Even tiny motels in the path of the eclipse are getting swamped. If you want to go see it, you need to find a long-range weather assurance of some kind for ‘likely clear skies and go there, but if you do not act soon, you may not have lodging. Just sayin’. This is a world-scale event, and people are coming from all over the globe to some areas not usually visited by strangers. One little motel along the path is charging 500 a room—and getting it, apparently, from the desperate. TO find how far it is from you, look up eclipse path Aug 21.
Rare opportunity: total eclipse of the sun Aug 21.
by CJ | Jul 23, 2017 | Journal | 16 comments
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$500 a night is piffle. We made long-term plans to see the eclipse, and snagged some choice lodging just off the path in Yellowstone last year. I accidentally double booked, so invited one of our friends to come along. He got a bee in his bonnet last week (“What if where we are staying is overcast, or we can’t get to a good viewing area that day?”) and decided to try finding accommodations closer to the path. The cheapest he found was $800 per night, with a 4 night minimum. Motels were either gouging, or not to be had.
I had been in negotiations with a condo owner in Jackson Hole, WY to rent a condo for the week around the eclipse, and was about to pay when they suddenly stopped talking to me. Methinks they got wind of the event, and decided to try for much more than the $800/week they had agreed on.
That sort of thing has been a scandal in Oregon–accomodations cancelling reservations, even prepaid ones. But it’s not against the law, there’s nothing the AG can do.
We’re flying out west, seeking more reliable weather. Got an Airbnb in Cheyenne quite a while back. Planning to drive up to Glendo, WY for the big event. Glendo has a normal population of about 250. They are anticipating north of 100,000!! Closing their little airport so they can host the multitude. Slight panic on their FB page as things get closer.
We’re camping just south of the path of totality (state parks don’t raise their rates), and will drive north of Knob Noster MO to find a place to view the event. Downloaded an app that will help us find a good spot. Search for “Total Eclipse Finder” in the Google or Apple store. It’s the $1.99 version, the free one will not work as designed.
They are holding a solar eclipse for my mother’s 82nd birthday, but we are staying home in Pearl River, LA.
Would have been my dad’s 95th birthday. We’ll be able to see 8th magnitude from where we are in TX panhandle. Close enough for government work.
ODOT says it’s gonna be like the Ducks and Beavers both playing games at home on the same day, times 10. I had in mind just pulling off the side of some road around Salem, but have tought better of it. I’m staying home.
It’s going to be culture shock when the international crowd with megalenses and scientific gear hits some of these rural areas. I recall being on the scene when a lone French-speaking tourist ended up at a hotel somewhere in the Texas-Oklahoma scene and nobody could figure what she was or what she needed. I do speak French and could get things straightened out, but translators may be few and far between in Bugtussle and Bucksnort…and yes, there is a Bucksnort, as there is a Toadsuck.
I have a picture of my mom and aunt standing next to the sign for Toad Suck State Park! 😀
Or my personal favorite–Toad Suck Ferry. I used to visit a power cord supplier there.
I live in Boise, so am quite close to the path of totality. We are 99-plus percent here, and I’ve toyed with the notion of driving north about 40 miles to get inside the totality–but then consider how crummy highway 55 gets when more than 10 people are on it at the same time (Mountain Road Syndrome), and decide that 99-plus percent is close enough.
I often benefit from working in close proximity to several thousand Uber-Nerds; someone has generated quite a nice PowerPoint presentation on the eclipse. Nothing really earthshaking in it, but entertaining all the same.
my area’s getting about 70% covered – this is enough to notice. (I describe it as “the sky gets funny around the edges” – there was one in the 70s that hit that level in the Bay Area.)
Map here:
https://img.purch.com/h/1000/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2MC81NDUvb3JpZ2luYWwvc29sYXItZWNsaXBzZS1wYXRoLmpwZw==
I’ll be in Houston, so I’ll likely miss most of the excitement that day.
I really hope we don’t see a surge of the “death rays from space!” sort of folks who see the eclipse as proof of divine wrath if people do not believe in their preferred version of deity. I also hope my anti-aunt will not get on that bandwagon, but she’s prone to it. The news has been filled with such (snow)flaky notions lately, I’d much rather stick to the scientific wonder coverage of the eclipse. (Note: I do still pray, but I’m otherwise mostly non-practicing or “questioning,” or maybe just upset with the version I was brought up to believe in. So I’m conflicted, but I’d rather that everyone be free to believe (or not) as they see fit.)
