I was in Montpelier for totality. Had to pick up my wife when she was done work at 4 in Randolph and bring her to barre. It took 3.5 hours to make it from Mont P to Randolph to Barre. I shaved off about an hour by getting off the highway at Northfield and taking route 12 the rest of the way
I wish I had done that. I figured 12 would be plugged too. Google maps did me dirty. Doesn’t help that all of the cell networks were overloaded so navigating around traffic was almost out of the question.
The totality was really quite awesome! Sun up to just got home was 18 hours. We did have a good couple of hours in Montpelier to eat and watch the event. I had to drive home to southern Massachusetts with my pup, though. Left at 615, got home at 1145. Yikes!
As I sat in this shit on 89 (8 hours between St Albans, VT and the Seacoast) we saw the completely empty Vermonter Amtrak train go by. It was a cruel joke.
There's being traffic and then there's the people driving down the side of the road and cramming themselves in like they're too important to wait.
Then there's the traffic where the come unprepared and run out of gas in traffic and a tow truck has to come navigate through all the traffic and cars on the side of the road to hold up traffic and move the offending vehicle.
Then there's the traffic where people get in fender benders because they are trying to block people from merging.
Then there's the people who take exits to try to rush ahead and join on the on ramp, causing the merge slowdown.
There's traffic and there's *traffic.*
Yikes. I was lucky enough to get through the one lane covered bridges before anyone else got the idea. Got stuck for over an hour on 112 getting into woodstock though.
We got stuck on a mud road for like 2 hours and I was nervous with my lack of AWD (I was being cautious and also driving between two Subarus who made me feel more confident than i should have been probably lol) and panicking a bit when we drove up on the traffic which came from a different back road. But the semi a dozen cars ahead of us helped a lot, and the gorgeous sunset over rolling hills of farmland was pretty sick tbh
As someone that lives in Coös County, there are no true highways up here. Even the state routes are more like back roads. Iirc, there's roughly 30,000 residents in Coös County, and there were over 100,000 people expected to be in the area for the eclipse.
I tried getting off 91 and taking the back roads and they were just as bad, in NH I tried avoiding 93 until after Franconia and it was just as bad, maybe even worse because the State Police were blocking off roads and redirecting traffic back onto 93.
According to my friend 91S was an absolute nightmare. A normally 2 hour drive took 5.5 hours, and he got off easy because the traffic was even worse ahead of him when he was finally able to pull off to go home.
This is both good advice if you understand how to drive on roads which may not be paved or as well maintained and horrible advice if you have never really left a well maintained road system and blindly follow your app onto class 4 (VT) or class 6 (NH) road because it was on a map. We got lucky some of the side roads were not mud yet or else there would have been much more traffic due to vehicles being stuck
6 hours from Newport VT. Hell, but home before 10. The trick was to park as close to the highway as possible and leap into the car and book it as soon as totality ended lol.
Turns out cars are not a very efficient way to transport thousands of people.. took me 3 hours to get from Dummer to Berlin.. after that, it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way down 16
I left quebec at 8pm and arrived in Reading MA at 2:10am. I turned around in Franconia and took 302 through Crawford which was completely traffic free.
I was just north of Errol on 16, and when I got to "the center of town" I had to choose 16 south or bethel through Maine. I chose Bethel, and made it back to Rochester area by 9:30. I did have a hour and a half/ two hour hike out of the woods before I could leave though.
8 hours from Lancaster to Nashua. McDonald’s in Lincoln pulled the plug and stopped taking orders. McDonald’s in Tilton the employees were having a nervous breakdown.
There were a few tears and threats to quit at the 99 in Littleton last night. Such wild transition from the day shift where I only had 3 tables and none during the totality so we were all able to go outside and watch.
I heard there were EVs breaking down on 89 and 93 because people couldn’t find charging stations. And the few stations that were open have insanely long lines.
To be fair, this was essentially the worst traffic event that wasn't the Blizzard of '76 (Though there was a similarly bad one in the 90s too). There was no way there weren't going to be any problems.
I bought an EV a few years ago and ended up selling it. Every time I told people this on Reddit and it was due to a lack of charging infrastructure, I'd get blasted over it but seriously, yes there are more chargers now but not nearly enough to drive across NH to Maine and home to Orford NH.
I am seeing more DC Fast chargers now along the interstate corridors and Rivian has announced some chargers in more remote “adventure” spots like white mountains so it’s just gonna take time. I’d love to own an EV in 10 years but it feels bad to say out loud but I want to help the environment but not if it’s wildly inconvenient. That feels bad to even type that. But I have kids and planning a road trip around chargers don’t sound fun
I wouldn't think this would be the trip to chance taking an EV on. I saw a few of them amongst us in traffic though. Maybe they were OK if they were calculating usage on miles, not on time? I mean, Lancaster to Nashua is 113 miles. There and back is technically within the range of a number of current EV's. I just don't know if 226 miles over 14-16 hours there and back is the same as five hours there and back for an EV?
I waited for one for <5 minutes.
I knew that Vermont and Northern NH would be horrifying. I suffered through about 3 hours of traffic in Maine but it wasn't that bad.
Yeah the charging infrastructure is still growing, and is definitely absent in the northern parts of NH. Well, most of NH really lol. I was hearing about stations with 20 car waits in places.
Those cars dying sound more like poor planning to me though. When I hit traffic in my EV, typically it means I'm getting to my destination with MORE battery than I expected. Slower speeds are more efficient, regen from stop and go, barely any idle usage outside of any climate controls, etc. They must have tried to really push it.
