Solar Eclipse in the USA 2017, Making Plans?

[IdahoDoug]

I think the Portland contingent should pick a cool place in the middle of nowhere like north of Bend, or out in eastern Oregon and have a Vanagon campout. I'm game!!
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1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1988 Toyota Supra 5 speed targa, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[GWTWTLW]

[tates1882]

We are trying to backpack into chamber basin just outside of Standley Idaho then be at the top of castle peak for the event.
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88 Vanaru, ej22, naht

[B.O.B.Wanders]

Thanks for the heads up, Dave. I wasn't even aware before you posted and I'm usually up on this kind of stuff. I already got my eclipse glasses and a couple of spares.

We've got a small place just barely inside the shadow line with about a minute and a half of totality in the northeastern part of Georgia (near Helen) and have some family coming in for a gathering. Weather is a minute-by-minute thing here in the summer so fingers crossed for clear skies!

Unfortunately Atlanta is not far enough away so I expect unless you are backpacking out to somewhere really out there, you are going to have lots of company. I think any town big enough for a stoplight is planning something. We were thinking about heading further up in to the mountains to be closer to the center-line, but decided we would just come up Friday and hunker down until Monday evening. I don't want to even think about the highways north of the ATL that day. Ugh!
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83.5 WBX 2WD Assuan Brown Westy, B.O.B.

"It feels good to be lost in the right direction” - unknown

[Chainsaw]

Ive been on the fence about driving down to Redmond Oregon for the eclipse or shooting the Washington state IDPA match (3days of shooting 10mins from my house) but if its gonna be half the shit show you guys are saying that might decide it for me.
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89 Westy. 2wd. Manual.

[Yellow Rabbit]

Its cheesy, but Carhenge in NW Nebraska would be a great place to see it.

[dhaavers]

^^^ I thought that too, but decided against it, figuring the crowd there will be large & weird...

I'll be out in the boonies somewhere East of there, with plenty of E-W roads to fine tune location depending on weather...

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[jackbombay]

[newfisher]

[bluebus86]

the fasination with eclipses is rarely eclipsed by anything else by some. planets and moons go round and round all the time, every day it gets dark over half the earth as the earth eclipses half itself. why do some chase shadows? Jsut yesteray a big cloud eclipsed the sun over my home, a while back an airplane did likewise. I forgot my camera, else Id have a really neat cloud eclipse photo to share. do I need to view this with dark glasses?
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[GWTWTLW]

[Merian]

Expecting to be in the high desert of eastern Oregon.

Hoping to be seeing no people out there.



even a little gem puts you in a river canyon
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[MsTaboo]

[90Doka_Guy]

I'll be driving the Vanagon out to Yellowstone for the days leading up to the Eclipse. Eclipse day I'll be in the Tetons. Very excited about the trip and eclipse.
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-'87 Westy
-'90 Tintop
-'90 DOKA

[newfisher]

[Energy Concepts]

[sciroccojim]

IN (on this conversation)

NJ>somewhere out west (we'd been planning on western NE, but might shorten the trip)

We're also in for the eclipse. My girl is a former astronomer (used to work at Space Telescope) so she's running the sky planning part. My job is to get the camper ready for the trip and drive it in the direction that she points

It's in pieces now - windshield and dash out, doors stripped and a tiny bit of rusty metal cut out of the windshield frame. My goal is to do the welding, paint the front end and doors, install a new windshield, put everything else back to get and move on to more important things, like FIXING THE A/C and a cooling system overhaul. Air conditioning is a must for this trip, as I don't like summer heat.

We have not done as much planning as I guess we should have to this point, but we did figure that we'd play it by ear, as a) we wanted to keep an eye on the weather and b) we're not sure how much time we'll have for the trip, as we have some old pets that need special care. But I'm surprised that there's all this talk about lodging - isn't that what a Westy is for? From my perspective, we just need a place to park when the event happens. Once it's over, we can drive a couple of hours to some lodging, if a shower and stuff are needed. Finding a toilet might be the only major concern

It would be really cool to connect with another Vanagon (or 5) during this whole thing, but I don't know how easy that's going to be.
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1987 Westy Camper

[danfromsyr]

we're bringing down a bunch of van from NY to view it near Charleston, SC when it leaves the continental US.
camping at Myrtle Beach state park sat&sun nights, check out monday view the eclipse at Isle of Palms, SC and then return north afterwards.

there's still alot of campsites in Myrtle beach SP at this time.. but I'm sure it'll fill up the closer we get.
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[BlueGrasser]

I had wanted to be off down some remote dirt road in Eastern Oregon, but the more I looked into it, the more I began to speculate that all the highways and a good chunk of the backcountry is going to be crawling with people. Seeing as how we cannot leave until Friday evening, this presented a problem in finding a good spot and all the reservation camping booked up fast as soon as it was available.

I found this event going going on in Madras Oregon, a stones throw off the center line and rated as one of the best places to see it based on typical weather and the view of the cascades to the west.

https://www.oregonsolarfest.com/

I booked a field campsite right smack on the center line (they're calling it solartown). I thought $150 for up to five days of camping was incredibly reasonable considering the demand, and I was amazed they had plenty of availability. The tent site buys you 20'x20' of space which is plenty of room for a Westy and some camp furniture.

There is also some Festival going on in town with entertainment, some NASA scientists, and yada yada yada. I went ahead and just booked day passes for Sunday with a shuttle ride over and back.

The FAQ says they have 6,000 tent spots available and can easily expand to triple that if needed!

I don't want to be anywhere on the road with that many people descending on the area. I look forward to a quiet morning, an amazing eclipse, and 10 hours of cussing to get out of Oregon!
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Going to where the grass is bluer...
1985 Vanagon Westfalia Camper with 1.8T

[Tom Powell]

I think my daughter and I will be setting the record for Vanagoneers distance travelled to see the eclipse. She lives in Hilo and I live in Kaneohe. We'll fly to SoCal and then drive my Vanagon to Oregon. Her daughter will fly to Portland and drive with her brother to meet us for the eclipse. Road trip, family reunion, eclipse.

The last eclipse I was a passenger on a flight from Honolulu to Kona. I have a photo of the eclipse with the wingtip of the B737 in the foreground and Mauna Kea in the background.

Aloha
tp