Going to the eclipse?

[Patrick W]

Anyone here in Utah planning on driving to Idaho for the 21 August total eclipse of the Sun?

With 4 superchargers along the way (SLC or Lakepoint to start and then Tremonton, Pocatello and Idaho Falls) range won't be a problem even for my 60.

NASA has a high resolution interactive map that shows the path of the eclipse:
NASA - Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 Aug 21

Trouble is, it is difficult to load to the car's browser and even once it’s loaded the current version of the browser makes the map pretty much useless. Hopefully the new kernel we have heard about will be out before August.

I asked a friend at Tesla HQ about just getting the blue and red lines added to the existing map. He said he'd check into it but was not hopeful.

In the event that does not happen I loaded this image on my server which shows the portion of the NASA map where many of us Utahns (one report says 10s of thousands) will be headed. It loads easily:
http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/0.jpg

Once displayed it can paired up with the car’s navigation screen. Doing that looks like the attached image. Not perfect but as long as I’m north of the bottom blue line (bottom edge of totality) and preferably close to the red line (the center line) I’ll be happy.

 

[ThisIsTrue]

My wife and I are going to Western Wyoming for it, so we're really hoping they get in gear and get the Evanston supercharger online by then.

 

[Sparky]

Yes. Thinking of heading out from Park City. Since good places to stay / camp seem to be booked up or priced crazy high, I'm considering just leaving very early in the morning, same day. Kinda risky (3.5 hour drive) , but also lets me drive towards the clearest sky.
If Evanston is online, might try a run for Pinedale, WY area.

 

[Barry]

I plan on going north on I-25 in eastern Wyoming...

 

[benemac]

Anyone here in Utah planning on driving to Idaho for the 21 August total eclipse of the Sun?

With 4 superchargers along the way (SLC or Lakepoint to start and then Tremonton, Pocatello and Idaho Falls) range won't be a problem even for my 60.

NASA has a high resolution interactive map that shows the path of the eclipse:
NASA - Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 Aug 21

Trouble is, it is difficult to load to the car's browser and even once it’s loaded the current version of the browser makes the map pretty much useless. Hopefully the new kernel we have heard about will be out before August.

I asked a friend at Tesla HQ about just getting the blue and red lines added to the existing map. He said he'd check into it but was not hopeful.

In the event that does not happen I loaded this image on my server which shows the portion of the NASA map where many of us Utahns (one report says 10s of thousands) will be headed. It loads easily:
http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/0.jpg

Once displayed it can paired up with the car’s navigation screen. Doing that looks like the attached image. Not perfect but as long as I’m north of the bottom blue line (bottom edge of totality) and preferably close to the red line (the center line) I’ll be happy.

View attachment 230487

We're actually driving up from Scottsdale beginning the 17th. We'll be in Washington, UT in an Airbnb. The 18th in Salt Lake City in a hotel (we think). Then off to Ashton, ID to stay with friends. We'll drive south early on the 21st to hit Rexburg, ID. Hopefully, we don't have to make some new plans because of weather patterns. We'll have to hit Idaho Falls supercharger before leaving. Maybe before Rexburg so we're ready to move west.
We're very excited about the trip. Should be a great time. Hope our little dog enjoys it.

 

[Evil.Labrat]

Yeah, we plan to drive up to Rexburg that morning, unless weather patterns force us to head a different direction.

 

[benemac]

We're going to watch the weather too. We'll head west if needed. Maybe we'll see you there.

 

[HankLloydRight]

We're starting in Holly Hill, SC (near the Santee SC).. then heading wherever depending on weather.

 

[Dirk]

I'll be starting a big road trip next Tuesday. We'll be with 3 cars, our Tesla MX100D and two ICE rentals for 4 couples: friends from my university in Belgium. It's the Big Eclipse Trip and we've been talking about it for 15 years...Several of us have been to eclipses all over the world so we definitely could not miss this one in our back yard!