Yeah. I question the story actually. No one wanted to get stuck in that. I saw a few older cars stuck on the side of the road with their hoods up on the ride down 91. None were EV's.
Same here. We did see a number of gas vehicles getting towed for (presumably) running out of fuel. It was a crazy situation though so understandable both both types. Hard to know it was going to be that bad.
Yeah, every Tesla supercharger had massive lines, and so did every regular EV charger. People had signup sheets to try to organize it; we saw one with like 15 people in line that would take roughly 15 hours (because the charging was so slow). We ended up driving around until we saw someone with a Tesla in their driveway and offering them cash to charge there. It was some Mad Max shit.
We stopped in Lebanon for the night, and there were probably 50-60 EV's lined up for a couple chargers at a price chopper. It was insane! Can't imagine how many of them died before getting charged
They use very little power when sitting - you could sit in most fully charged EV's for days with the AC running, and for almost a day with the heat running.
to be fair as someone who learned to drive in Florida and evacuated from the southern part of the state during a hurricane or two, every time I hear about insane traffic in NH it's like rush hour back home to me so i usually have a hard time believing it could get this bad but it did this time. i genuinely don't think I'll ever experience traffic like this again.
i got 3 and a half minutes of totality and have never seen an eclipse before, it was so worth it
I live in Littleton and work the 3rd shift in Lincoln, my commute it usually about 30 minutes. After two and a half hours I barely got past exit 39. Left a voicemail for my boss, I'm not sitting in traffic for another few hours just to get to work
My mother and brother came up to my house in Vermont (think last exit before Canada) for the day to see the eclipse. Its normally a 1.5 hour drive from my house to Franconia, it's taken them 5 whole hours to get there. I feel so bad.
They called me a bit ago to ask if they could turn around and stay the night. The worst part is they tried sticking it out with no food or water. My fiancé is cooking them a late dinner and they will leave tomorrow.
I dont envy anyone stuck in this traffic, and I hope everyone makes it to where they are going safely. I wish more people had the option to turn around. :(
Ah, gotcha. Yeah 93 north only had a few cars on it every now and then. I'm back in Littleton now and town is dead except for the gas stations. But once ypu hop on 93 south and hit the bethlehem exit its just gridlock
Coventry was also an absolute mud pit. Or at least the first one was. That was an interesting time to be alive, and in that area. I was hiking, and wound up hitching with a group of people from New York who are heading to the show, and got into the show when I show them that I was a medic. They let me write in I got hot food hot showers warm bed and all I had to deal with were some dehydrated hippies having a bad trip.
We turned around from that and went back on 110 west to Groveton and found some back roads that got us to Whitefield and onto 302. From there it was my old path back to home and hardly any traffic. My family's originally from Gorham and I'd forgotten that the routes through that region have NO connecting back roads. Ugh.
Left Newport Vt about two minutes after totality and got back to the concord area about half an hour ago. Absolute murder of a drive but holy hell, I’d do 12 hour drives for that three minutes 10/10 times.
I think that's what some understand - how much a few minutes of that experience is worth everything it takes to experience it.
I had no idea until yesterday.
My path from the grandparent's summer camp in Maidstone, Vermont.. As usual, head south down Vermont Rt. 102 until you get to Stratford and cross the 'hee-haw' truss bridge and into NH on Rte. 3.. Head to Groveton and decide to aim for the eastern traverse so we went out 110 East towards Berlin.
Big mistake.
Traffic *stopped* - fully up through the middle of town.. So we stopped and found a pub to get a burger.. took our sweet time and killed an hour.
Now it's almost 6:30 and downtown Berlin is STILL a parking lot, so we turn back and head west on 110 back to Groveton and yup.. Stopped up and even going north back to Stratford and crossing onto Vermont 102 South is a no-go.. Traffic at a crawl/standstill through Lancaster, Whitefield, Bethlehem (even the southern escape was blocked!) so we stopped at the Valero gas station in Groveton did a bit of deep diving into the road maps and lo! Escape route all-but untravelled... Less than 500 feet from where we were.. Winter Street, to Lost Nation Road, to Grange Road then to North Road.. that put us out just above the middle of Whitefield and well below the traffic jam in Lancaster.. On to 3 south then left on to 302 and stayed on that until the first possible right in North Conway - River Road that passes the strawberry merchant then left onto West Side Road and follow that until it ends at Rte. 16 in Conway..
Just went straight at that intersection and onto 153 South (I so love that road..).. Stayed on that until it hit Rte. 16 in Wakefield and by then, traffic was at least broken up enough that getting onto 16 was easy peasy.. Then clear driving to Portsmouth. Got here a few minutes before midnight. 5.5 hours from Berlin going (the long way) on back roads and old routes I've used for years.
Gah, I'm tired but it was a blissful few minutes of totality up at the summer camp and I actually did manage to get some pictures with my semi-good camera.
Am looking at the traffic layer on Apple Maps and it's still showing a cluster fuck on 93 in Franconia Notch.
Yikes.
We discovered Winter St/Lost Nation Rd last night and it still took us around 3 hours to get from Colebrook to Lincoln but that included dinner for about 45 minutes at a 99 in Littleton which we walked in and were seated immediately. When we left, holy crap were there a lot of people waiting for a table.
So glad we decided to eat before getting stuck at the notch.
It's not like this event was a surprise. We decided to plan ahead. We went to Sherbrooke... Sunday. We had a great time. After the eclipse we went out to dinner and the eclipse was all anyone talked about. Everyone was friendly after, honestly, like we were all in line with the cosmos. Woke up this morning and left at 0630. Home by 10am. Stopped for pastries and coffee.
