The Eclipse gloom and doom traffic thread

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
So according to several folks, those of us traveling can expect End of Days/Walking Dead style traffic jams.
Report here what you actually experience.
 
We are heading to Crossville, TN. Meeting family there, hanging out sun and mon, then road tripping on around TN and KY. Going to try and watch eclipse from a nearby natl park or the wildlife refuge.

Fri afternoon/eve drove west tbrough MD then down 81, stayed in Salem VA. Traffic was thick but not aweful. 81 around Roanoke was really backed up due to an accident. Hotel packed, cleared out when we left at 10. On 81 now towards Wythesville, it's thick but moving.
 
There are warning messages all over I40 and I85 around here warning about traffic
 
All of us welders at work thought we have it made...walk out with helmets on and voila..wife and daughter have my welding helmets at home ready lol. As for people and traffic, they always panicking lol over stuff
 
Ain't seen a car yet from my house.
 
marty79 said:
All of us welders at work thought we have it made...walk out with helmets on and voila..wife and daughter have my welding helmets at home ready lol. As for people and traffic, they always panicking lol over stuff
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I looked into that, and what I read is that most aren't dark enough. Better check the number on your helmet.
 
Was out running some errands today in the late morning between 11 am and 12:30 pm. I85S/40W between Mebane & Burlington was slammed with traffic but the other side of the highway running north and east was clear sailing.
 
Well we drove from Salem VA down to Crossville, just got here. No real issues. 81 was pretty thick, as was 40, but moving fine. Interestingly once we hit the split where 75 heads down to Chattanooga, most of the traffic went Hotel attendant said they that way, 40 continuing west was perfectly fine.
Hotel attendant said they had plenty of availability tonight but tomorrow night was sold out.
My suspicion is Sun afternoon is when it will start getting bad.
 
In Columbia SC most of the major highways are just short of practically parking lots with tags from NJ, NY, RI, CT, the list goes on. They're far better drivers than the typical Cola resident so it's sort of like watching a drifting contest but with a lot more black people screaming at each other. I'm just chilling here drinking a beer.
 
XJsavage said:
In Columbia SC most of the major highways are just short of practically parking lots with tags from NJ, NY, RI, CT, the list goes on. They're far better drivers than the typical Cola resident so it's sort of like watching a drifting contest but with a lot more black people screaming at each other. I'm just chilling here drinking a beer.
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Google says everything is green on the traffic map.
 
I drove to Fayetteville this morning and the ride down was fine (9-9:30ish). On the way home (during the 10am hour), traffic on South bound I95 was bumper to bumper and slow. Google Maps is showing the same route now would take roughly the same amount of time, though
 
In central Midlands area I've seen first hand several houses being rented out to out of towners. Motels are pretty much slammed. Rates are pretty high (from what I've heard). Congaree national park and fort Jackson are going to be popular areas for veiwing because of less city light. Both of these places are within a mile or two from my house. In my usual bar/restaurant stops it's pretty obvious there's something going on. That's all I got.
Screenshot_20170819-205605.png
 
What's going to be a mess is when most of SC is clouded over come Monday. 6-8 a.m. on Monday, they'll all be hitting the road, up 26 to 40, headed for Tennessee and clear skies. And back to their motel later in the day.

Saw on the news today there were big traffic jams today in middle of nowhere, Oregon. And gas stations out. But that's the epicenter of this whole thing, probably the best viewing weather forecast in the nation.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Well we drove from Salem VA down to Crossville, just got here. No real issues. 81 was pretty thick, as was 40, but moving fine. Interestingly once we hit the split where 75 heads down to Chattanooga, most of the traffic went Hotel attendant said they that way, 40 continuing west was perfectly fine.
Hotel attendant said they had plenty of availability tonight but tomorrow night was sold out.
My suspicion is Sun afternoon is when it will start getting bad.
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Doubt your Off-Roading, but the CTB used to trail ride in Crossville. Main trail crossed the O Bed River about 13 times, with many short trails off it. Have no idea if it's still open, as Development was getting Close to on end of the River entrance. Probably been 10 years since we rode.
 
rodney eppes said:
Doubt your Off-Roading, but the CTB used to trail ride in Crossville. Main trail crossed the O Bed River about 13 times, with many short trails off it. Have no idea if it's still open, as Development was getting Close to on end of the River entrance. Probably been 10 years since we rode.
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Is that by chance in the Catooga Wildlife Management Area? We were just discussing going there for our viewing. Seems idea b/c it's remote AND (more importantly) not someplace many people would think of.
But it's *just* on the edge of the band and would get a lot let "totality time" than if we went south of town instead.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Is that by chance in the Catooga Wildlife Management Area? We were just discussing going there for our viewing. Seems idea b/c it's remote AND (more importantly) not someplace many people would think of.
But it's *just* on the edge of the band and would get a lot let "totality time" than if we went south of town instead.
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No idea, never heard of that. Only remember it being west out of Crossville. On one end there is a side road that has a bridge, which you could enter the normally dry River . That's where development was beginning. Farther west on Hwy 27 or 127[?] you passed a distillery & turned down a farm road, that ran to the River. There was another S/W entrance/exit, but I can't recall it. Sorry.
 
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