Posted on 08/18/2017 7:29:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Traffic jams on U.S. 26 around Prineville eased late Thursday night, according to police,
But that mess was created by people heading to a single eclipse festival. Today, authorities expect an influx of people headed to destinations throughout Central Oregon.
And this is just the beginning. About 1 million people are projected to visit the state of Oregon to see the total solar eclipse Monday.
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Motorists were advised to stay in the their vehicles during traffic delays, and to not drive in wrong lanes of travel.
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In Eastern Oregon... some delays Thursday on U.S. 395 from the community of Dale to Middle Fork Lane. Traffic was also heavy at times in the Burns area on 395 and around John Day on 395 and Highway 26.
...ODOT has warned that the eclipse would lead to the "biggest traffic event in Oregon history." ODOT recommends travelers leave early, be patient and be prepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at king5.com ...
Last night built a pin-hole solar observatory, which I'll finish and test today. Making a project out of it... Nice wood box (48x12x12), with mount for adjustable lens at one end, internally will have stand for iPhone to record, and two viewing ports. Doing a lot more for this so we can look at corona, sunspots, and other upcoming solar events (Mercury transit). Going to mount this on my motorized telescope mount (have a 10" telescope).
But the crowds, out in the middle of nowhere? Hopefully not. I did read last night that Wieser, Idaho, is anticipating 70,000 people presumably from Treasure Valley area. That's like a third of the population.
Hopefully someone is watching out for thieves just drooling over everyone leaving town for a few hours.
Very cool!
Wow!
And I’ll just be poking a hole in an index card. (But only 50% eclipse here)
Sunny and a high of 92 where I’m going in Oregon.
I’ve got a friend driving up from the Bay Area to north of Bend.
Hope she is ready to be possibly disappointed.
They were saying that there was a very strong chance of clouds on eclipse day before they left. I found it very amusing. Since they are all Obama lovers one can hope for clouds and maybe a pile up with a semi.
No they are all not Obama supporters. That is mainly Portland and Eugene. Oregon is a BIG place. East of the Cascades is very conservative. Lots,of,us conservative Californians headed there.
Mitchell, Oregon has the very lowest probability of cloud cover of any place on the totality path in the U.S.
Right now, the smoke from the BC fires has largely blown away, too.
The nice thing about a solar eclipse is there are no “bad” viewing spots (unless you are indoors).
We are going to get over run in E TN, dreading the ER load from a bunch of flatlanders coming to the twisty mtn roads. Leaving for work 3 hrs early, in case I need to get out and walk the bottleneck.. or slap someone.
The majority of places along the path of totality are not major metropolitan areas. There's a single road in/out, usually two lanes. According to my folks, who live about 40 miles south of Weiser, ID (where the path of totality will enter Idaho), the mayor and police force of Weiser have actually stated that folks need to be prepared for taking care of themselves. Weiser is a tiny little berg with a main road (US 95 - one lane each direction until it gets into town, then two each way) and very little in the way of services/accommodations. Basically, the local authorities were recommending tents/small RVs, bring own water, etc...
There's only so much tiny towns with tiny budgets can do. They certainly don't have funds nor reason to try and build better access/facilities for a one-time event.
They also showed a store where people were lined up waiting for a shipment of eclipse glasses, like it was the latest IPhone or something.
Here in northern Colorado, it will be about 93%, that's fine with me, I'm not driving up to Casper on a highway full of idiots.
Why travel when all you need is your thumb to block the Sun.... : )
30 mile backup in Prineville yesterday
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/eclipse-traffic-backed-up-30-miles/465247437
A sister of mine lives in Eastern Oregon, in Baker City, which is located less than one degree north of the center of the eclipse path.
Baker City is a small town but with few larger towns very close by, so, for months now people have been reserving hotel/motel rooms like crazy - some have been entire large groups of foreigners, as well as RV and camping spaces, home rentals and anything else they can get a hold of.
The number of visitors is likely to be at least five times the population of the town.
It’s nice to see people taking some time off from attacking White Nationalists, tearing down Monuments and attacking President Trump for telling the truth.
That’s incredible. We are driving up 395 on Sunday to John Day, then further up a bit. I seriously hope it is not bumper-to-bumper in that rural part of the state.
Friends are driving up to somewhere to see it.
I’ll be at home not caring a fig about it.
Wear a welding helmet or torch goggles with #14 or greater?
Same here...we’ll be on our roof, although I’m more interested in watching what’s going on around us
On the news last night, Texas emergency rooms are preparing. What the heck for? Rubber necking on the roads? Burned out eye sockets? It’s not going to be but about 2/3rds covered here so no big whoop. It’s eclipse, eclipse, eclipse 24/7. Can’t wait until next Wednesday when the story finally dies.
Our mountain road was closed for 3hrs yesterday because one driver tried it. we can expect more this weekend
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