OT: How was your experience with the Total Eclipse?
I drove to Toledo to see it and it took me over 2 hours to drive between Ann Arbor and Toledo. It was hands down the worst traffic I have ever experienced. It was 20 times as bad as a Michigan Football Saturday. There were some clouds but I was still able to view totality. Seeing the total eclipse is a totally different experience than a partial eclipse so I don't regret it at all. That was definitely the coolest and weirdest thing that I've ever seen. What are your stories?
I am visiting family and staying in Sylvania, OH... I saw that traffic you were in. Didn't want to stay in the path of totality as I have two small kids and my sister didn't arrive with the glasses until about 1:30pm.
Still fun to see all the fuss of people actually coming to Ohio for something other than Cedar Point! ;-)
I went to a dark place
Speaking of dark places, I live in Frisco, TX, a northern suburb of Dallas and we had about four minutes of totality. We also got lucky in that a partly cloudy day had clear skies when totality hit.
What I found most interesting was that the onset of darkness did not seem "linear," i.e., it was not much darker until right before totality and it became light very quickly right after totality. I took some interesting pictures although I'm not sure it was good for my iPhones CCD. We all observed a brief drop in temperature.
I found the experience to be an interesting one but not one of deep emotion.
I work in downtown Fort Worth and had a very similar experience. The light just before totality reminded me of a very intense storm in late afternoon.
Had almost no traffic getting home, which was a very welcome surprise.
Nice. I'm in Plano and was pleasantly surprised with the clouds. Wasn't expecting to see anything but it turned out great.
And then it was light and warm again
A place where the sun don't shine?
it was like being in a car with dark tinted windows. we were about 90% up north. the livestock didn't even notice.
would've been fun to at least see the 100%. some buddies sent me a few pics of theirs from around the country.
New York was similar, except ours was like a cloudy day. I had a direct comparison because it was cloudy. Fortunately, it was lightly cloudy before so we got to see the view changing but then it was mostly cloudy.
Bonus for me, getting to spend an hour-plus hanging out with my son.
Stayed in Detroit where we had 99% totality. It's amazing that even just 1% of the sun can produce a LOT of light. I'd say the amount of light never dropped below 50% at any time.
I read where some researchers had arranged to have a lot of people observe animal behavior during the totality and then make reports on their observations. I hope the results will be publicized.
I was in Virginia in 2017 for the 85%~ and it was pretty disappointing. Being in the totality was so much more impressive. Be able to watch it on my deck, during a mild trip, on a beautiful day was also really nice.
MeanJoe007 told me I could just wear sunglasses and I'd be fine. Can't see shit now.
south west of Indy, walked out on to our patio around 1:50 and sat there till 330 ish. The coolest thing I've ever seen. Between 250ish and 3:07 was wild..
Fantastic, drove from St Louis to Carbondale Illinois area where I was raised last night. Then after today I know the country roads all the way back to St Louis so it was a little longer but avoided the practically shut down interstate.
I enjoyed the temperature drop as we got closer to totality and the crickets chirping when it hit.
In downtown Chicago, it was barely perceptible. We found an empty field and the sky was perfectly clear. It maybe dimmed a little, but not much. The air got a little cooler but nothing drastic. I've spoken to friends who got the whole experience and they were wowed. We were kind of meh.
Threw weld hood on 13 shade and watched for a few .
Picked up my son in Ann Arbor and took side streets all the way to and from BGSU. They had a fun event in the football stadium. Was a great experience. The drive was long but those hours alone with my 22 year old son are priceless.
When I was 22 my Dad was 53, and the idea of spending three hours in the car with him would have bored the hell out of me. But then, neither of us had any idea he'd only be alive for another seven years. So grab those moments whenever you can.
Sorry to hear you lost your father at such a young age.
My son was the one who first mentioned being interested in heading to Ohio. I wasn't initially that interested in the eclipse...but knew it would be a memorable experience so I jumped at the chance to go with him.
It was also great to experience the eclipse in a "communal" atmosphere. I know that some people preferred to watch it in a more remote/quiet/dark location, but there was something energizing about being in the BGSU football stadium and on its campus with thousands of other people. About one minute before totality, the crowd started to roar and clap.
I just replied to another post above that the experience in NYC was okay but the bonus was spending time with my son.
I work in Toledo so when it was time for everything to go dark, we all went outside to experience it. Very cool and weird feeling. Once the sun came back out, we went back to work.
Traffic was horrible but it only added another 15 minutes for me to get home but I’m glad I didn’t have to go any further because from what I saw ahead of me was awful.
We flew to Indy and met my family there….phenomenal time and just as good as 2017!!!
Won’t see it again in our life times….
It was lame.
It rained
My wife: the closer to Ohio the better.
Me: no one has ever said that before.
Drove down to the Meijer in BG. Took about 2.5 hours from Northville on all back roads. Might have been quicker on 275 or 23, but it felt better to be moving.
The eclipse itself was absolutely amazing. I was a little skeptical but it was so cool. The changes in temp and light leading up to totality were cool, but the pop into darkness with the 360 degree sunset was unlike anything I've ever seen before. There were about 75-100 people hanging out in the Meijer parking lot and all of the employees went up on the roof during totality. Just super super cool.
The correct Michigan term is "Meijers."
/s but only a little, because it's true, ya know
If you're old enough it's Meijer's Thrifty Acres
But did you own any MTA Pros?
British Knights, ftw.
I had a pair of MTA Pros shoes until finally tossing them about 5 years ago ---they were my grass-stained "lawn-mowing shoes" for a good number of years.
