So glad that the clouds parted for our many FTers in TX. Our friends down at Camp Wood didn't get an awesome view, but they were mostly happy. And we don't second guess heading out to cut the risk of not seeing it (we went to Canada, leaving TX on Sunday morning)... where we encountered groups who'd driven hours to escape clouds in NY (a friend who stuck it out in the ROC area saw zip but cloud cover for the entire eclipse).
Originally Posted by
STS-134
I escaped DFW and went to BOS, then drove to Newport, VT. NWS was saying that east of the Green Mountains would be mostly clear while places west would have viewing obstructed by high clouds. Saw totality near the lake. Traffic was awful though, similar to Chile in 2019. The federal government should revoke funding for I-93 given that I-93 has a section where there's only 1 lane in each direction (a violation of Interstate highway standards) and this caused a massive traffic jam. I waited for 5 hours in Newport for the traffic to clear and left at 8:30 pm but still didn't get back to Manchester, NH until 1:30 am. That time, I specifically avoided I-93 due to the one lane segment but there were jams all the way down I-91 and I-89, including some stop and go traffic after 1 am.
Similar for us; we flew to BTV, hung out Sunday afternoon, then drove to YUL to stay with friends there (as there was zero chance we were going to pay $1k+ for a single night of hotel in BTV or nearby). After that, we drove east, intending to get to Sherbrooke or somewhere near it, but traffic was awful. We bailed out in Granby, Quebec, and sought out a big box store parking lot. A group with a professional astronomer and a ton of gear saw us setting up and pulled in next to us (same deal on their plans), and we had a great time.
But that drive back... ugh. Sounds like you were in the same traffic we were. The border crossing took ~2 hours (really, CBP?) and was backed up miles. Then there was a broken down semi on I-91 (~1 hour delay). Then... I had forgotten that Franconia Gap on I-93 narrowed down to 1 lane each way. That was on me, as I'd have stayed on I-91 or I-89 and ignored GPS had I remembered that fact from prior trips down that stretch. Google, lacking accurate traffic data due to spotty cell coverage, kept routing everyone off of I-93 onto NH back roads, which was a horrible mistake. We started ignoring it after the first 2 hour diversion that was only supposed to be a "7 minute delay" vice "37 minutes" on I-93. At one point, right outside the Franconia Gap, Google actually told us to get off onto NH 18, use it to essentially make a U-turn (transferring onto I-93 northbound), then backtrack, get off onto NH 116 (which we'd already sat on for 2 hours), and follow it eventually to NH 18... where it would merge back onto I-93 literally at the exact interchange it wanted us to exit from I-93 south! That would have been a 3+ hour freaking loop that bought us nothing at all but more frustration.
What should have been a 4.5 hour drive to BOS from Granby turned into 12.5 hours. Once we cleared the Franconia Gap, it was smooth sailing at 80mph all the way to Logan, though thank goodness for speed trap alerts (there were tons). We made it to BOS at 4:45am for our 5:45am departure, driving all night, and as far as I know, there's still people stuck on the backroads of NH 116 and 414 and whatever other barely-paved routes Google and Apple were sending people.
Sorry to divert from TX eclipse viewing with that mini rant... kind of glad to hear from someone else who got stuck in the cluster that is NH DOT's management of their highways.