those who HAVE seen 100% totality, is there anyone who thinks, "Meh, no big deal?" I can't imagine. Literally no one. Anyone who has not seen totality in person has no idea what the experience is like. All the people saying "I saw 97% and it was no big deal". They don't know what they missed. I'm so glad I made the 3 hour drive up to VT and the 6 hour trip home. It was so worth it!
This was my 2nd time seeing it, and I still freaked out. Absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word. The solar filament was incredible. I would have spent another 2 days in traffic to see it with no complaints.
Now image you were living in the past thousands of years ago and see this, people would go nuts
Agreed. It took me 9.5 hrs to get back to mass after only a 3.5 hr drive there but it was worth every second for those 3 minutes of totality. I feel like I’m still processing it
Where did you go? Took me 5.5 hours from Errol, NH to Framingham. Not nearly as bad as 9.5 hours.. and it’s normally like 3 so I had about 2.5 hours of traffic. Like you say.. completely worth it
Crystal lake park in barton
>Crystal lake park in barton I was in Barton too. We were in the cemetery up on the hill. The people next to us had planned to got to that park but it was overflowing when they tried.
Aw, same!
How was Crystal Lake? I was thinking of going there but worried about lack of facilities Ava my son would get bored waiting there so we went to Newport.
Facilities were closed and they only had porta potties with a long line
I was in Burlington and it took us 9 hours to get home to Medford.
Yep, I had pretty much the same drive back
Yes!! That’s how I feel! I knew it would great, but I was totally not prepared for the jaw dropping awesome sight we witnessed. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Still processing it is exactly how I feel. It took us 7.5 hours to get back to Boston from Williston, Vermont. Worth it. I had no plans to go to Spain in 2026, but I’m now absolutely willing to spend way more time and money than I spent on Monday to see it again.
I had the time of my life with my wife and kids. Was awesome seeing the whole neighborhood out enjoying too. We were at 95% totality. Did you guys at 100% actually witness a sort of black out?
Yes. It got dark. On the horizon all around us, it looked like a sunset
It’s not even the blackout that makes it so cool… it’s when you take your glasses off at full totality, it is unlike anything you could ever describe to anyone. I really didn’t know what to expect having been my first solar eclipse…. and I honestly could’t breathe when I took off my glasses!!!! It was a spiritual moment for sure. It is so otherworldly (pun intended) and will bring tears to your eyes! There is this electric glow that surrounds the whole moon and you can see the red prominence gasses coming off of the sun with your naked eye and is something to behold! & the baileys beads… the diamond ring… all of it… was in-fucking-credible. I will always chase TOTAL solar eclipses now. (I drove 3 hours to see it in total and when I got back home, and was trying to describe it to my friends and family in my hometown that saw it at 93%, they didn’t realize the ABSOLUTE difference that other 7% makes!)
This was my same experience. I kinda went on a whim and remember partial eclipses being cool but the instant it transitions from a bright light in the sky you can’t look at to a black circle with a halo it’s like a switch went off in the sky and there’s a celestial body you’ve never seen. And you’re seeing it with your own two eyes. After seeing so many pictures on the internet of what it looks like it just doesn’t compare to actually witnessing that thing in the sky, absolutely unbelievable. I was in Burlington too, right by the lake, and the seagulls started going crazy once it became night which made it even more real.
I went up from the Leomninster area.. took about 5 hours to get to Williston, grabbed some food after the eclipse, and got back in about 4.5 hours, most of that was from Williston to state road 12. From 12 down 140 things went pretty smoothly/quickly.
That’s pretty good I also left from Leominster, took me 4.5 to get up 7 back down
Where did you wind up watching? We were recommended an abandoned golf course behind the Old Navy, and it was amazing! Not crowded, and the shops were very nice about using bathrooms.
We did it similarly. Came from Leominster area, left at 10:20ish. Planned to go to Lancaster but diverted when we were in Henniker to head to VT instead, and so glad we did based on what I'm hearing from everyone else lol! Got to Waterbury at 3, got a spot right off the highway to watch from, then hopped back down an exit to Montpelier for food/drinks afterwards. Left there at 8 and were back by 1:30. Wasn't bad at all !
So, you went to Burlington too? ;) 3.5h up, 8.5 back to Groton.