And going back much further than that, my beer league softball team back in the early 80s wore MTA Pro T-shirts as our team uniforms. We decided we'd rather spend the $$$ on beer, weed, and pizza than on fancy uniforms.
I'll bet you know plenty of people who once worked at "Ford's." (You really have to add the apostrophe for the full effect.) Or, maybe took their kid to a clinic at "Mott's."
- Left Detroit at 6:15 AM. Made it to Muncie, Indiana by 10:45 AM. No traffic issues.
- I chose there because it would give me some east-west flexibility, based on weather trends. There were high clouds in Muncie at 11 AM, but they weren't many and the weather wouldn't be better anywhere else. So I stayed there.
- Pretty cool event: saw it from the Delaware County fairgrounds. Good sized crowd, party atmosphere, A LOT of Michiganders (mainly from the West side of the state).
- I saw the 2017 eclipse from Nebraska, so the covered sun, everything in town appearing as though it's dusk, and the 360 degree "sunset" wasn't new to me. But it's STILL a very remarkable experience.
- What had been a sunny and 75 degree day --- it must have dropped 10-15 degrees in the 30 minutes prior! I didn't throw my windbreaker on, but many were ....
- Left town fairly soon after. I should have just taken state highways up to the Coldwater, MI area. Instead, I took state highways to the Findlay area, hopping on I-75 there. Went 55 MPH the whole time from Muncie to Findlay. But THEN .... OMG. I-75, I-475 and US-23 were disasters from Bowling Green to Ann Arbor. On the bright side, I-75 in Monroe County was 5x worse. Monroe County was simply a massive traffic choke-point due to limited north-south options. Got back to Sterling Heights around 10 PM.
That makes me feel a little better about my decision to take back roads. Saw quite a few towns that I didn't know existed. Grand Rapids OH, Palmyra MI, Britton MI...
Freeways are faster, but I often prefer the 2-lane state highways. It's a different way to experience our very diverse and beautiful (even Ohio in spots) country.
Also --- I swear --- EVERY single small town in America (or at least Ohio and Indiana) has a Dollar General as either the first (or last, depending on direction of travel) store in town.
This is so true lol
It's very true in Virgina, also - Dollar General's everywhere!
I must've been right behind you, because we took this exact same route back to Washtenaw County -- basically heading north, parallel to US-23, but 10 miles to the west to avoid all the insanity happening on the expressway.
It felt great to be in constant motion (rather than stuck in the bumper-to-bumper), and it didn't hurt either that it was a beautiful day for a drive through the countryside.
Yes 'Nittany Fan', you should have taken either state highways or maybe even I-69 back to Coldwater. Like I posted further down thread, very few slowdowns (mostly as I neared Fort Wayne) at all as I headed north post-eclipse .
And even though I stopped in Coldwater for 40 minutes (gas fill-up and then run in to Culver's for a bite to eat) I made it back by 9:15 despite taking M-37 all the way from Battle Creek to GR (I figured it was better than dealing with a massive detour off from US-131 south of downtown GR).
Good call avoiding 131. We were stuck on the 28th street off-ramp for a solid 15 minutes last night. Was actually the worst traffic of the whole drive, surprisingly.
Watched from my backyard
I took a path of much less resistance than your route Thad. Once I saw several weather forecasts in Sunday that all called for mostly sunny skies in Indiana, I plotted my path down to 10 miles SW of Muncie IN (driving from northern Kent County). My primary route both directions was I-69, a freeway that is much more lightly used than both I-94 and US-23.
No slowdowns all the way there this morning. The drive back tonight only took slightly longer because of slowdowns near Fort Wayne, but for the most part I was able to go at least the posted speed limit.
I wish I was able to post a picture, I took 4 shots with my phone during totality---one of the 4 was near perfect. The remainder of the 3 minutes 40 seconds of totality at my location (down a narrow farmland road away from civilization) was mostly looking through my binoculars at solar flares that were embedded in the sun's corona, with some time spent trying fruitlessly searching for the comet ☄️. I quickly realized, though, that I likely wouldn't be able to see it due to the thin layer of cirrus clouds that blocked visibility of faint heavenly objects. I was, however, able to find at least a half dozen stars and planets.
BTW, my choice of a viewing spot was so much better than 7 years ago, when a few nearby idiots lit off fireworks during a much shorter totality (about a minute and 50 seconds in northern Georgia in 2017). Other than a family of 3 that was parked about a tenth of a mile away, not another soul around this time around. I had a wooded area and wetland very near by, was able to not just see but to also hear nature as the birds and frogs reacted to the quick plunge into darkness and equally quick return to daylight 5 minutes later.
So much AWESOMENESS!
Saw it from lake Travis. Total for 3:10. Scavenger birds were still flying. Dog was sleeping in a family members lap. Wasn’t as dark as I thought. The temp change was noticed. Coke was less harsh on the nose.
I should have gone. Had something but I could have missed it. I did see there was a crash and what looked like terrible traffic around 11am going south everywhere from metro Detroit. I thought it was going to be a total disaster getting there and back. It looked slow going there and back later but not as bad as I thought it'd turn into. I had no plan though. Was looking at random streets to pull off on in the southeast corner of Michigan. Oh well. Next life.
Before the eclipse there was light in my life.
Now there's only love in the dark.
Turn around bright eyes.
I can tell you this much -- a partial eclipse can kick rocks.
I was working. I looked out the window and it was dark. That's about it.
Very disappointing. I thought it would get dark enough for me to goose a few people undetected, but it just got dim instead.