ooohh, we were delayed an hour...how horrific!!!
“To make matters worse, temperatures soared into the 80s that day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to cut the blistering heat, and that stretch of interstate is bereft of trees or any shady pullouts.”
They must be kidding, in South Carolina we consider any day that ONLY “soared into the 80s” a cold front. We start to shiver at 78 degrees.
I know, I get that delay almost every other day on my 47 mile commute.
I was on that northbound road at that time - we watched the eclipse in Idaho, and the moment it was done, we immediately left to go back to Calgary (a 1000-km trip).
We were travelling at 90 mph (speed limit was 80 mph) and traffic suddenly stopped due to construction. We barely moved for half an hour and when we finally got into the single lane, traffic sped up to around 40-50 mph.
What was INFURIATING was they blocked off a single lane for seven miles (I measured) and it was only at very end where there was ONE worker, and he was on the SOUTHBOUND lane (which was ALSO blocked off by traffic cones).
To make matters worse, these yoyos blocked off one lane three more times before Helena, and each time, they blocked off 4-5 miles and only one of the remaining three had any workers - only ONE guy.
I commented to my kids that they are obviously government union workers.
We did get home, but it took us 12.5 hours to get back to Calgary.
Still, experiencing a totality was a life-altering experience. The partial eclipses I saw in the past were nothing compared to what I witnessed last Monday.