Great Eclipse of 2017

My sister - who home schools - is taking her family to someplace in Tennesseee for totality.
She said hotels rates are through the roof.

 

I'll be interested in seeing front pages from the papers in the path of totality.

Curious what the main art will be. The semi-obvious choice --- telescopic view of the eclipse itself --- doesn't tell the readers "it was here!!!", as you could take a photo of one in Australia and no one would know the difference. And those kind of photos have been used in all the preview/explainer stories anyway.

To me the interesting choice is a photo that shows the eclipse high in the sky, but shows the surrounding darkness of the local city, preferably with some local landmark visible.

 

I'll be most interested in seeing how wildlife react to the totality. Will guys out fishing see a night bite in the middle of it? Will bats and other nocturnal animals awaken?

 

I am directly in the path, so all I have to do is step outside my house. I even got a Booches T-shirt to commemorate it.

 

Until this thread, I did not appreciate how nuts the logistics on the ground could be for this.

Get Ready for Major Traffic Jams During the 2017 Solar Eclipse

 

Birds in particular do react.

 

The 2024 eclipse should be a hum-dinger too.

 

I know of two groups of friends doing this. Two couples rented an RV and have campground reservations in Idaho. They expect to be in Boise on Aug. 20 and drive to a viewing spot on Highway 55 on Aug. 21. They are also continuing their trip into Wyoming and Montana after the event. The other group is flying to Tennessee. Don't know their plans.
I heard about confused birds. We have a lot of birds in my neighborhood. Maybe we should put Jack Daniel's in the bird bath to really screw them up.

 

Unlike people, birds aren't stupid. They wouldn't drink Jack Daniels.

 

When hotel rooms are sold out in hot-as-hell Idaho Falls in the middle of summer, something strange must be happening.

 

Except the ones that crash-landed on the football field at Boise State. Maybe all the stupid birds are in Idaho.