Starlight 7 hour delay - waiting for a bus? (8/21)

[chakk]

I take it that all of these thousands and thousands of folks who traveled to Oregon got a good view of the total solar eclipse. And with (what sounds like) so many people chose to "avoid the crowds" by going to Bend, instead of Salem or Corvallis or Albany, they just compounded the problem for themselves and others. Did ANYBODY "blink" and turn around and go back before the eclipse to where they came from?

It seems quite logical -- at least to me -- that most everyone would attempt to leave immediately after the eclipse ended around midday, rather than staying put an extra day.

In other words, I bet the next day's connecting bus encountered no delays at all getting to Chemult.

 

[TiBike]

The main reason people went to eastern instead of western Oregon was weather. There's a better chance of clear skies in the east. I didn't talk to anyone who 1. didn't expect crowds and complete gridlock and 2. was particularly bothered by it. That was part of the experience and, for me at least, part of the fun. Seeing something that incredible while standing in a field with tens of thousands of other people who are totally into it too was mind blowing.

And yeah, I can believe the problems the bus had. That was just the way it was that day. There was zero chance of finding motel rooms in Chemult -- Skywest found some in Redmond, but that's a giant metropolis by comparison and the staff is local. They know who call and how to ask. I suppose they could have turned the bus around and headed back to Bend -- south of Madras, northbound traffic was light -- but that's 20/20 hindsight. At the time, it was not obvious how bad things were up ahead and no guarantee that turning around would have been better. There wasn't much good, real time information available to people on the scene, let alone hundreds of miles away.

A lot of people -- tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? -- were stuck for a few hours on Monday. Most of us expected and accepted it. I'm sure there were some people who didn't care about the eclipse and were just trying to get from point A to point B, but it's not like it was a surprise. In that respect, it's no different from travelling in the path of a hurricane. Situational awareness is a personal responsibility.

My only regret was renting a car instead of bringing a bike. Amtrak can't handle regular bikes at Chemult (although the 30 passenger connecting bus has figured it out), but I have a folding bike I could have brought. That's hindsight, too. No complaints.

 

[calwatch]

When I was driving down 99E from Salem back to Oregon City I noticed several people riding bikes northbound with all their gear. They probably beat us home. I was expecting an average speed of 15-20 mph, not 9.63 mph, and I left several hours after totality ended, around 2 pm, after shopping in Salem and grabbing lunch at Costco. On the other hand, I get it was a once in a lifetime experience and did not plan any activities for that evening. Some people gave themselves seven hours from Newport to PDX and still missed flights, but they took that risk willingly. http://www.kgw.com/news/eclipse/bad-traffic-delays-departures-for-tired-eclipse-travelers/466295440