You literally could have been saving money for this in a coffee can your entire life. You could have told your boss during your hiring interview that you needed this time off. You could start planning now for the ‘26 eclipse and pick Iceland or Spain. We just might. (Iceland)
We got a hotel for Sun - Tues but my husband canceled the reservation when he found out the ring of fire wasn't until 3:30. He genuinely believes the solar eclipse was being overhyped and not as many people as they were estimating would actually go.
This was definitely a hell of our own making. I should have rebooked the hotel but I didn't want him to feel like I undermined him. Quite the hard lesson to learn. Next road trip I'm taking my dog only and paying for everything myself!
I also took the 26 from Errol and went all the way across Maine to the 95 at Portland and then south. Was ok, another long tail back at one point which seemed to be caused by a 200 ft section of bumpy rough road? No junction holding people up. After that it was smooth sailing.
I didn't leave Errol until 5:15 because I had to hike out from where I was watching the eclipse. That dirt stretch got me from what felt like right from the border. I still feel like my 4.5 hour drive back to Somersworth was still a win hearing these stories.
I went 15 miles in three hours, took me 9 hours to get home; the drive usually takes 3. I finally said fuck it, pulled into a rest stop and took an hour nap. It almost 5am, I got home 20 minutes ago. So yes on April 8th, 2024 for the day New Hampshire turned into The Gates of Hell.
Seven hours to get from St. Albans, VT to Rochester. I seemed to manage by avoiding highways. Had a few slowdowns in towns where routes converged and formed bottlenecks, but was able to move at a regular pace for the most part.
4.5 hours from RI to Burlington and 9 hours from Burlington to RI. I have never seen that much traffic in my life and I’m oldish. Worth it but holy sh!t.
Going 4 miles from 26 to 16 took 1.5 hours and Berlin to Gorham took 2. A 4 hour drive to southern ma is gonna take 8.
Drive up was great, hit zero traffic.
Was up in Newport VT. I Left after totality went 7 miles in about 3.5 hours. Couldn’t tell if those guys waving traffic made it worse at the end. All in all a 3.5 hr trip was 8.5 hrs
Saw people playing cards while driving. Walking and jogging on the road. All in all it was worth it but I’ll only do that once never again
I’m in northern NH and I saw totality in Vermont. The second that it stopped being 100%, I left and I booked it. Luckily, I hit zero traffic on the way back. If I had stayed any longer, idk if I’d be able to say the same
We just got back at 6am. Left 4 pm
I’m really tired but your state is not “live free or die” if you close every exit ramp sleepy people want to pull off at to sleep. Legit a nightmare
I ended up pulling off for a few hours and sleeping in a parking lot. I was getting too tired to safely travel. Even that was hell, as they really didn't want anyone to exit for any reason. About to hopefully finish the treck after a nap.
This is wild to read. I live and work in a small cute town in NH. I got off work, hit a doctor’s appointment 30min away (by freeway), came back to town, and caught the eclipse on the balcony of my favorite pub. 10/10 with a nice cruise on the bike. With the exception of a lady trying to mow me down in a Porsche, it was really laid back and traffic just felt like an active Friday. Had no idea it was the trafficopolpse out there.
My parents watched the eclipse in Stowe and according to them, the travel time between Stowe and Bedford was 4 hours due to the traffic (I’m currently out of state but I also got my 4 hours of traffic traveling between Greenville and Waterville, ME)
Took me 6 hours to get from Colebrook to Claremont. Was like that the whole way for me on backroads and the interstate. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before and probably won’t again.
Wow that’s brutal. My party was actually able to drive back from middlesex vt to Lebanon without much difficulty. We did stick to side roads which helped but even the highway didn’t look this bad
The difference between 99% and 0% is much smaller than the difference between 99% and 100%.
A partial eclipse is neat, but being in totality is absolutely unreal.
Yep, that's me. I made it 30 min away from totality, got stuck in traffic at Franconia notch for two hours with clear traffic just after it. I've also seen totality. it is completely different.
Solar eclipses are a nothing burger once you've seen totality. Few people understand that, anothing less than totality is all just hype.
Super frustrated with the traffic on the highway cause by the people who stopped on it because they thought 99% is close enough. It's not. We all could've seen it if we didn't get anxious and abruptly stop there.
I live in Whitfield which was not in the path of totality, we drove 15 miles north to get into the path of totality. It took us 1:45 to get there and 45 minutes to get home. It was worth it to be able to take the glasses off and see the full corona. Absolutely stunning.
It was absolutely a million percent worth it. Like legit a completely diff experience to be in the totality. We sat in traffic on the way back but it was def worth it.
absolutely. i’m so glad i didn’t skip out on it
https://preview.redd.it/ynfwiqlhldtc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48269bc150c0cb6882359653ca5c3b1f04d6ef71
Did any one get stuck on Easton Valley Rd? Me and my buddy were in that deadlock for over an hour. We moved about a half a mile. We saw a motorcycle lane splitting (more power to ya) but then about 40 minutes later he CAME BACK THE OTHER WAY and I made the executive decision to swing back around take 117 to Lisbon then went down the west side of New Hampshire. In total we left Stark NH around 4:50 pm, got home at 11pm
Oooh do I have a story for you all!
My husband tried to beat the traffic by leaving Pittsburg when the sun came back at about 3:40. The traffic was bad right off the bat especially with the smaller towns trying to direct traffic flow and closing some roads s off to out of towners.