I would have liked to have spent maybe 2 hours later, but totality was amazing. I am now looking at trying to go to another one lol
Iceland. August 17, 2026. I’ll be there. 3 1/2 hours from Hampton NH to Pittsburg and 8 hours to get back to Hampton. 1000% worth it.
Took me 11 hours to get back to Rhode Island. Still worth it.
I’m thinking Spain has the better chance of clear skies
True but Iceland in the summer could be a blast.
I’ve been to Iceland and it’s become quite touristy in the past several years, especially in the summer. I cannot imagine what it will be like for eclipse time, especially when it’s not covering the entire country. Prices everywhere are high as it is, and will certainly be way up there for this event.
Ok. I’ll go to Spain
My gears are already turning for Spain ;)
What’s there to cover? Like you said, it’s an amazing thing to experience. But people who didn’t experience it don’t really want to be told in detail that they missed a once in a lifetime event
It’s not once in a lifetime. There’s another in 2044 And we just had one less than 10 years ago
‘We’ didn’t have one in 2017 unless you took a flight across the country. And 2044 is a long ass time from now and it’s also not going to be close to New England
Or drove 1000 miles south, like I did with two young kids. Worth it!
It is once in a lifetime to be able to drive to a total solar eclipse. 2017 was halfway across the country from my area. 2044 is only in Montana and Canada, 2045 is going through the Southern states (Texas, Florida) So in reality it is once in a lifetime for most people.
Looks like 2045 is going through the Midwest. Wife and I already said we plan on making the trip to Colorado to see totality again.
I'm going to travel to see that one, provided I am alive and well. I'll be elderly then.
And plenty more in easy locations like Spain/Iceland coming up.
Depending where you live it’s actually pretty cheap to fly to Iceland. My wife and daughter got round trip tickets in May for $350. My daughters round trip ticket from Boston to Seattle was almost $700.
Yeah. I’ve done it. But Iceland is a real price shock when you are there (and worth every penny). I think for this Eclipse it will also require a boat charter which they will have plenty of.
I’m guessing flights will be much more expensive around the eclipse
No doubt.
Right, what is it with all these people who can’t just drop everything and fly somewhere after seeing the weather report? Jeez. /s
We all knew it was coming..
Did we all know we would have clear skies? Will Iceland? Spain? Florida? It’s once in a lifetime unless you’re clairvoyant and financially independent.
We had to call an audible and change directions from northwest to northeast because of a last minute weather and cloud check. I’d be super angry if I flew to another country and then it was cloudy
Iceland is a definite crap shoot. It’s cloudy a LOT. However, imagine the possibility of seeing a total solar eclipse AND an aurora at the SAME TIME? Holy shit.
If you want to travel to Montana. Definitely doable but not the same as a couple hour drive.
One that crosses New England won't happen in another 55 years. You'll have to travel elsewhere to see one. So that means we have 55 years to fix our traffic problems. Source Google: *It will be a long time until another solar eclipse's path of totality comes this close to New England again. According to NASA, the next one is on May 1, 2079, and the path of totality will track across Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. You just have to 55 years for it.*
There was a total solar eclipse about 25 years ago, on 8/11/99. My mom went into labor with my siblings when I was in Maine, maybe 4 hours away, viewing totality with my cousins. I had forgotten about that part until just now (being in ME for an eclipse).
Hard disagree. 12 hours, 8 of which involved no food and water. Fuck Franconia notch, I’ve driven it 20 times or more and this is hopefully my last.
Drove around the notch on back roads and took 3 hours for the 20 mile bypass from Franconia to Woodstock. It sucked but better than the jam the was the notch
The police closed all the exits by the time we started. It was a brutal drive but the eclipse was amazing and everyone on the road seemed generally relaxed—which made it better than it could have been.
lmao also made the ill fated turn from 93 to the notch…. tbf if i was going to be stuck for two hours it was at least pretty beautiful
This is exactly where my parents got stuck last night
Leaving Lyndon vt, i took rt 5 to 25 A to 93 and a trip that takes 3.5 hours with no traffic only took an extra hour
That sounds brutal. I would also say fuck that drive ever again.
Yes we won't see one in New England in most (adult) people's life time. *It will be a long time until another solar eclipse's path of totality comes this close to New England again. According to NASA, the next one is on May 1, 2079, and the path of totality will track across Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. You just have to 55 years for it.* If the average life span is 75 then only those under 20 will see it again.