It will be my first big trip in the Tesla and I must say I do have range anxiety. We'll be leaving from the South Bay, top off a bit at the Napa SC, go through the wine country, charge at Corning and overnight at Red Bluff. That's the easy part. Then we're off to Lassen, do some hikes and come back to Mineral to sleep. The motel is utterly refusing to help with charging, even their 110V outlet is off-limits. Their response: "We don't do that kind of stuff". So I will leave the Tesla in their parking lot when we're passing by in the morning, move with my wife to the other cars and drive up to Bumpass Hell and hike there. Then we'll drive back to Mineral in the evening and the next day we'll go back to Lassen, hike Lassen Peak (liked your picture from a couple of days ago, glad to hear the hike is very doable as I was afraid of too much snow).
On to Burney, see Burney Falls and next day go to Lava Beds NM and on to the SC in Klamath Falls. No charging anywhere. Luckily the motel in Burney was the opposite of the one in Mineral and was very helpful. I will be able to use their dryer circuit. If there's a problem, plan B is to drive back towards I5, charge there and meet the rest of the group in Klamath Falls. Then it's easy to Crater Lake and Bend.

We'll watch the eclipse in John Day. I had made reservations 2 years ago (eclipses are sooo predictable...) but that was before I was even dreaming about a Tesla. There's a Tesla charger in John Day, but with the zoo around the eclipse and everything sold out, I can't count on being able to charge there. One car that sits at the charger for 24 hours and I'm hosed. I cannot get out and back to The Dalles without charging. Luckily the Best Western has been very helpful too so I hope it will all turn out OK. The only Plan B I have is to stay until the crowd is gone, charge 6 hours and then try to catch up with my friends who are doing the Columbia River Gorge. No fun. The rest of the trip (Portland, Mt Saint Helens, Oregon and California Coast is all covered with SC.

I did ask my friends whether to take the Prius or the Tesla and they unanimously wanted me to go with the Tesla even after I explained to them that they will have to wait many times while I'm charging. But they were fascinated with how the logistics would turn out (and of course they all want a test drive...). That's what you get with 5 engineers together

I do have a 30' Nema 14-50 extension cord, a 14-30 converter, a Chademo converter and the standard stuff that came with the car. Hope that will be enough. If I had known I would be driving a Tesla (that's another long story), I would have made different choices of where to stay and what to see but that's too late now.

This will be my 6th eclipse (yes, they are very addicting). If there's anyway you can make it, please do as it is really spectacular!

 

[tbleakne]

Add me to list of Teslas going to Idaho Falls area for eclipse. Not enough on this thread to get a sense of how busy Pocatello SC will be early Monday morning Eclipse Day. I will need to fill up, perhaps 30min. I believe Sparky is planning to skip this SC, at least on way up.

 

[benemac]

Add me to list of Teslas going to Idaho Falls area for eclipse. Not enough on this thread to get a sense of how busy Pocatello SC will be early Monday morning Eclipse Day. I will need to fill up, perhaps 30min. I believe Sparky is planning to skip this SC, at least on way up.

My husband and I will begin our trip on the 17th. We'll be in Washington, UT (17th), Salt Lake City (18th) and traveling through Idaho Falls on the 19th. Friends in Ashton will take us in, but we'll head down to Rexburg with a full charge that morning. Then we'll see how it goes. We have a campsite in Buhl, ID, but we may need to charge in Pocatello to top off. We decided that we won't wait for the full eclipse to be complete. Once the sun peaks out, we'll begin our travel shortly afterwards. We thought about getting to Idaho Falls. My fear are the parking spots for charging. Will they be taken by ICE cars on the 21st? Let's hope not. You may want to charge in Pocatello if it appears spots are open. Take it while you can.

 

[PLUS EV]

I'll be driving to Salem, OR from Seattle. Will audible to eastern Oregon or wherever if necessary but as of right now the forecast looks "sunny" and clear.

