Solar Eclipse in the USA 2017, Making Plans?

[Abscate]

We saw rest stops filled back one mile from the entrance ramps on I 81 in VA

Very tough fight because people were trying to drive 75 in heavy traffic so the flow kept accordioning. I wish they could teach people how this doesn't get you anywhere faster and in fact , Joe " I can beat this traffic" causes the traffic jams. Luckily I purred along with 201 HP and AC pumping with a great view.
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.ssS!

[BulliBill]

So my wife and I have been planning for about eight months to view this celestial phenomenon. I've viewed "partial" eclipses before, but never a "total" eclipse. Luckily we live about 10 miles off the outer edge of the projected path of the moons shadow on the outskirts of St. Louis. A close friend has property on the banks of the Osage River right where it merges into the Missouri River, almost in the center of the path of the eclipse about two hours drive from our home. So we planned to make a campout of this eclipse! We initially planned to take our '87 Vanagon Westfalia Camper GL, but we discovered a fuel leak in either a F.I. line or a fuel rail so parts were ordered but wouldn't arrive in time. So out of the garage came our trusty 1967 SO-42 Campmobile to save the day!

We took a beautiful country drive out to Greg's property and set-up camp and relaxed the day before and just hung out on Monday waiting for the phenomenon to occur.

In this simple cell phone shot below the camera couldn't capture (without some kind of a filter) the moon about half way across the sun, so you'll have to use your imagination. With viewing through filtered eclipse glasses our eyes definitely could see it perfectly. It was very cool to watch!

(EDIT: Holy Shit!!! In this shot below, not until I posted this to the Samba.com and viewed the photo full size, I hadn't noticed the small bizarre reflection that you can see just below the overhang over the windshield which, if you look close, you can see the moon crossing over the sun within the reflection. Weird!)

The actual two and a half minutes of "totality" and darkness that we got to personally experience was wonderfully odd, eerie, and very memorable. Sorry but we were too stunned to take photos during that part of the viewing. Crazy! This photo probably sums up what we looked like...

We are so glad that we got to see it, and lucky that the light cloudiness that morning broke up into a beautiful blue sky a few hours before eclipse time for perfect viewing conditions. We're already talking about the next one passing very close by again in 2024!

Bill & Kathryn Bowman
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[jackbombay]

Well, I didn't quite make it to 11,200' as intended, I did get to 10,700' though. Crystal clear blue skies with forest fire smoke all around at lower elevation. virtually no wind up on top of the mountain. During totality all 360 degrees of the horizon were blazing red/orange/yellow sunset. Saw 2 stars during totality too, I was expecting to see more stars, but I did see more than none.

Super memorable experience. Actually had the mountain peak to ourselves with nobody else there, just me and my buddy. Everyone assured me there would be no peaks in the path of totality that would be unoccupied, but none of them are actually familiar with how remote and gnarly the Lost River mountain range is


The peak at 11,200'... The ridge we were climbing was a bit sketchy, I was past the crux already (a 15' long pitch that was maybe a 5.6, super grippy limestone, but bad consequences of you fell) and I had a clear shot to the top, but my buddy was scared of the downclimb and didn't want to climb the 15' pitch, so we turned around and headed back to the previous peak on the ridgeline, still a truly fantastic spot to view the eclipse though!

I didn't do well with images, but here is a screen grab from some video right as the light is returning, you can see the sky is lighter on the right side of the photo, the horizon is of course representative of the 360* sunset.

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[campism]

We left the Westy at home and drove the Civic to within 20 miles of The Path in SC, where we stayed in an unscalped room, and drove the next morning into the target area looking for a spot. Wound up in the sparsely populated Sumter National Forest near Clinton SC at a vacant rifle range, a nice open spot in the pine wooded sandhills mid-state. Lots of gathering clouds threatened and occasionally obscured the eclipse's progress but totality was miraculously uninterrupted. We forgot sunscreen so the time leading up to the Big Event took its toll.

Saw only one Vanagon the whole thousand-mile trip, a Titian Red Westy oncoming on SC 72 westbound near Clinton.
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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[Abscate]

Our Vanagon count was three

Bio diesel from PA...nice meeting you guys!

Sand Vanagon on a flat bed with Maserati

Nice white Westy headed west on I 40
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.ssS!