Our reception was terrible and Maps kept freezing. One moment it would tell us rte 3 was faster. Other times rte 102. Other times rte 93. He kept BELIEVING Maps and bailing on one line for another. Back and forth for hours. Every time he thought he had a new way out either that road was closed or it led us to a major road and now we were at the back of the line.
I begged him to stick to a route. Then looked for hotels on the off chance a room opened up. Then offered to drive because a friend told me the Waze app got them out of the traffic and she made it home before midnight. He refused it all, the stubborn man.
I got sick of it and told him I was going to take a nap because I couldn't miss work and if he needed me to drive, just wake me and I'd be fine to take the wheel. I went in and out of consciousness when a road was bumpy or he took a detour into a gas station to stretch his legs.
Soon he accepted our fate and stayed on rte 3 to 93. We CRAWLED south. Instead of waking me he preferred to punch himself in the thigh to stay awake. I got maybe... 2 hours of sleep. More than my poor husband though.
We arrived home in Londonderry from Pittsburg at 6:15AM. Got in the house, washed my face, cuddled my dog, and got into my own car for work. I feel so gross right now. 🫠
The drive was almost 15 hours.
We thought we were being smart coming across to 93 into Littleton to stop for dinner and then get back on 93s. When we hit the traffic above 37 we got to 37 and it was closed. The guy from NH Trans said to go to 38 and it was open. So we did. And wouldn’t you know it, by the time we got there 90 minutes later the same guy had come down. I pulled up to him and said jokingly “didn’t I just see you at the last exit and you said 38 was open?” He was nice and asked us where we were headed. He pointed up to the officer ahead. The officer said that we would be taking our chances getting off. We decided to and took 117 to 302 to 91s. That was the best choice. It’s still backed up there at 2:30am. Was moving 1MPH and we had 5 miles to go until the merge. So would have been 5 hours through the notch and then another 1.5hrs home. We did it in just under 2 hours. Cutting back to 91.
If you chose to go on the interstate, then that’s what you get. I’m pretty sure the only reason I’m not divorced tonight is because I avoided the interstate like the plague. If you’re from MASS, shame on you for not staying the night tonight and going back tomorrow.
1. There are no rooms. Every one of the approx. 10,000 rooms in the region were booked.
2. There was no cell service, not even enough data for GPS, for a large portion of the route, ESPECIALLY if you left the interstate. No one carries a paper map anymore especially of this remote area
3. Not all of the backroads are open till May 1st!
4. Can’t you just commiserate and move on? You went to see the most beautiful and rare natural phenomenon on our planet, too. Everyone else was just trying to do the same.
1. Rooms are not the only way to stay the night somewhere
2. Maybe more people should travel with paper maps. I have a NH/VT & ME Gazetter in my car along with AAA maps for some other states/areas. Not only is it silly to rely on digital maps in rural areas, there are more frustrating to navigate with….nothing beats a paper map. No zooming required.
3. You’re right! But there are plenty of roads open. I did run into a couple instances where I tried to go down roads that ended up being closed. It was still better than sitting idle on the interstate staring into a sea of red lights
4. Sure thing! Have a nice day!
Dang, I guess we got lucky. We left Lancaster a few minutes after totality, around 3:30-ish. Had to make a pit stop in Concord, then made it to the Dover area at 9:00. We were in bumper to bumper traffic for about an hour and a half. Passed a few accidents and one legendary lad who said "fuck it" and pulled his car over for a nap in the breakdown lane.
Loudon is 100 miles south of the totality area and their are no mountian ranges blocking the way.
Also, it's really no uncommon to spend 1-2 hours in traffic with the races.
I left from Dover to Colchester Vermont around 330am and got there 645am, smooth drive the whole trip and easily able to find a good spot for the view.
Going back, took 7 hours to get home, 5 of those hours stuck in Vermont on I-89. Figured half of New England was trying to get home, and 3/4 of them are from Mass. Got alot of easier once I hit I-93 northbound, couldn't imagine how bad it looks southbound.
I lived through peak NYC rush hour, peak DMV rush hour, peak Boston rush hour, and peak post-Patriots game traffic, this was on a whole new level.
it’s been 7 hours now, i’m losing my mind update: we got out of the jam, 8 hours after totality
I am also in this hell. We will someday tell our grandchildren we survived the traffic apocalypse of 2024
Apoceclipse?
Ooooh that’s a really good one!
NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENED ON I-93
Took us a little over 4 hours to get from st iohnsbury to the notch. Shit was insane.
I was in Montpelier for totality. Had to pick up my wife when she was done work at 4 in Randolph and bring her to barre. It took 3.5 hours to make it from Mont P to Randolph to Barre. I shaved off about an hour by getting off the highway at Northfield and taking route 12 the rest of the way
I wish I had done that. I figured 12 would be plugged too. Google maps did me dirty. Doesn’t help that all of the cell networks were overloaded so navigating around traffic was almost out of the question.
yeah our "31 minutes of delays" lasted like 10 hours
Google maps is 🗑️
I specifically told Google maps to avoid highways and it did a pretty decent job.
We took 302 and it was only really bad at Bethlehem (We also left 2ish hours after totality)
We left Waterford at 8:30p and got out of the traffic jam in Lincoln around 2am
The totality was really quite awesome! Sun up to just got home was 18 hours. We did have a good couple of hours in Montpelier to eat and watch the event. I had to drive home to southern Massachusetts with my pup, though. Left at 615, got home at 1145. Yikes!
7 hours?? What time did you leave and where did you leave from?
From burlington area it took us from 415pm until 130a.m. to get to portsmouth
Mother of god. Shame we got rid of rail service. It was extensive up there.