I had planned on heading down a couple days early but then some friends from out of town said they will be in Seattle that weekend and wanted to go to the soccer game Sunday night. So I am going to that with them and then I have ~12 hours to go Seattle to Salem. Just hoping the traffic isn't too terrible and that I will at least be able to make it by morning. I fear that the I-5 corridor (especially from Portland south) will be the most crowded in the country on eclipse day due to high population and few alternative routes. Same deal with supercharger congestion. Charging in Centralia is almost a necessity and that will be the case for any Tesla driver from the Seattle area who is making this trip. Could be a real choke point. Again just hoping that I will be able to plug in at some point during the wee hours at least. I am a night owl and don't mind if the trip takes a while but it would be a disaster to miss the eclipse!

This will be my 3rd solar eclipse but my first total eclipse. I was in Scotland in August 1999 for a partial eclipse and was in Kanarraville, Utah in May 2012 for an annular eclipse. The latter was much more amazing than the former and I expect this one will top even that. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get to the path of totality if you are at all interested in this event. The difference between totality and a partial eclipse is literally night and day.

 

[dgpcolorado]

I'm heading to central Oregon since my sister's house is in the path of totality. The predictions are for traffic to be crazy so I am going several days early and will just hang out there. Lots of fires in the area so the smoke in the air will ruin the mountain vistas but shouldn't affect the eclipse viewing.

 

[Barry]

This will be my 3rd solar eclipse but my first total eclipse.

I recall seeing a solar eclipse as a kid. Looking at the list/locations on Wikipedia, March 1970 seems to be the right one. That was probably 5-10 years before you were born

 

[evp]

I'll be near Glendo Reservoir 100 miles north of Cheyenne. My original plan was to stay in Lusk, but apparently planning a year and a half ahead was not sufficient -- all motel rooms for the 20th were already reserved by then.

This will be my 8th solar eclipse. The first two came to me. After that, I've had to go to them. I haven't decided whether a three hour drive moves this one into the second category or not.

 

[PLUS EV]

I recall seeing a solar eclipse as a kid. Looking at the list/locations on Wikipedia, March 1970 seems to be the right one. That was probably 5-10 years before you were born

Yes right in that range. I'm still clinging onto my 30s

I actually just learned there was a total solar eclipse that went right over my hometown in 1979, but a) I was only 1yo and b) my family hadn't moved there yet.

I remember another partial eclipse when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. We made these goofy viewing contraptions in science class. But given that it was a November eclipse, it came as no surprise when it was overcast the entire day lol.

 

[Dynastar]

Anyone headed to Casper? We're day-tripping from the North, and I'm worried about charging in Casper. The public charging options on Plugshare look unreliable, and the RV camps will be full. Would love to share a plug for a few hours with someone who has secured access to one, would be willing to chip in.

 

[Barry]

Yes right in that range. I'm still clinging onto my 30s

I assumed about 40 by now, but I also didn't remember you as being as tall as you are, last time I saw you

Anyone headed to Casper? We're day-tripping from the North, and I'm worried about charging in Casper. The public charging options on Plugshare look unreliable, and the RV camps will be full. Would love to share a plug for a few hours with someone who has secured access to one, would be willing to chip in.

I don't plan on going that far north, but the Denver news is saying the entire state of Colorado is going to converge on Casper
I'm just hoping that the Cheyenne SC doesn't turn into a California-type SC scene with long waits.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...I don't plan on going that far north, but the Denver news is saying the entire state of Colorado is going to converge on Casper
I'm just hoping that the Cheyenne SC doesn't turn into a California-type SC scene with long waits.

Probably better than the prediction that much of California is going to converge on Oregon. I'm lucky that my sister in Oregon has a 14-50 outlet and I can wait until the crowd dissipates.

 

[JasonA-EV]

We're leaving tomorrow from SoCal and heading up to either Idaho Falls or Weiser (probably here). Anybody going to be nearby??

Camping in the S and also in a tent, etc. Once the kaos is over on Monday.. heading over towards OR and Cave Junction/ Grants Pass/ Brookings, etc.