[jackbombay]

Oh yea, temperature, at beginning of eclipse (moon just beginning to cover the edge of the sun) temp was 51* in the shade and dropped to 44* at the end of totality.
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[candyman]

We just returned. Made it to Herd Creek south of Challis Id. 7800 ft, four buses and total eclipse. Hardly any traffic, no issues with gas shortages or serious congestion where we were. The total eclipse was amazing and indescribable. Words cannot express. We passed so many other vans to and from, was pretty amazing. Climbing serious grades in first gear for what felt like an eternity in the pahsimeroi river valley. Had the second speed rad fan come on a couple of times on those back road passes. Several creek crossings which were super fun. One of our vans had a tire blowout on deadhorse pass, i scrubbed a light post on my slider door at a gas station, other than that, no running issues at all.
So much fun!

[dhaavers]

MN--->NE ROAD REPORT:

Clear skies & roads as we converged on little Mason City, NEBRASKA (yes, you read
that right - just west of Grand Island) and a beautiful show for our little group!

We managed to settle in to a small municipal camping area about 30 minutes before
"1st contact" with ~5% cloud cover (negligible, compared to 45-50% forecasted)
& enjoyed the complete experience including shade to park the van out of the heat,
wide open field for viewing, even bathrooms with plumbing for our 4-hour visit...WIN!

We shared the entire area with 4 other parties - very friendly, fun, cooperative
group of random strangers. I have a few pics to post when I get home tomorrow!

Van content: In 45k miles with this van, our first true "show-stopper" road trip moment
coming home...starter (relay or solenoid - not sure which yet) shorted on the way home,
causing the starter to be contiuously running unnoticed for some miles until backseat
passengers sense smoke from ECU area under bench...

Fire extinguishers ready, investigate, suspect ignition switch (not); wiring at starter
(not); & finally pull relay harness to stop the incessant spinning, spinning, spinning...

Workaround: Fix key in "start" position, attach relay harness to engage starter,
disconnect harness once engine fires, close hatch & drive. Total elapsed time: 20 min...

NOTE TO SELF: Drive remaining 5 hours home (including one gas/potty stop)
WITHOUT TURNING OFF ENGINE...<SERIOUSLY, DUDE>...

- Dave

PS: Made it home fine w/no other problems!
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[Abscate]

Nice road fix, Dave, well done.
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.ssS!

[Steve M.]

I had success in South Carolina at Santee National Wildlife Refuge.

Met up with the owners of a T4 Westfalia I had passed northbound on I-95 in Georgia. They showed up in the parking lot before sunrise.
We had some clouds move in during the beginning, but it cleared up just fine for most of it.
Got some good clear shots of the Totality using the 28-300MM on the 7d Mk II making the lens 480mm. Captured some good clear shots showing the solar flares coming up off the surface of the sun.

The best thing were the people there viewing.
I was the last one to leave and there was not a single piece of trash on the grounds surrounding the Visiters Center!

GPS said 8hrs + for the drive back at 6pm...3hr. later it was saying the same!
I had to get back to work this morning so it was an all night drive. down the I-95 to Fort Lauderdale.
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[Abscate]

We did a long NY to Nashville grind, trip down was great, trip back was awful traffic night of eclipse. I40 and I 81 were both stop and go from Nashville to Roanoke VA. Totally worth it...

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[danfromsyr]

we had 4 VWs from NY 1 VW from Ottawa and 1 non-VW dad from FL meet in South Carolina.
HOT>>> HUMIIDDD>>>
got up early to beat traffic and stake a claim in Isle of Palms park on the South Carolina shore where it left the USA. mixed low and thunderhead clouds most of the morning but the skies cleared as the totality came..

had an awesome view with family, friends and their kids.. a memorable experience.

1950miles round trip in 5 days with 1 no-travel day.

only saw 2 other westys 1 at the entrance to the Blue ridge parkway one passed us when we were on the shoulder of I95 adding oil..

some break downs we worked thru.
lets see..

*My PS valve cover gasket sucked in the bottom edge and leaked oil at about 1qt/hr till we got to camp to fix it.. didn't have a spare. so 7qts oil evenly distributed on my van, the van behind me and a few states.

*my new to me red van came with Gowesty chrome rims.. and WRONG stock conical (alloy) lugnuts/studs.. had a rear rim clunking on rotation from the failure to securely clamp.. swapped with my spare and was GTG but very leary of the other 3 rims.. more on this later.. I may recall a thread here on these rims and that GW doesn't provide proper fasteners.