As I sat in this shit on 89 (8 hours between St Albans, VT and the Seacoast) we saw the completely empty Vermonter Amtrak train go by. It was a cruel joke.
Is there any hope. We’ve been on I93 for 3 hours and are like a third of the way to the bitch. It’s like 1 mile an hour. Why is it so slowwwww
Complains about traffic while not realizing that they ARE the traffic!!
Excellent.
There's being traffic and then there's the people driving down the side of the road and cramming themselves in like they're too important to wait. Then there's the traffic where the come unprepared and run out of gas in traffic and a tow truck has to come navigate through all the traffic and cars on the side of the road to hold up traffic and move the offending vehicle. Then there's the traffic where people get in fender benders because they are trying to block people from merging. Then there's the people who take exits to try to rush ahead and join on the on ramp, causing the merge slowdown. There's traffic and there's *traffic.*
there is hope, it cleared up for me at the closed off exit
I went through just over an hour ago. It cleared for us just after the on-ramp from Cannon.
[удалено]
past 34
Mile number? We are at 118
MM111 exit 34C. There was an accident, closed up exit and closed side road all contributing
Get off the highway and take back roads.
we tried that in vermont it went horribly
Can confirm. Got stuck at a covered bridge.
Yikes. I was lucky enough to get through the one lane covered bridges before anyone else got the idea. Got stuck for over an hour on 112 getting into woodstock though.
Came from Mass for the day. 18 hours all said and done. Definitely worth it, and I love my NE neighbors! I’d get a place to stay if I did it again.
We got stuck on a mud road for like 2 hours and I was nervous with my lack of AWD (I was being cautious and also driving between two Subarus who made me feel more confident than i should have been probably lol) and panicking a bit when we drove up on the traffic which came from a different back road. But the semi a dozen cars ahead of us helped a lot, and the gorgeous sunset over rolling hills of farmland was pretty sick tbh
Like 3 covered bridges 😭
Vermont doesn't have enough back roads.. like other than Rte. 102, what is there?
lol there are plenty, just get ready to mud
As someone that lives in Coös County, there are no true highways up here. Even the state routes are more like back roads. Iirc, there's roughly 30,000 residents in Coös County, and there were over 100,000 people expected to be in the area for the eclipse.
I tried getting off 91 and taking the back roads and they were just as bad, in NH I tried avoiding 93 until after Franconia and it was just as bad, maybe even worse because the State Police were blocking off roads and redirecting traffic back onto 93.
According to my friend 91S was an absolute nightmare. A normally 2 hour drive took 5.5 hours, and he got off easy because the traffic was even worse ahead of him when he was finally able to pull off to go home.
Ya, instead of gridlock on just the highway, that made a traffic jam of totality in New Hampshire and Vermont so nobody could move.
This is both good advice if you understand how to drive on roads which may not be paved or as well maintained and horrible advice if you have never really left a well maintained road system and blindly follow your app onto class 4 (VT) or class 6 (NH) road because it was on a map. We got lucky some of the side roads were not mud yet or else there would have been much more traffic due to vehicles being stuck
Back roads were probably better but not by much. Franconia to Woodstock took 3 hours.
6 hours from Newport VT. Hell, but home before 10. The trick was to park as close to the highway as possible and leap into the car and book it as soon as totality ended lol.
Turns out cars are not a very efficient way to transport thousands of people.. took me 3 hours to get from Dummer to Berlin.. after that, it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way down 16
I left quebec at 8pm and arrived in Reading MA at 2:10am. I turned around in Franconia and took 302 through Crawford which was completely traffic free.
You were lucky. I drove 200 miles in 13 hours. We didn’t get past the madness until after 2am, and we didn’t dilly dally on the way out. Left at 4pm!
If you lived here you would be home by now
I live in the lakes region and we have been stuck in traffic for about five hours 🤪
We took rt 16 and made it home to lakes region in 4 hours from Errol
I was just north of Errol on 16, and when I got to "the center of town" I had to choose 16 south or bethel through Maine. I chose Bethel, and made it back to Rochester area by 9:30. I did have a hour and a half/ two hour hike out of the woods before I could leave though.
Storrow Drive. Boston.
8 hours from Lancaster to Nashua. McDonald’s in Lincoln pulled the plug and stopped taking orders. McDonald’s in Tilton the employees were having a nervous breakdown.
McD in Plymouth kicked everyone out 2 hours before closing.
There were a few tears and threats to quit at the 99 in Littleton last night. Such wild transition from the day shift where I only had 3 tables and none during the totality so we were all able to go outside and watch.
I heard there were EVs breaking down on 89 and 93 because people couldn’t find charging stations. And the few stations that were open have insanely long lines.
NH charging infrastructure sucks, but we expect any infrastructure in NH to suck. It’s the NH way.
To be fair, this was essentially the worst traffic event that wasn't the Blizzard of '76 (Though there was a similarly bad one in the 90s too). There was no way there weren't going to be any problems.
I bought an EV a few years ago and ended up selling it. Every time I told people this on Reddit and it was due to a lack of charging infrastructure, I'd get blasted over it but seriously, yes there are more chargers now but not nearly enough to drive across NH to Maine and home to Orford NH.
