Travel for 2017 total solar eclipse
 

I am currently in level 2 of my planning to visit the Missouri/Illinois area to witness the August 2017 eclipse. I have put in at work for the time off (18 months ago I put in a request for 6 weeks off, centered around the date of the eclipse, but will likely on take off 3 weeks). I plan on driving around the USA to see natural wonders, oddities (like the centre of the country), museums, locations of space capsules, assorted kinfolk, a cemetery or 2, etc, and maybe harass some forum members.

Looking for suggestions for places to visit in the rough area of Texas northward to South Dakota, eastward to Michigan/Indiana (maybe Ohio), south to Mississippi. This trip should significantly increase the number of American provinces that I have visited.

This will be the 5th eclipse that I have traveled between 400 km and to over 4000 km (round trip, so far) see.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;451358]I am currently in level 2 of my planning to visit the Missouri/Illinois area to witness the August 2017 eclipse. I have put in at work for the time off (18 months ago I put in a request for 6 weeks off, centered around the date of the eclipse, but will likely on take off 3 weeks). I plan on driving around the USA to see natural wonders, oddities (like the centre of the country), museums, locations of space capsules, assorted kinfolk, a cemetery or 2, etc, and maybe harass some forum members.

Looking for suggestions for places to visit in the rough area of Texas northward to South Dakota, eastward to Michigan/Indiana (maybe Ohio), south to Mississippi. This trip should significantly increase the number of American [B]provinces[/B] that I have visited.

This will be the 5th eclipse that I have traveled between 400 km and to over 4000 km (round trip, so far) see.[/QUOTE]
That would indicate that you are probably a Canadian.:smile:

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;451358]I am currently in level 2 of my planning to visit the Missouri/Illinois area to witness the August 2017 eclipse. [/QUOTE]

I am also well along in my planning. Our group that went to the 1991 eclipse in Mexico is reuniting in Oregon for this one, dragging along the next generation. The Mexico eclipse was tremendous- over 6 minutes of totality. Only about 2 minutes for this one, but wouldn't miss it for anything.

Norm

I'm only a couple hours from the location of longest totality (I think) -- it's around halfway between me and Mike. I might poll a few of my local friends and see if they'd want to organize a car trip down to the relevant forests.

It's about 6 hours travel from Chicago. Click through to the interactive map here:
[URL]http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/communities/states/IL/Makanda_186.htm[/URL]
In the attached clip, the green squarish area with the maximum duration marker is essentially Giant City State Park. Giant City Lodge has really nice cabins, too. At that time of year, you would probably have to book a month or two in advance, and that without crazed eclipse watchers to compete with.
[URL]https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/Parks/Pages/GiantCity.aspx[/URL]
Giant City is one of our absolute favorite spots in Illinois.

One of the pictures from our 1991 expedition- the prominence at about the 2:30 position reminded us immediately of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion.

Eclipse fever is setting in....

Norm

[QUOTE=kladner;451528] At that time of year, you would probably have to book a month or two in advance, and that without crazed eclipse watchers to compete with.
[/QUOTE]

Smokey Mountain does not open booking until February. Different zones have different dates. Good to keep in mind if you are planning on staying in the park. Does anyone have suggestions for camping in the area that is in the National Park -- not as busy, but just as beautiful would be nice…