weathafella

Spain. I think Iceland has a much higher cloud possibility.

Yeah it would have been an obvious solution but so many of us planned NNE for the eclipse on relatively short notice. I checked a week out and there was stuff available but in southern NH and not closer. To complicate things the well meaning small towns had no experience or enough people to manage the flow out of town-added 2 hours to our trip. Finally, NH DOT didn’t seem to give a shit. Hindsight is always better I guess. When we drove around the barrier vehicle's on exit 38 we encountered another problem-one 24 hour gas station (thankfully we didn’t need gas then) fully automated with no way to get into the bathrooms. I went behind it and peed in an absolute emergency. No place for my wife . We ended up pulling off 93 after we got back on after the lane closures and stopped traffic and the place was mobbed-at 2:15AM. What I noticed at the place was how nice everyone there was to each other. Maybe there’s hope for the future….

We ended up driving around the car blocking exit 38 and took the alternate route anyway. We weren’t alone either. When 112 hit 93 we had clear sailing all the way home We were in that cluster described above on 93 South for 3 hours and arrived home at 4AM. Exit 39 was legit blocked. Exit 38 seemed an ad hoc decision and we took the chance and at least got home before dawn.

We may have been feet from each other! I took few pictures since I felt all the stress of that in 2017 was a distraction. Besides, my wife took videos and she laments the distraction…lol. But she also acknowledges that unless you’ve seen totality you haven’t had the eclipse experience. She downplayed everything and just went along and now realizes it’s an incredible and rare experience. You did better getting out of Newport! It took us longer.

Incredible day! Newport was perfect for the show. Unobstructed view including just spectacular beads as the sun re-emerged. I echo Ryan’s observation-this one was better than 2017 in my view. It took 90 minutes to get out of Newport-then 9.5 hours thanks in part to something crazy on 93 S near Franconia. Still worth the sacrifice. I can’t imagine I’ll be here for 2044 but there’s one in Spain 2026 and Australia 2028 I’ve got my eye on.

Looks like we’re going to be fine in Newport

My friend is in Evansville IND and reports wispy clouds not obscuring the sun.

93 looks fine in both directions a few miles north of the 89 split at least from my window here. Heading up 93 to 91 per Waze with 2 hours and 20 minutes. Plenty of time-should be hitting the road in an hour. Skies should not obscure the show!

I don’t think it will be as bad as people think. At least that was my experience in 2017 and today’s drive up had normal flow-late afternoon.

I just cleared out a ton of messages going back 11 years. Try now. I don’t have your phone number. We’re at the 89/93 split for the night and leaving around 9am. Even triple the normal time gets us to Newport in the nick of time.

I think we have each other’s? I’ll text to test.

Based on everything still thinking Newport with the idea of cutting over towards Colebrook if clouds interfere. Honestly I’m not at all worried about a few wisps of cirrus. Mesos look good so far.

The thing to do is hit the road as soon as totality ends or wait hours and have a leisurely dinner and consider staying another night somewhere. Plenty of availability Monday night.

Eagle Pass is a shit show with the border issues so that part was easy. But yeah this seems way easier logistically and obviously less costly.

The thing about pulling over is you pretty much have to get out of your car. I think if you can reach a rest area or any exit 30 minutes ahead of totality it can work. Pulling over on 91 is a bit dicey especially with idiots who don’t pull over and look at and take pictures of the eclipse while driving 80 mph.