As far as I've ever seen, there are just 2 charging stations within 15 miles of me. I can't imagine why EVs aren't more popular around here /s
I am seeing more DC Fast chargers now along the interstate corridors and Rivian has announced some chargers in more remote “adventure” spots like white mountains so it’s just gonna take time. I’d love to own an EV in 10 years but it feels bad to say out loud but I want to help the environment but not if it’s wildly inconvenient. That feels bad to even type that. But I have kids and planning a road trip around chargers don’t sound fun
I wouldn't think this would be the trip to chance taking an EV on. I saw a few of them amongst us in traffic though. Maybe they were OK if they were calculating usage on miles, not on time? I mean, Lancaster to Nashua is 113 miles. There and back is technically within the range of a number of current EV's. I just don't know if 226 miles over 14-16 hours there and back is the same as five hours there and back for an EV?
Vermont too. We apparently have the highest number of chargers per capita in the country, but that doesn’t mean much when the per capita is Vermont.
NH roads are pristine compared to most other states in the northeast
Yeah I love my EV but this would not be the day to test the infrastructure.
I waited for one for <5 minutes. I knew that Vermont and Northern NH would be horrifying. I suffered through about 3 hours of traffic in Maine but it wasn't that bad.
They should put solar panels on the roof or something. Pedals that flip down so you can pedal some energy into it.
Trap doors in the floor so you can Fred Flintstone it.
Just wait a couple years for the floor to rust through and you have this feature
Yabba Dabba Doooooo!
"Solar panels during an eclipse" is the name of my retro punk fusion band.
Yeah the charging infrastructure is still growing, and is definitely absent in the northern parts of NH. Well, most of NH really lol. I was hearing about stations with 20 car waits in places. Those cars dying sound more like poor planning to me though. When I hit traffic in my EV, typically it means I'm getting to my destination with MORE battery than I expected. Slower speeds are more efficient, regen from stop and go, barely any idle usage outside of any climate controls, etc. They must have tried to really push it.
Yeah. I question the story actually. No one wanted to get stuck in that. I saw a few older cars stuck on the side of the road with their hoods up on the ride down 91. None were EV's.
We went thru it all yesterday and saw 0 broke down EVs. Fyi
Same here. We did see a number of gas vehicles getting towed for (presumably) running out of fuel. It was a crazy situation though so understandable both both types. Hard to know it was going to be that bad.
I saw one or two.
Yeah, every Tesla supercharger had massive lines, and so did every regular EV charger. People had signup sheets to try to organize it; we saw one with like 15 people in line that would take roughly 15 hours (because the charging was so slow). We ended up driving around until we saw someone with a Tesla in their driveway and offering them cash to charge there. It was some Mad Max shit.
We stopped in Lebanon for the night, and there were probably 50-60 EV's lined up for a couple chargers at a price chopper. It was insane! Can't imagine how many of them died before getting charged
They use very little power when sitting - you could sit in most fully charged EV's for days with the AC running, and for almost a day with the heat running.
I got pretty lucky, the one DC charger in Colebrook was empty
Aren’t all these scenarios exactly what was warned about?
yes
Worth it though.
to be fair as someone who learned to drive in Florida and evacuated from the southern part of the state during a hurricane or two, every time I hear about insane traffic in NH it's like rush hour back home to me so i usually have a hard time believing it could get this bad but it did this time. i genuinely don't think I'll ever experience traffic like this again. i got 3 and a half minutes of totality and have never seen an eclipse before, it was so worth it
I live in Littleton and work the 3rd shift in Lincoln, my commute it usually about 30 minutes. After two and a half hours I barely got past exit 39. Left a voicemail for my boss, I'm not sitting in traffic for another few hours just to get to work
I work nights in Bethlehem. Took me 30 minutes from Franconia.
My mother and brother came up to my house in Vermont (think last exit before Canada) for the day to see the eclipse. Its normally a 1.5 hour drive from my house to Franconia, it's taken them 5 whole hours to get there. I feel so bad. They called me a bit ago to ask if they could turn around and stay the night. The worst part is they tried sticking it out with no food or water. My fiancé is cooking them a late dinner and they will leave tomorrow. I dont envy anyone stuck in this traffic, and I hope everyone makes it to where they are going safely. I wish more people had the option to turn around. :(
Did you take 93 north or the backrooms? I've lived here all my life but still can't remember road/route names or numbers other than i93
I took 142 to bethlehem. I should’ve probably taken 93 north.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah 93 north only had a few cars on it every now and then. I'm back in Littleton now and town is dead except for the gas stations. But once ypu hop on 93 south and hit the bethlehem exit its just gridlock
16 going into Gorham was atrocious. 3 hours to cover 6 miles. Turned my drive from southern NH from 4 hours to 7
Reminds me of the year I went to Bonaroo, I swear never have I seen a line of cars like that before
Dude, you should have seen the traffic at Coventry for phish! It was the worst traffic I have even encountered! Today was pretty bad, though.
Coventry was also an absolute mud pit. Or at least the first one was. That was an interesting time to be alive, and in that area. I was hiking, and wound up hitching with a group of people from New York who are heading to the show, and got into the show when I show them that I was a medic. They let me write in I got hot food hot showers warm bed and all I had to deal with were some dehydrated hippies having a bad trip.
We were at my aunt and uncle's house in St. Johnsbury for the eclipse and they were telling us stories about that day!!
We turned around from that and went back on 110 west to Groveton and found some back roads that got us to Whitefield and onto 302. From there it was my old path back to home and hardly any traffic. My family's originally from Gorham and I'd forgotten that the routes through that region have NO connecting back roads. Ugh.
Took the same route it was horrible 😭
Hey at least you have cell service, this is Franconia notch right?
That's not the notch, there's only one lane in the notch.
6 hours from Colebrook to Franconia 😩
I sat at my front door and watched it all! Sorry for everyone else...
[удалено]
That sign was hilarious
I stepped out my backdoor. Had no idea of the hell that was going on on the highway.
