Posted on 08/23/2017 5:43:07 PM PDT by DuncanWaring
My daughter and I drove up to Andersen, SC for the eclipse, leaving Sunday early in the morning and hanging out there Sunday afternoon and evening.
Let me first put an accolade out to the Hilton Garden Inn -- great people, and very accommodating. We wound up having to run-n-gun at the last minute as one nasty cloud threatened to obliterate our shots of the totality, but that gamble paid big; we were able to get into the clear with time remaining, and were set up and "on-point" about 3-4 minutes before totality was achieved.
The totality itself was surreal. Photographs, no matter how good, do not do it justice. I get it why people chase these things all over the world now.
The return trip home was something else. There was literally no movement over 25mph from Andersen SC southbound until we hit the 85/985 junction north of Atlanta and plenty of time spent at walking speed or less. You probably could have bicycled faster. Worse, attempting to re-route around it manually was pointless; all the state highways and similar were also jammed solid and worthless to try to use as alternative routes. During this time there was no congestion of any sort evident in any of the northbound lanes.
The mapping apps all said there were wrecks everywhere although we never saw one; by the time we got to wherever it had been flagged the wreck was long-gone but the impact remained for the entire rest of the day and evening. Cellular data was worthless or extremely spotty until, once again, we hit Atlanta metro. Voice calls and text messages were fine, but not data; the networks were simply slammed well beyond capacity.
This is very important information folks because while I've certainly seen chain-reaction events like this in some places to see them over a wide scale and large area was sobering.
If some jackass had hit us at that moment in time if you didn't have a go bag good for 3 days or so in the back of your car and be able to bail and get away from the highway you would be DEAD. Not maybe dead, CERTAINLY DEAD.
Let me further remind you that it was nearly 100F out on that highway too with zero cloud cover for most of the journey. My Mazda has an excellent AC system and while it was keeping up it wasn't digging it. What's in your go-bag? There better be drinkable water in there and a means to purify more of it, because at that temperature you're going to go through a hell of a lot of it in a really big hurry. Oh, let me remind you that water weighs 8lbs/gallon and I'm willing to bet that had we needed to bail a gallon per person would have likely been consumed in a few hours. In terms of water demand it probably would get close to (if not exceed) what I experienced while hiking out in the Grand Canyon on Kaibab South - brutal, in other words.
Next, consider what happens if someone else didn't have water and you do? Got anything effective to defend that water supply with and are you willing to use it?
Finally, how are you physically? Could you get out of that car, get away from the highway by a good quarter-mile or more and actually make time on foot, even if slowly, in that situation, toward somewhere safe? Oh, and where is "somewhere safe" in relationship to where you are?
Better have "yes" answers to the above because if not you would be a corpse.
Right near the GA/SC border we pulled into the Love's travel stop. It was mobbed. Cars parked on the grass, 30+ minute lines for fuel (I had filled the night before, anticipating possible shortages, and didn't need any) and a roughly 30 minute line to use the woman's room. The men's bathroom was far more-friendly in that men can******faster than women and were, but someone didn't make it -- there was a badly-soiled set of underwear in there. It would suck to be the dude with the bathroom cleaning responsibility yesterday and whoever previously owned that set of whitey-tighties obviously had a really bad day and rest-of-trip...
I'm sure that Love's made a fortune and "loved" the business; they were in the right place at the right time and I'd happily take the bet that yesterday was their highest grossing day ever in their history and will hold that record until the place finally is razed, whenever that is. This was a friendly crowd that was just looking for gas and something to eat and drink while 150ish miles of interstate was a parking lot. If it had been under less-friendly circumstances pulling in there would have been akin to walking into a massive bar-fight full of 2+ ton weapons and an unlimited supply of gasoline for people with truly nasty intentions, never mind the dozens of OTR trucks.
Again, this was a friendly incident folks and yet it appears that many people on one stretch of road which didn't even include the totality once you got to the GA border failed to manage to drive a car without wrecking. Now contemplate what a handful of intentional wrecks would have done by "someone" with malevolent intent and you start to sober up -- fast.