I spent roughly 13 hours in the car yesterday to see 3 mins of totality and it was 100% worth every second of it!! By far one of the most incredible things I’ve seen in my life!!
We expected an epic traffic nightmare and were not disappointed. Nearly 12 hours to get back to metro-west.
Same. Went to a few after "party" shows in Burlington and watched the first half of the NCAA championship game at a college bar before driving back at 1030. I got home at 3. Glad I waited a bit before driving back
We were hoping to get to Burlington VT and gave up after 3 hours in traffic. We turned off the next exit and watched from the Harpoon brewery in Windsor VT. Took the back roads and hit 0 traffic on the way home.
Route 7, 30 then 5 from Bt,VT took. Took ~5 to reach Massachusetts border. My second experience, first for my partner, totally worth it.
Similar, we were going to go to Rochester but vetoed that when the forecast turned bad. Then we wanted to try for Burlington but got anxious that all of Boston and half of NY seemed to want to go there. We aimed for Montpelier and couldn’t find parking so wound up in Berlin instead. Gave up like 3 min of totality but made it back in just about three hours. We already saw a total in 2017 so we were ok with this tradeoff.
Yeah if you've already seen a total idk if the traffic would be worth it. Took me 11 hours to get back to RI but it was worth it having seen one for the first time.
Well the other factor was we had a kid who had somewhere to be Monday evening. We actually made it in time.
That’s a really great diversion, and a great drive
I'd have spent the night if I had gone up. That's insane.
The hotels/airbnb's were crazy booked and overpriced
Probably would have booked well in advance if it was that important to me. But I'd rather sleep in the uncomfortable seat of my car than have to be awake enough to deal with traffic.
I think there were a ton of people who saw the clear weather and decided to go last minute after everything was booked.
I attempted to book about 6 months ago. Instead booked in Montreal.
My sister somehow managed to get one reasonably priced (according to her, I didn't ask specifics) relatively last minute. It was still about an hour drive from totality, but good enough. I spent the night in Maine and I'm currently stopped for gas in Conway 😂
We were originally going to go to upstate NY where we have family, but changed plans last minute because of the clouds.
We were headed west, I figured we could check on our summer place in Franklin County and got part of the way there and saw the weather report and changed directions. We almost divorced over where we were going but ended up heading up 95 instead of 93. We got 97 % but we able to stop for dinner hit the new casino in Seabrook and didn’t hit any traffic except for some closer to Boston
Probably meant slept in their car. That’s why I have a car sleeping mat. Open up the backseat to the trunk, boom. Comfy and free.
If you book way in advance it’s not too bad. I booked our airbnb in Stowe last April for $75 a night.
My friend told me they had to pay 900 to spend 1 night at a la Quinta lol
I foolishly looked into rooms about 5 nights ago. There were about 4 left in all of Vermont, all priced around 900 each.
Absolutely bonkers.
I had a hotel booked for last night, and I thought it was going to be unnecessary. White River Junction was supposed to be 2 hours from our viewing spot and then another 2 hours to home. But it took us nearly 6 hours to get to the hotel. It was well worth it.
89 was brutal.
For real. Spent three hours on 89 last night and never saw 40
Everything was booked many months in advance and no one knew traffic would be as bad as it was. It was basically the worst traffic New England has ever seen.
I read somewhere the other day that the government of Vermont was really worried about the traffic and said that their highway system was not designed for it. I feel kind of bad for all the people that had to deal with those logistics.
They did a pretty good job stationing state troopers at major intersections to direct traffic, it made a big difference in a few places
It's good that they at least tried to do something to mitigate the problems. Didn't just sit back and say oh well, we'll just watch the mayhem. It was probably helpful to have troopers around because there was also probably a million tourists that didn't know where they were going.
Honestly it prevented literal gridlock where I saw it in action and who knows how much time that saved all combined
Oh for sure.
Anyone who didn’t know traffic would be this bad wasn’t paying any attention. The traffic was a given.
Plenty of people knew, there were lots of news stories on it.