*ran the AC for most of the trip, it after all a primary reason I bought this red 91 tintop. had a Tach drop and a AC fan fluctuation in middle of traffic around Scranton, PA. then a complete Ign failure, coasted at the off ramp and found a burned up wiring juncture. back on the road in 20mins.

*had heat soak issues and a burbrle for a minute when restarting but restarted every time and just cleared the pipes a moment.

*my brother's van (Mom's) died in an intersection from vapor lock in the fuel rail. pushed it out of the intersection cooled down (tough to do in ~95* temps) while getting some bits at the autoparts store and GTG.

our friends from Ottawa had the most issue with sputtering and loss of power. at random times.. 60mph one moment.. maybe 20 the next..
changed the fuel pump and filter(s) on the side of the road. was better but problem came back. ended up unplugging the O2 and ran well enough after that.. will explore all the old/bad grounds and O2/temp sensors later this week.


Totality is definitely SOO worth it..
plan for 2024..
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[MsTaboo]

What a cool experience! Another checkoff on the bucket list.
My partner decided to buy a spot at the Oregon Eclipse Camp (OEC) in Unity just to be sure we had a place to camp for the show, I was not so keen on the idea; wanting to just boondock someplace, but it turned out to be a great idea. The camp was very well run and being out of the way there were no problems with traffic. The organizers provided nice new porta-johns and kept the roads wetted down to prevent dust. The locals came out and set up booths selling local goods and food, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Our area was nice and quite at night (away from the RV's and their generators ) and we just happened to be parked right next to a really nice gentleman and his son who are star gazing enthusiasts. Some really nice equipment he shared with all around.

We got there Saturday afternoon and just lazed around until the big show on Monday, stayed that night and left Tuesday morning. The weather was pretty good, clear but hot, until Sunday night when some clouds moved in, but Monday morning the sky was clear and bright! Fantastic viewing conditions. Mind blowing experience!
Tuesday dawned with heavy smoke; so glad it waited a day!

I've got some pics I'll post in a day or so after we unpack. Great trip overall, saw some new country on the way down and back. It's really sad about all the fires, the West is burning up! We stopped at Seven Devils outside Riggins Id and boondocked at a great overlook but the smoke was so thick the view was blocked.

Kind of surprised we were the only VW camper besides one Eurovan out of maybe 200 vehicles at the Unity OEC. The Syncro Westy got lots of attention.

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Currently:
'90 Syncro Westy 3 knob w/Zetec

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[campism]

The morning we set out from the motel in SC we spotted a couple of vans on CBS This Morning's segment on the Madras OR camp. Red poptop visible just behind the reporter and a white hardtop appears on the far right in the pan shot. Also during a similar segment there was a shot down a town's main drag and there was a white hardtop (the same one?) front and center in the shot. Did not capture that one.

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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[B.O.B.Wanders]

We were lucky enough to own a small cabin (AKA Rick's Work Camp) just inside the shadow in NE Georgia. Some old friends of almost 40 years joined us for a low stress but spectacular event. We only got a [very fast] minute of totality but it was awesome. I thought the coolest part was the giant dimmer switch effect as totality came and went. We had the Westy there but didn't need to camp in it.

Our friends hung out with us until about 9:30 before heading south towards Atlanta and I-85 was still trashed. I just waited until the next day to go home.
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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

[dhaavers]

As promised, quick pictorial report/recap from Mason City, NE:

Lunch @ 11:30 local time (...me on the right...Hi!):

FWIW - my projection setup:

Progress after 1st contact:

The WonderVan in totality (...my personal favorite pic!):

Example of traffic pretty much the whole way there & home:

Another perfect day! See you next time/on the road...

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

[Syncro Jael]

We had a great time near Stanley, Idaho. Railroad Ridge at 10,500ft. I just happened to drive up on a few other Vanagon owners! NO REALLY!




Link

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1987 Syncro Westfalia Hightop - NAHT
Subaru EJ25 Forged Frankenmotor, Triple Knob.
Jael = (Mountain Goat)

[dobryan]

^^^^Awesome! 👍
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
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[jackbombay]

Great photos!


_________________

Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies

Samba ad here.


DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs)