Salem was perfect today. Skies were blue as could be. I was in a location with no obstructions and no large crowds. Surreal, and it wasn't even 12 hours ago.

There was a dark cloud from where we were standing, but it passed and cleared before totality. Might have been a thin haze. HPN-HRL had eclipse binoculars and could tell you better than I.

Took us over 7 hours to drive north afterward from Nashville to LEX, a little over 200 miles. I-65 was jammed north of Hopkinsville, which had near the max totality. At one point we got no more than 2 miles in an hour.

Must have been the worst traffic that stretch of road has ever experienced. The road construction barrels and barriers when no work was going on did not help.

Sorry to hear that. I saw on Google Maps the traffic backed up around Etown after 10 last night.

The traffic headed south of Nashville on 65 was bad all afternoon and early evening, but wasn't as bad. My 55 minute commute home makes me feel lucky.

Then you missed out. We experienced it East of Salem with about 300-400 people and it was an incredible experience. To hear the excitement and cheers made it even more amazing.

They are begging for volunteers for our 6:45 am Burbank flight. We can't do it because they can't even guarantee we'll get in tomorrow night! No other airlines or even alternate cities available. It's nuts here.

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.

Even with that, it was totally worth it to go to Casper to watch it. The city did an absolutely amazing job with crowd control and overall organization. The city park where we camped was well-marked, and they even emptied/cleaned the porta-potties every morning. My dad took my sister and I to see the eclipse in Hawaii in 1991; and to be able to take our kids (and my parents) to see this phenomena was a wonderful experience.

It took us 14 hours to get from Albany OR to Vancouver BC, A ~400mi drive.

The first 155mi took 10 hours, the I-5 between Albany and pretty much all the way up to Chehalis/Olympia was a mess.

Got home at 2am.

Still worth. Sight of a lifetime, I'll never forget it. Absolutely amazing. Anyone who calls 99% "good enough" is EXTREMELY missing out, it's literally a night and day difference.

That's surprising. The traffic completely disappeared about 20 miles south of Portland around 12:30pm. We didn't drive beyond Portland however.

It took us about 5h to get from Albany to Wilsonville, that was by far the worst part. Then there was a jam between Portland and Vancouver WA. And then multiple jams and accidents between Vancouver WA and Chehalis. It was a mess. I should've driven West and driven up the coast to Portland, but oh well.

I was at the airport on top of the parking garage. We had a giant cloud right beforehand, which may be the one that ended up covering downtown. With minutes to go, the thick part of the cloud moved and the remainder literally dissolved in front of our eyes as the temperature dropped, leaving a perfect view.

And then it took 5+ hours to get back out of the airport as the entire airspace went over-capacity. :rolleyes:

This.

Every person I've talked to who complained that it was a non-event and over-hyped did not see the true 100%. And everyone that DID see totality was awestruck, myself included. I did manage to convince a few friends to make the trek from almost-totality and they all agree it was well worth the effort.

And I might add, I love that for one glorious day, everyone embraced SCIENCE.

Sorry to hear that. We spent the night in Albany and drove up north to Salem that morning. Waze put us on random roads to beat the traffic after the event. It was cool seeing the cherries and hops farms.

Absolutely! Even a split second before totality, right as you could tell it was going to happen and I could take off the glasses...mind blown

We were in Nashville, and spent the morning at J Percy Priest Reservoir, and then watched totality with the other folks at the beach. Clear skies, and it was awesome!

While I wasn't there THIS is what I got from folk who were, whether it was on telly or FTers texting me real-time their experiences.

While I totally regret that circumstances didn't allow me to attend this one in person, I truly hope to be there for 2024.

Cheers.

Some of us are already talking DFW.