Originally Posted by
pseudoswede
I was thinking worst-case scenario would be 8-9 hours to get home. It took us TWELVE hours to get home last night (just after 1am). I-25 was an absolute parking lot starting about 20 miles north of Glendo State Park all the way to Wheatland. We then averaged about 20mph for the next 80 miles to Cheyenne, where there was another parking lot through the city (fortunately Google told us to take some side roads). For reference, on Saturday, we drove from Cheyenne to Casper in 2h30m. Yesterday, it took 9h30m to go the opposite way. I was finally able to go the speed limit once I hit Loveland, CO.
Every gas station and restaurant along the highway were jammed packed. I was actually surprised that none ran out of gas (or food).
I didn't see a single wreck, and just a handful of broken down cars (mainly flat tires). There were many people who stopped on the side of the road just to relax or go to the bathroom.
It took us 2.5 hours to make it from Fort Collins to the rest stop just south of Glendo. We left Ft Collins at 5:30am. On the way back we left about 5 mins after totality completed and made it back to Fort Collins in 2 hours.
With the quick flow of traffic leaving that quickly I can tell you that three or four semi trucks going 65-70 created some slow down, but the biggest slow down came from the highway patrol in the median of the interstate. As soon as people could see the patrol cars they would slow down way below the speed limit. Once you hit Colorado it seemed there was a patrol car every mile.