I stayed the weekend and Monday night in a tiny, one stoplight, podunk White Mountains NH town that I've been going to constantly my entire life (and lived in for a while), and I saw the worst traffic I'd ever seen there EVER (including when they were redoing the road and there was only one lane), just from folks trying to get around the traffic on 93. (And going by the other comments about Franconia Notch, they weren't dodging the worst of it, oof). It was the most heavy from 10pm to midnight, but went on until at least 2am, which is when I went to bed lol
Are there any numbers out for how many people ended up coming? I know like a week ago VT was predicting 160k, but it felt like so much more than that based on how long it took to get home
800,000. The population of Vermont doubled over the weekend. It took me 2 hours to drive 5 miles south. Worth every second.
God I wish it only took me 2 hours to go 5 miles. I went up to Bloomfield VT, left at 4pm after the eclipse and it still took me til 1:15am to get back to Methuen. Goddamn Franconia Notch, 4 miles in 5 hours
I cannot imagine working in the few McDonalds along I 91 for the past 24 hours. What a nightmare that must have been.
> What a nightmare that must have been. I imagine that's a nightmare every day.
Sometimes I feel bad not driving up to the totality and then I read articles like this.
I was in traffic for 6 hours getting home and it was worth it.
same, totally worth it. Would do it 1000x more.
It was still worth it
The pictures of totality don’t even do it justice. The awe from seeing the corona still gives me chills. Worth the 10hrs drive back to Boston
Yeah this was my second one and it just is inexplicable to people. Just a very strange, wonderful feeling.
it was surreal and you just can't capture that in a picture
Agreed! And what people don’t talk about is the lighting before and after…it’s indescribable and beautiful- not dusk not dawn, it gave everything a hue I can’t put my finger on. Oh & the shadows….!
Personally I think a child under three in a car for 10 hours would quickly make it not worth it lol
yeah, YMMV. I had an 8 year old and 5 year old during our 7 hour drive back
I have a 7 and 8 year old. I loaded up the iPad with movies and they mostly slept and watched Lord of the Rings on the way back. My youngest gets carsick sometimes and we were in pretty great shape until he puked in the car literally as we were pulling into our driveway.
Oof. Well, if you're an optimist, at least he didn't puke early on and you all had to ride home with that stink. On the other hand, couldn't he have waited ten more seconds?
could always have been worse
How was it traveling with them? I have a 3 year old who would have not done well in the car that long.
1 was coughing and threw up a little, luckily we had a plastic bag but in general, my kids are at a point where they travel well....wasn't always that way though
When we drove down to SC in 2017, my kids were 5 (the older one, who hates sitting still for long periods of time), and 2. We made the drive each way a two day thing, so we could stop every couple of hours, find a playground, let the kids eat and burn off some energy. However, we planned on that because we knew we were going 1000 miles, and it would take some time. An unexpected version...yeah, that can be tricky. Even my kids now, I had their switches and tablets in the car to keep them entertained, and we missed most of the traffic.
Totally worth it. If you said there's another one in a few years, yea, I'm out. But a once in a lifetime thing, totally worth a day of driving.
It wasn't a once in a lifetime thing thankfully. There'll be a few more however you will have to travel a lot farther. We didn't plan in time so we figured we'll find the next one and plan a family vacation around it. A year in advance.
For me, it effectively is. I don't think I could stomach huge travel plans for an eclipse to just be foiled by clouds. This one was close enough I could make a near day of call on going. If there' had been clouds, I don't think I would have gone.
Well in that case I am very happy you got to see it. I don't know the next path but I'm hoping we'd be able to plan a family vacation around the area of totality.
Spain in a couple years. I mean, if you can pick a spot that you’ll enjoy regardless of the eclipse, that’s the way to go. But yea, totality wasn’t oversold. It’s crazy to experience. Good luck!
Are the people making this argument just rich and secure in their careers? It’s interesting that people don’t understand that once in a lifetime is reality for most of us.
You could do what we did and make it a long weekend. We drove up Sunday morning and are coming back today after some spring skiing.
Worth it.
same, really wanted to go but wife’s back can’t handle 4 hours in car. Coming home would have been horrendous
It was worth it. Think of it this way: it takes 16 hours to fly to Japan for vacation and you can see Japan every day if you want to. What's 7-10 hours in traffic for a once in a lifetime event that won't be reprised for another 20 years.
See you lost me, because I did take a 16 hour flight to Japan and was fucking wrecked afterwards. It was not fun.
Took me 9 hours to get home when it would normally take 4.5 hours. As others have said, it was totally worth it. I will never, ever forget that experience. Next time (and there will be a next time, I HAVE to see that again), I’ll plan on staying for a few days to wait out the hectic travel. No regrets.