—–
My younger cat has been excessively clingy lately, wanting constant attention, besides his usual constant wanting food. Why he’s being so needy the past few days, I don’t quite know, but it’s both endearing and somewhat annoying. Usually, it’s the feline who wants the personal space, but I’m finding it a bit much today. Trying to both accommodate him and yet define boundaries. I mean, hey, there can be such a thing as being -too- close at times. But in the process, I think he’s discovered his inner lap cat, and that is not a bad thing.
Optics-Related: I grew up using a “monocular,” a small telescope, for distance vision, such as the blackboard. (Yes, kids, they still used real chalkboards and chalk, even when I was in college.) This little monocular was handy, and I wore it around my neck on a cord, up through high school, when I was prescribed “telescopic glasses” much like a jeweler’s or surgeon’s glasses, but with only one scope for my master eye, and it was for distance vision. The latter fits in a bulky foam-lined box, which fits in a small camera bag, which often got read by other boys (including college-age) as a “purse.” (Yeah, this did not help me in that questioning stage.)
This weekend, I saw a video from a legally blind YouTuber (who is also Hopi; his name is JD Dalton). He went over a few of the adaptive vision aids he uses. This was good, and made me look independently for a monocular again as a backup. I found two and they were surprisingly inexpensive, less than $25 each, with good magnification power. I also saw a small lighted magnifier, rectangular with 3 or 5 inches diagonal, and ordered it. And there was a very intriguing LED magnifier, something like a digital camera, but for pages or distance. There were several types at 3.5 to 5.0 inches, ranging in price from about $80 to about $180. I opted for one with built-in ability to do reversed-out (negative image) text and a few other features, but in the lower-end price range. I’d prefer the bigger screen, though. If it proves useful enough, I could see getting the larger model, which might be upgraded in a few months or more, when I might get it.
For a few years now, I have kept a small 10x magnifier in my pocket (or waist pack) and it’s very, very handy. I think the maker is Whitman. It’s among the pocket magnifiers with light, when you do an Amazon search. I also keep a small LED flashlight. (And I keep a spare of these at my desk.) The little magnifier is surprisingly cheap, less than $10, so you can get two or more if you need a spare. The flashlights are more expensive and less reliable, prone to battery problems.
These help, and I thought I’d pass them along for anyone else who needs low-vision aids.
(I like a larger Kindle or iPad precisely because I always want my text at a bigger size, but want enough showing on-screen so as not to be a pain in constant scrolling page swipes. And Audible audiobooks are handy, as are ebooks.)
My digital camera is still lurking in storage, not yet located and much missed. No telling when I’ll find it. It’s like an archaeological dig. I have not, however, located any missing Bronze Age civilizations, nor any unknown hominids. … And it had me thinking of cargo hold stowaways last time, haha. No rugs or canisters of uruus or seafood, and no clones or cyborgs discovered as yet. (Nor has Robby the BJD shown up yet, and I’m anxious to find him again.) — I did, however, give up and order (yet another) paperback copy of Finity’s End, because the copy that had been by my bed has also not shown up in storage yet. Sigh. See, I was in the middle of the story, and Fletcher was then just starting out on Finity, not having had the ill-conceived hazing incident yet, nor past it. My impression of the younger James Robert had changed since last reading, though.
Cue the scene from the end of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, with a warehouse full of anonymous boxes.
This week is going to be hell on wheels. Tonight I will be giving a workshop at our library, on how to use some of the software available through the library for e-readers, smartphones and tablets, like Overdrive. I hope not to be presented with any piece of equipment that’s too outre. Our wi-fi is not very good either, so downloading may be iffy.
Tomorrow I begin the process of interviewing for the circulation desk position that has been vacant since February. As typical with the state, nothing happened until last week, then go-go-go!! I have 4 interviews scheduled for tomorrow, and three the day after, with at least one more TBD. Several of them will be phone interviews from the mainland; no one seems to consider the cost of living here when applying for a job, which has been the cause of many dashed hopes. I desperately want to get this under way before leaving on our vacation.
Good luck!
Now I’m going to worry! I’m road tripping home to my mom in Missouri to see the eclipse, traveling with my two dogs, and now I am going to be concerned about someone giving away my reservations!