If time allows you could visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco (not the baseball team).

Don't forget to visit the other place waco is famous for!

The Branch Dravidian Compound?
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/texa...lace-ruins-tx/
Maybe because of my age, but that's the first thing I think of when I hear Waco.

Or perhaps the Waco Mammoth National Monument:
https://www.nps.gov/waco/index.htm

I saw 2017 in grand Teton national park. It was clear blue skies.

my hometown is buffalo. I booked flights a while ago, staying at my sisters who lives in the north suburbs. Unsure yet where we will go to see it. Many friends are having parties. Hoping for clear weather to see it. im flying up Saturday morning and flying back Tuesday morning. I booked an airport hotel Monday night on low points. We will see if it’s honored.drive out post eclipse will be 4+ times a normal drive.warning…..DO NOT use the old glasses they only last for 3 years. If you need glasses let me know.

there was a story over the weekend that a tour group made reservations at a few hotels before the rooms were available. Then a few months ago these two airport hotels killed the reservations for no reason. Likely the owner didn’t realize there was an eclipse and cancelled these lower rites for the much higher rates.

there were other stories during 2017 where Airbnbs did a base rate booking without realizing they were in totality and breached contract for higher rates.it’s been the de facto one which is why I’ve posted there.

Staying here in IND:

Indianapolis
Partial Eclipse Begins: 1:50 p.m. ET
Total Eclipse Begins: 3:06 p.m. ET
Duration of Total Eclipse: 3 mins 46 secs
Partial Ends: 4:23 p.m. ET

Weather forecast: some clouds/some rain/some sunlight.

Dr. Pepper Museum?

So I don't quite understand why this would be true. It's not like a concert or something where everyone goes to a fixed location. There's not a difference in going 20 miles away, so why would people congregate in downtown Erie?

There’s no period after Dr

Which would be?

you should be aware, Midwest and northeast’s have transplants elsewhere he will likely be coming back into town. for Erie you have most coming up 79 from Pittsburgh or West Virginia. Sone in pittsburgh will go to Clevrland Altoona area head north on 219: or I-99/ US 15

I went through this in 2017. Their were many stories written on this and after effects. like any big event think of like going to a football game where some go at 7 am for a 1 pm game while others go in at 11am or so but then everyone tries to leave after the event at the same time and you see post football game back ups. now take that and multiply it by 100 because the total eclipse isn’t a football event but a 1500+ mile event where you are having 200+ football gatherings going on and sharing the same roads. thiose from Erie from Pittsburgh are taking 79. From Cleveland 75 and 71 heading south but crowds from Rochester and buffalo are also feeding these routes. Similar traffic heading north and west from totality.

In 2017 casper to Cheyenne took 10 hrs on I-25 post totality…that’s about 180 miles.

you will see it Detroit and Ann Arbor and Lansing area where 200,000+ residents are going to trek to Toledo area for totality or into Illinois or indiana or go over to eastof Hamilton to see it around 3 pm then they trek to return back home from all those directions. Some may start the drive on Friday/ Saturday

a coworker of mine— her husbands hometown is Erie, PA. They are heading there on Friday and then drive back on Wednesday.

this is true all over where friends/ relatives are driving/ flying up for the event staying at friends/ family. this event is rare. The last one in the US was I think in 1979 just in pacific NW area. You didn’t have the coverage. Now you have all this instantaneous media coverage when we had 2017 cross the country so now people want to see this one in 2024.

thr 2017 eclipse didn’t hit many large cities. It was south of Portland, north of boise, through Wyoming, north of KC, south of dt Louis, nashville, then through South Carolina. I think Columbia and Charleston got it. 2017 was also near half the width of totality. It was a little over 2 minutes, this one is near 4 minutes.

look at the population within 250 miles of totality vs 2017.

the next ones in the USA are
March 2033 far west alaska ( nome, I think barrow is inside)
august 2044 North Dakota and Montana. This also hits Alberta snd thr parks of Jasper, banff and glacier.
in august 2045 and April 2052 a similar pattern occurs as the 2017/2024 eclipses. 2045 is farther south going far north California southern utah, Colorado down into Florida. In 2052 a similar trek to 2024 where it touches judt Florida and coast Georgia/ South Carolina.

I had planned to drive up to western NY on Thursday or Friday, and come back the next week. Grew up there and still own my mom's house and my Grandparent's land (which is a prime unobstructed viewing point, at one of the highest points in the country).

I'm seriously considering not going. I'd reached out and made plans with family and friends, and most of them have cancelled or not gotten back to me. The weather forecast was rainy, improved to partly sunny for a few tantilizing days, but now has settled firmly into cloudy and seems determined to stay there. With few firm plans to be there for other reasons now, I've lost my enthusiasm for the trip. Given the increasing likelihood of potentially little to see with the cloud cover predicted, and also unseasonably chilly temps even near Buffalo.

I'll keep checking the forecast and maybe muster the energy to drive up early Sunday morning, if the forecast improves.

While I probably won't live long enough to see a similar one in the U.S., there's several decent international destinations with Total eclispes coming up in a few years. I've already decided to plan for each of them, until I see a truly spectacular total eclispe in person, in all it's glory. At least doing it that way, would be looking forward to seeing and doing other things also on a vacation trip, besides the eclispe. So it wouldn't be as big a let down if the weather didn't cooperate.

Can confirm. I was in that mess. On a normal day, that drive is 2.5 hours. Any and all roads/highways out of Wyoming were almost as bad.

my Lockhart uncle has expressed severe concern with traffic and the roads. We drive from San Antonio to Waco on Sunday and if traffic indeed is worse than 4 hours then I probably won’t stop to visit him in Lockhart (we are meeting today in Austin). We will probably stay parked at our suites hotel and we will settle with just looking up into the sky with our new glasses and with whatever sky conditions exist. I assume that totality will still occur even with heavy clouds. We have rain coats.

There is a Baylor event which might just be too annoying to enjoy especially factoring in cars. Thankfully we intentionally planned to fly out on Tuesday although ngl flights on Monday were naturally extremely high which is why we are flying on Tuesday.
we are using points and received our hotel email “your upcoming stay” a week before our arrival.

I only recently learned that lsu Coach Mulkey had been at Baylor for 20 years. I just hadn’t paid any attention to ncaa women’s basketball (incl Coach Mulkey) until 2023, partly because of my son’s increased interest in playing basketball. I also didn’t know that Baylor was in Waco until THIS year.

Trust me, once I mentioned our Waco lodging I was instantly asked if I was going to visit “the compound” and of course I still recall 1993 extremely well including my initial unawareness of the siege in the compound and later those who felt that atf went too far (!)

EVERYONE will associate Waco with the compound. My fellow library volunteer is from Croatia and when 1993 happened, even she knew of it in Croatia (sometimes she says yugoslavia) and she associates Waco with the same thing. Actually our school librarian is the one to tell me about Baylor being in Waco.

I always say Davidian because of David. Is it really Dravidian. I’m not checking. Such a horrible man.

In 2017, the Nebraska panhandle was spectacular for the eclipse, and the return to Denver on I-76 was easy. <shrugs>

Have a room booked Sunday night at the BUF airport. Rate was WAAY low, so interested to see how that goes.

Backup plan is a day trip up to Watertown, NY.

Will drive with a friend who has seen a few and swears by the magic. It will be my first time. Weather doesn't look great though.