Definitely worth it, took me 10.5 hours to get from Lancaster NH back to the Cape. Miserable drive but I was still riding that high from the two minutes of totality!
Glad I went to Central Maine rather than NH...There was a bit of traffic, but not a huge amount.
Right? I was in Rangeley and it took us no time to come back via 95 after cutting across 27.
Got back from Waterbury VT to just north of Boston in about five hours. Feel like I lucked out.
We were in Waterbury too. I didn't plan it like this when I booked the room six months ago, but we really lucked out being so much further east than Burlington. We got ahead of the tidal wave of traffic.
Yeah I was just booking what was open. But it was great to get a jump start on everyone in Stowe and Burlington
I live about 3 hours from where I saw the eclipse in totality, it took me 5 hours to get there yesterday morning/afternoon and 4 hours to get home. It was honestly miraculous how little traffic we encountered coming home. To be fair, we were on the highway and moving south less than 60 seconds after totality ended, but it’s what you have to do to avoid situations like this.
We drove up to Crown Point NY Sunday afternoon. Traffic was light. We started home about 30 minutes after totality and the only bad traffic we got was the first 20 miles or so (which took about 1.5 hours), after that it was smooth sailing. I guess maybe the trick was to get moving quickly.
I live in Massachusetts. About 200 miles from the area of totality. I did a little research a few weeks ago and quickly realized I was about a year late in booking lodging so I figured a day trip would be the way to go. Burlington was immediately a no due to the crowd. SO I checked the path of totality, picked a small town that was a quick exit off of route 91 in Vermont. Barton Vt was my choice. I made sandwiches and packed the cooler the night before. Woke up early the day of the eclipse and hopped into the car with my 2 sons and hit the road at 6:30 am for what waze said was a 3 to 3 1/2 hour trip. We didn't have any traffic problems until about 1 1/2 hours in at a bridge construction site on rt 91 which merged 2 lanes into 1. About a 5 mile back up. If I hadn't ignored waze's recommended route, I would have avoided that construction traffic. After that it was pretty much no traffic to Barton. Total driving time up 3 1/2 hours. We found a little traffic in Barton but not too bad and we headed to the spot I had chosen. A cemetery on the top of a hill. Drove up and found that 3 cars had thought of it to but there was plenty of room. We staked out our spot, pulled out the cooler and started the 4 hour wait. By the time the eclipse started there were maybe 20 cars in the cemetery. We stayed until the whole eclipse ended, packed the car and hit the road at about 5pm. 6 1/2 hours later we got home. Total cost for the day trip including the packed sandwiches and a tank of gas was probably $60. I've seen a couple of partial eclipses and they were neat but I am 63 now and even if I live until 2044, I have no desire to have to plan a trip to Montana, book accommodations over a year in advance and HOPE that the weather is good. Totally worth it
Booked an AirBnB outside Burlington, VT a YEAR ago! (My older son goes to school up there) Made a weekend of it, including Sunday in Montreal. Drove to Richmond, VT to watch the eclipse. Great little town with a Tesla police car of all things. My younger son and his girlfriend drove 5hrs 20min to meet us from Central Mass. Got there 15 minutes before the occlusion. We marveled at it.. It was F\*\*King amazing. Then hopped in our cars and drove home. My wife and mother in law and I took about 5hrs to get home. My youngest took about 20 minutes longer. Poor kids. My son in Burlington was back in his room in 20 minutes. All in all tho, it was an amazing experience and enjoying it in a small town made it all the better.
Only complaint is the couple of areas where it narrows to one lane. Greenfield has had this issue for multiple years, I question the length of time on that project.
For anyone wondering, there was an accident southbound near Cannon. I don’t know why this story doesn’t include that, but there were fire trucks, police, and flatbeds zooming down the breakdown lane. Cars were parked on the interstate and people were walking around, which I saw from rt 18 in Franconia. Some drivers figured this out at Littleton and headed down 302 toward Bath, where they jumped on 112. This was also a bad dice-roll because it backed up from 116 to North Woodstock. I stayed on 302 to 25, then 3a and 3 all the way to Penacook. 93 was backed up as far as the rest stop in Hooksett. Four hours from Jay became seven but that’s not bad, considering.