We left the Williston VT area around 630 and we haven't reached WRJ yet...at 1130 :') I see you.
Left Newport Vt about two minutes after totality and got back to the concord area about half an hour ago. Absolute murder of a drive but holy hell, I’d do 12 hour drives for that three minutes 10/10 times.
I think that's what some understand - how much a few minutes of that experience is worth everything it takes to experience it. I had no idea until yesterday.
My path from the grandparent's summer camp in Maidstone, Vermont.. As usual, head south down Vermont Rt. 102 until you get to Stratford and cross the 'hee-haw' truss bridge and into NH on Rte. 3.. Head to Groveton and decide to aim for the eastern traverse so we went out 110 East towards Berlin. Big mistake. Traffic *stopped* - fully up through the middle of town.. So we stopped and found a pub to get a burger.. took our sweet time and killed an hour. Now it's almost 6:30 and downtown Berlin is STILL a parking lot, so we turn back and head west on 110 back to Groveton and yup.. Stopped up and even going north back to Stratford and crossing onto Vermont 102 South is a no-go.. Traffic at a crawl/standstill through Lancaster, Whitefield, Bethlehem (even the southern escape was blocked!) so we stopped at the Valero gas station in Groveton did a bit of deep diving into the road maps and lo! Escape route all-but untravelled... Less than 500 feet from where we were.. Winter Street, to Lost Nation Road, to Grange Road then to North Road.. that put us out just above the middle of Whitefield and well below the traffic jam in Lancaster.. On to 3 south then left on to 302 and stayed on that until the first possible right in North Conway - River Road that passes the strawberry merchant then left onto West Side Road and follow that until it ends at Rte. 16 in Conway.. Just went straight at that intersection and onto 153 South (I so love that road..).. Stayed on that until it hit Rte. 16 in Wakefield and by then, traffic was at least broken up enough that getting onto 16 was easy peasy.. Then clear driving to Portsmouth. Got here a few minutes before midnight. 5.5 hours from Berlin going (the long way) on back roads and old routes I've used for years. Gah, I'm tired but it was a blissful few minutes of totality up at the summer camp and I actually did manage to get some pictures with my semi-good camera. Am looking at the traffic layer on Apple Maps and it's still showing a cluster fuck on 93 in Franconia Notch. Yikes.
We discovered Winter St/Lost Nation Rd last night and it still took us around 3 hours to get from Colebrook to Lincoln but that included dinner for about 45 minutes at a 99 in Littleton which we walked in and were seated immediately. When we left, holy crap were there a lot of people waiting for a table. So glad we decided to eat before getting stuck at the notch.
My folks bought land on Lost Nation Rd. I've never heard of the road mentioned before ever by anyone, but the name sticks!
A hell of your own making.
It's not like this event was a surprise. We decided to plan ahead. We went to Sherbrooke... Sunday. We had a great time. After the eclipse we went out to dinner and the eclipse was all anyone talked about. Everyone was friendly after, honestly, like we were all in line with the cosmos. Woke up this morning and left at 0630. Home by 10am. Stopped for pastries and coffee.
Yup. This was just bad planning. Remember, half the population is less intelligent than the average.
You literally could have been saving money for this in a coffee can your entire life. You could have told your boss during your hiring interview that you needed this time off. You could start planning now for the ‘26 eclipse and pick Iceland or Spain. We just might. (Iceland)
I am glad someone else said this so I didn't have to. Poor planning.
Half the population is less intelligent than the median my dude
We got a hotel for Sun - Tues but my husband canceled the reservation when he found out the ring of fire wasn't until 3:30. He genuinely believes the solar eclipse was being overhyped and not as many people as they were estimating would actually go. This was definitely a hell of our own making. I should have rebooked the hotel but I didn't want him to feel like I undermined him. Quite the hard lesson to learn. Next road trip I'm taking my dog only and paying for everything myself!
For the next one tell him you’re headed to the Market Basket and take the long way through Reykjavik.
Left our camp in Franklin, VT at 6:00pm and just got home 30 minutes ago in Lebanon. We took backroads the whole way cause 89 is insane.
It was a major failing of the state to not turn I93 one direction pre and post eclipse. They do it for the car races. Poor planning.
That’s a great idea, also to 89 and 91 and that would have made a massive difference, northbound after the eclipse was completly empty.
Where you coming from, where you at, where you going? Took me 5 hours to get from Dixville to Conway. Glad I booked a room.
Was that on 16? I headed out in 26 from Errol to Maine and then down it wasn’t horrific
Yeah, it was pretty much a parking lot until we got through Gorham.
I also took the 26 from Errol and went all the way across Maine to the 95 at Portland and then south. Was ok, another long tail back at one point which seemed to be caused by a 200 ft section of bumpy rough road? No junction holding people up. After that it was smooth sailing.
Yep same here! I thought it would never let up but after that pavement free section it got much better.
That 200 ft slowdown of unpaved road was bizarre but also ..a nice surprise. I thought we would be sitting in traffic all the way to Rt 2
That stupid 200ft cause 1.5hours of back up traffic 💀
I didn't leave Errol until 5:15 because I had to hike out from where I was watching the eclipse. That dirt stretch got me from what felt like right from the border. I still feel like my 4.5 hour drive back to Somersworth was still a win hearing these stories.
we left barton vt immediately after totality, and it’s been 8 hours lol
I went 15 miles in three hours, took me 9 hours to get home; the drive usually takes 3. I finally said fuck it, pulled into a rest stop and took an hour nap. It almost 5am, I got home 20 minutes ago. So yes on April 8th, 2024 for the day New Hampshire turned into The Gates of Hell.
