Anyone here going out of their way for the total solar eclipse in <2 weeks?
During the last one in the US (2017) I was working so I didn’t go anywhere. However, I did bring a small refractor telescope (properly filtered!) to work and set up in the parking lot so folks returning from lunch could take a look at the ~80% eclipsed sun. It was OK but mostly it was beastly hot and humid standing out on the concrete in the midday August sun.
This eclipse track is 200-300 miles from my area at closest and more than two years ago I made reservations at a hotel. I was apparently the first because they were about to give me the standard rate until I mentioned the eclipsed. I was put on hold and then told they’d get back in touch. I got an email a few days later with an inflated rate.* Sorry, everyone else… I guess someone had to do it!
We’re going to leave the “eclipse town” (Mena, Arkansas) in the Ouachita mountains and go up to Jasper, Arkansas in the Ozark mountains for the remainder of the week. Unfortunately the eclipse track follows where we’re going …or it is the other way around? So the crowds may well remain heavy. I mean, our logic was, “It’s springtime in a beautiful area, we’ll just stay for a while after the eclipse.” What do you want to bet several hundred thousand of our ‘closest friends’ thought the same thing? 
I’ve been an amateur astronomer since 1987, but solar observing, including eclipses, has never been anything more than an occasional glance, nothing of real interest. The only reason we’re going specifically to this one is because it’s so close.
Still, it’s only four minutes out of a week. And as it approaches I’m getting less and less excited about going, for several reasons. I’m really starting to think it’s a mistake, eclipse notwithstanding. But we’re reserved and paid, so there’s no logic in canceling. I just have a feeling it’s going to be less than enjoyable. Why?
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The massive crowds – I’m not misanthropic and I’m not adverse to crowds. However, my idea of a good time is not being immersed in a throng of clueless gawkers. And despite the phrasing, I mean that literally, not as a pejorative. If I went to a dressmakers convention, I’d quite literally by a clueless gawker. Also, every imaginable resource (lodging, food, fuel, parking, you name it) will be stretched beyond the breaking point.
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My point about springtime in a beautiful area (above) – We’ll be in the thick of it the entire time. I can only hope most (many?) leave immediately after the eclipse. Unfortunately, all the roads in this area are two-lane, so (massive?) traffic jams are inevitable.
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Late spring – From a natural perspective, spring seems to be a bit delayed this year. We went through this area just last weekend and many of the trees are still mostly, if not completely, bare. I’d really like to do some landscape photography while I’m there, but family (even couple) vacations / holidays are virtually incompatible with photography. Also given the popularity of this area (Buffalo River) the “woods may be full” of hikers, etc., potentially ruining the possibility of photography. Hopefully not.
Well, drat. Whatever. We’ll just go and try to not think about how much better (not to mention, cheaper) it would’ve been a month later. Anyone else have plans?
* I understand the real-world implications of the massive customer influx during such an event. But all of them are paying customers so it’s difficult to explain away the spectre of price-gouging. After all, more paying customers == more revenue. No need to artificially raise prices. But I digress…
-free experience.