You got a freebie lesson in this regard if you ran into even a fringe of it, in terms of exactly how under-capacity our so-called "infrastructure" is in response to even relatively minor loads and under friendly terms. In short our so-called "civilization" is nothing more than a thin veneer over a really ugly reality, protected by nothing more than the fact that over the last 150 years it has never been challenged on the ground by heavy load during an ugly natural or man-made incident over any sort of materially-wide area.
Think Katrina times 100 and you might be getting close.
If it ever is challenged that infrastructure will collapse instantly and trap you.
Our ~150 year run in this regard may hold, but if it doesn't you cannot say you weren't warned. You got an object lesson in it on Monday, in spades and over a very wide swath of the nation. As such if you get caught with your pants down if and when the flag goes up you've intentionally ignored the warning you were gifted under friendly circumstances post-eclipse.
Yeah, same bridge. Bill was on his way to Idaho, I think. I was almost home.
Chris Plant was talking about it this morning...
Packets of ‘wet wipes’ for whore bathing should be included in a ‘go-bag’.
Yep. What a mess! I was headed up 395 to Spokane and then into The Deep Dark Woods Whence No One Emerges Unscathed. (I like being scathed. It tickles).
It's the sort of country where a Go bag is a very good idea year-round. If you have to wait for a tow truck it could be a while, and if you have to leg it, proper attire is a very good idea. High heels, for example, in case you run into a formal social occasion in Ritzville...
Drove 12 hours to Black Mountain, NC. Planned to watch the eclipse at Gorges State Park, about 90 minutes away in Sapphire, NC. Got there on eclipse day around 7:30 am. State Troopers waved us off; lot for 3,000 cars was already full. Drove on to Highlands, NC where we watched the eclipse under cloud cover.
Time to go home to the cabin. The traffic was crawling and wall to wall. Sometimes we sat at the same traffic light for numerous changes. Finally got moving a little when a sign showed an overturned semi about 20 miles from my destination. It took six hours to drive 90 miles.
Between the drive to NC (12 hours), the drive to and from the eclipse (10 hours), and the drive home to PA (11 hours), I got to watch 2:38 minutes of totality. What a let down.
“Our position NW of Red Bud probably gave us about 2min and 20 secs of totality. It went by so quickly!”
I had the odd experience of time flying by like you say but taking an eternity simultaneously. Lots of oxymoron there.
> ...the first bit of sunlight was like white-hot molten silver pouring over the edge of the moon.
Poetic image. It gets intense fast, and I had to look away quickly.
> I love lightnin’ bugs!
I’ve liked them since childhood, and for some reason they seem to like my backyard. It’s not easy to count them because as they fly their light is intermittent, but one evening I estimated there were over ten back there.
There are zero where I am now, but they like trees.
I was a volunteer at a Wyoming State Park last weekend. On Monday AM while I was walking the dog before sunrise (and before I was supposed to report to parking), a state worker said they are jammed and >5000 cars had arrived before the gates opened at 4:30 am.
I got out on the street where cars were arriving and I gave what seemed like zillions of drivers their brief on where to park, slow down etc. MANY arrived without a clue, acting like they had just decided to do it at the last minute.
Questions like WHERE is breakfast, where is coffee were common. Keep in mind this is a Wyoming State Park near a town with a population on the sign of 205 people! If you didn't bring it, it was going to be hard to find it.
At sunset, 8 or 9 hours after the eclipse ended, cars were still crawling to stopped on the interstate with all roads in the park also jammed.
I think many of the people in the late traffic jams would say it was worth it and they are glad they came.
Mead telescopes was there along with Colorado State astronomy club and another University. The day before I went out, BEFORE sunset and I was looking at Jupiter in more detail than I'd ever seen. It was incredible the power and quality of the telescopes that were set up.
I didn't leave until two days after the eclipse as I'd been told that traffic even the next day would be heavy. It was nice for me to do this as part of an extended vacation to the west coast. I'm glad I didn't have to go to work in Denver the next day as many said they had to......
I penciled in 21 Aug last year during planning for this trip. In 2024, I will probably be somewhere on that totality line and I will get to my spot several days before April 8, 2017. Yes, my first total eclipse and next one will be about 4 minutes vs. the 2 min 30 sec I saw in Wyoming.
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