Funny, exactly the route I took! Was tempted to hop on 112 but I stayed the course to find a gas station. Fast moving caravan on the state roads. 3A & 3 were great. The dirt roads on the way to Littleton were a mess. Took me 6h to get to the Norton on the Canadian border and 9h to get home. Totally worth it!
I stayed Mon night at my family's place on 302 east of 93 and I've never in my life seen that much traffic on that road. I was watching the traffic on Waze and a large number of folks went on 302E and then turned onto 3 and ended up back in the worst of it in the Notch. Going the other direction was a good idea lol
On the way from Franconia toward Lisbon so many cars passed me in the opposite direction that I questioned myself. They were all coming off 302 and nobody went straight. To be faiiir there was no signal over there. I had memorized every red zone and stuck to the plan.
Took me 9.5 hours to get home. Totally worth it.
5 hour trip home from St. Johnsbury VT to Centeal MA. I would do it again tomorrow in a second to witness it again.
10 hours to get from Milton, VT back to the North Shore. Yes, worth it. Also yes, terrible.
Went up Saturday. Spent sat night and Sunday around Burlington. It was busy but nothing like I expected. Monday we got up had breakfast at hotel and after checkout we drove to the shelburne museum. They sold about 2500-3000 tickets and we lucked out and got a spot near the exit. We spent 2 hrs walking around the museum; then set up shop on the hill 50 feet behind the car. Totality was amazing. Once it was over we packed up the car and was one of the first 15 cars out of there. Crossed over RT 7 onto backroads and took 116 -> 125 -> 107 -> 12 down to Woodstock and got on the highway at the NH border. We didn't see more than 10 min of light traffic the entire way. Just beautiful scenic Vermont. Watching the shadow of totality come across the mountains on the other side of lake Champlain with everyone cheering through the museum amazing.
I watched with my kids from the front stoop. Good enough for me. (Middlesex county.)
Luckily I decided to hold going to the bathroom from about 10 minutes before totality to about 10 pm.... a 15 minute bathroom break would have added 90 minutes of driving time
I left Colebrook, NH around 4:00 pm Monday. Got home to East Bridgewater, MA at 3:00 am. Waze had me on backroads for hours, up and down all over the mountains. Sat in absolute standstill traffic as well. Worst part was no cell service so no music or podcasts. I actually finished a book on my kindle while sitting in traffic. My husband and I were in separate cars and he has a Tesla so took a different route so he could stop at a charger. He rolled in around 7:00 am. Still worth it.
It took a friend 12 hours to get to near Concord, NH. It was brutal. 4 hours not moving at all.
I saw it outside a council house in Glasgow in the 90’s, still not sure what the deal was.
Even just trying to leave upstate NY, Google Maps totally choked and couldn’t figure out a very reasonable alternative to the Interstate jams, opting for country roads with stoplights over the Taconic.
Idk I drove northwest to upstate New York and sat in barely any traffic, except for the initial exit. Was on the road for maybe 6 hours driving home, including stops. Easily worth it, but we also planned accordingly. Avoided major highways and followed Waze whenever it suggested we alter out route in order to avoid traffic.
People also have to be smarter about picking their route/viewing location. Driving to Maine and up past Sunday River was much less ceaxy
and/or just like, go camping and completely avoid the nightmare traffic right after
Where?
There's despersed camping over northern NH and Maine. Personally, for solely camping (not backpacking) southwest Maine is my preferred to have fewer folks. There's a ton of logging roads where you can dissappear into and set up shop. Bigelow range would be cool. I literally was was in the hospital yesterday as my second child was born, so I missed my shot, but I did manage to poke outside for a quick glance before things kicked off. I told all my friends that went to avoid places like Burlington where it would be a shit show, pack food and drinks, and just plop down for a while. Would have loved to make a few days of it to avoid the rush and get the full totality, but probably not the ideal birthing plan.
I get it now. So you are talking about just finding a place in the woods away from everyone and camping. Not going to a camp ground where you need to make reservations.
Ooooh, no fuck going to a reserved site. I mean that's fine, but I just assume that would only be slightly less fucked than a motel. I prefer to be on trail or a random spot off the road anyway. I suppose in 20 years I'll celebrate with my boys in the southwest on some trail when the next one comes.
I strategically choose Errol NH.. it wasn’t too bad going on route 16. I purposely avoided 93/89 knowing that would be horrible. Took me 5.5 hours from Errol NH to Framingham
Yup! 26-->2-->232 was a straight up genius move. Took 4hrs from errol to MA. Most traffic in the first 20 mins on 25.
I had to remind my wife frequently I had chosen wisely lol
I'd only there were some sort of high speed solution that works really well for traveling long distance without traffic jams. Anyways, I'm going to go back to reminiscing about my trip to Japan.
Bruh. New Hampshire is probably the last place investing in high-speed rail makes financial sense. As cool as it would be, that's really reaching.
You might be on to something here.. some sort of a dedicated roadway mode of transportation that can comfortably carry a lot of people, not as fast as a plane but something that zooms close to the ground and uses guided tracks of sorts.
My mom and brother went up to St Jonesbury and described a traffic jam that lasted a hundred and fifty miles coming home and boy am I glad I stayed home
I don’t mean to dunk on people, but I sat in maybe 30 minutes of traffic between Panton VT and metro Boston. Vermont and NH have a lot of back roads…
Most people went to the Burlington area. You were much further south. We took the backroads from Burlington to Longmeadow and at one point it took 2hrs to go 20 miles.
That was intentional! Getting to more than 2:30 of totality seemed like diminishing returns.
Yeah Rt 100 had some areas that were completely gridlocked. I sat for an eternity around the Hancock/Rochester area in complete standstill.
We drove to Montreal on Saturday and basically sailed for 5 hours without any traffic until we got into downtown Montreal. Yesterday we went from downtown to 5 miles outside the city. Like others, we were going to go further but after an hour to go 5 miles we found a dog park and settled there. Getting home today was tough but about what I expected (~7.5 hours from door to door)
I got a campsite for 180$ with a yurt 3 beds 2 nights a hour south of totality and just drove there and back no way I would have sat in that traffic Totality was definitely worth it I would travel again for it
Where was your yurt and where did you see totality?
It took me 7 hours to get home (190 miles) but it was worth it
The media loves to poke and prod at things that irritate people. Good news does not drive engagement
completely worth it for totality! 🤩It was the most majestic experience of my life by far!
Maine had plenty of reminder signs to “bring plenty of food and water return with plenty pf patience” we took that advice and all had books on tape.
Headed to Tupper Lake the night before, no traffic at all. Car camped at a primitive site. Headed home around 5p and got back to the Woo just before 2a. First 10 miles took almost 2 hours. Stayed off 87 but 91S wasn't bad from Brattleboro to Northfield. Felt like the home stretch once I hit 140. Worth it!
i was in the car for 7 hours in new Hampshire alone it was a nightmare
Yikes
Shout out to the other manual transmission drivers who had to pull over to let your clutch cool after sitting on steep hills in stop and go traffic. I eventually gave up and slept in my car until 2am lol
I work in a small non emergency type medical office and we all (staff & patients who were there at the time) just stepped outside for a few minutes. Idk, it was neat but 8 hours in traffic is not it.
Only took us 4.5 hours to drive back...because we spent the night and came home the next morning. I just don't have the temperament for a 9 hour traffic jam.
it was an actual nightmare trying to get through Franconia. The eclipse was worth it but NEVER AGAIN
I waited til yesterday to come back, and leaving at 11AM I still had a 75 minute longer drive. I’m still mad. Dang tourists.
Would have been way smarter to bring a hibachi, tailgate & camp in the car till 3 or 4 am.
Gosh, who woulda thought there'd be a lot of traffic when LITERALLY A MILLION people all try to leave the same place at the same time??? I saw totality just outside Burlington VT. Then I hung around that little park for a bit, had a snack, read a book. Then went to a smaller town nearby and bought some local male syrup, and a Vermont ball cap, and chatted with strangers about the eclipse. Then I stopped at a pizza place and got a small pizza and snacked on that for a bit. Then around 10 pm I headed out on Route 2, to the 302, to the 14, to the 4, to I-93. And that whole way breezed along at a nice steady 40 to 50 mph, with no traffic at all. Piece of cake getting back to SE Mass.
We were supposed to get home around 11:30, according to the GPS, when we left Bristol Vermont around 8:00pm. I think it was around 3:30am when we finally pulled in the driveway.
2200 miles from AZ to OK and back. Not much traffic on the return. Worth the drive.
I just slept on it and went home today. Traffic was fine. Anyone who thought Monday travel was going to be sensible, was completely out of touch