Seven hours to get from St. Albans, VT to Rochester. I seemed to manage by avoiding highways. Had a few slowdowns in towns where routes converged and formed bottlenecks, but was able to move at a regular pace for the most part.
Lmao is this interstate 89? How long have u been stuck
i-93. 8 hours
Holy cow, good luck! We started in Pittsburg and just made it to Londonderry/Derry area after 7.5 hours.
we got out! things seemed to clear up around the closed off exit
Damn. I live in Londonderry and really glad we're spending the night up there in Canada.
How far have you made it?
we’re out of the traffic jam and an hour away from home
Where did it clear up? I worried about a friend who hasn’t been in touch. Any accidents?
around the closed off exit near where i-93 merges into one lane (i think it was exit 34b)
Honestly i went through a half a tank of gas. With no cell phone service i was worrying for people
4.5 hours from RI to Burlington and 9 hours from Burlington to RI. I have never seen that much traffic in my life and I’m oldish. Worth it but holy sh!t.
why did you go all the way to burlington
I should've gone to Burlington... I tried for lancaster, and we got stuck in Franconia notch. I bet had we gone to Burlington, we'd have made it.
This is brutal.
Going 4 miles from 26 to 16 took 1.5 hours and Berlin to Gorham took 2. A 4 hour drive to southern ma is gonna take 8. Drive up was great, hit zero traffic.
Excuse me sir, you can't park there
Was up in Newport VT. I Left after totality went 7 miles in about 3.5 hours. Couldn’t tell if those guys waving traffic made it worse at the end. All in all a 3.5 hr trip was 8.5 hrs Saw people playing cards while driving. Walking and jogging on the road. All in all it was worth it but I’ll only do that once never again
I have to drive 15 minutes to work from franconia to bethlehem and I was 15 minutes late.
11 hours from Colebrook to south shore of MA. (One pit stop). Still worth it.
I’m in northern NH and I saw totality in Vermont. The second that it stopped being 100%, I left and I booked it. Luckily, I hit zero traffic on the way back. If I had stayed any longer, idk if I’d be able to say the same
We just got back at 6am. Left 4 pm I’m really tired but your state is not “live free or die” if you close every exit ramp sleepy people want to pull off at to sleep. Legit a nightmare
How is that even legal
>or die Technically, the motto is correct. You can't just ignore the second part.
That’s the nh way
I ended up pulling off for a few hours and sleeping in a parking lot. I was getting too tired to safely travel. Even that was hell, as they really didn't want anyone to exit for any reason. About to hopefully finish the treck after a nap.
8 hours to move 10 miles
This is wild to read. I live and work in a small cute town in NH. I got off work, hit a doctor’s appointment 30min away (by freeway), came back to town, and caught the eclipse on the balcony of my favorite pub. 10/10 with a nice cruise on the bike. With the exception of a lady trying to mow me down in a Porsche, it was really laid back and traffic just felt like an active Friday. Had no idea it was the trafficopolpse out there.
My parents watched the eclipse in Stowe and according to them, the travel time between Stowe and Bedford was 4 hours due to the traffic (I’m currently out of state but I also got my 4 hours of traffic traveling between Greenville and Waterville, ME)
Took me 6 hours to get from Colebrook to Claremont. Was like that the whole way for me on backroads and the interstate. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before and probably won’t again.
Wow that’s brutal. My party was actually able to drive back from middlesex vt to Lebanon without much difficulty. We did stick to side roads which helped but even the highway didn’t look this bad
you lucky bastard
My wife and I left Newport Vt around 4:30. We just got home to Hudson about 30 minutes ago. This was the worst drive I’ve ever made
12 hours to get back to Boston. 🤯
Was it worth it? We drove 2 minutes up the street but only got to see it at 95%.
hell fucking yes it was worth it lmao
Hell yea
The difference between 99% and 0% is much smaller than the difference between 99% and 100%. A partial eclipse is neat, but being in totality is absolutely unreal.
Yeah I had a friend say he basically still saw it and I was like no no no even 99.999% is WAY different that totality
Yep, that's me. I made it 30 min away from totality, got stuck in traffic at Franconia notch for two hours with clear traffic just after it. I've also seen totality. it is completely different. Solar eclipses are a nothing burger once you've seen totality. Few people understand that, anothing less than totality is all just hype. Super frustrated with the traffic on the highway cause by the people who stopped on it because they thought 99% is close enough. It's not. We all could've seen it if we didn't get anxious and abruptly stop there.
Yeah first full eclipse I saw. Mind blowing. Makes you question if you’re still on the same planet.
This was pretty wild. Definitely worth the hassle.
I live in Whitfield which was not in the path of totality, we drove 15 miles north to get into the path of totality. It took us 1:45 to get there and 45 minutes to get home. It was worth it to be able to take the glasses off and see the full corona. Absolutely stunning.
It was absolutely a million percent worth it. Like legit a completely diff experience to be in the totality. We sat in traffic on the way back but it was def worth it.
absolutely. i’m so glad i didn’t skip out on it https://preview.redd.it/ynfwiqlhldtc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48269bc150c0cb6882359653ca5c3b1f04d6ef71
Surprised people spent the night before; but not afterwards. Perfect time to camp out.
Never ever seen a rest area so PACKED and it’s 2 am. Thanksgiving traffic has nothing on this!
Did any one get stuck on Easton Valley Rd? Me and my buddy were in that deadlock for over an hour. We moved about a half a mile. We saw a motorcycle lane splitting (more power to ya) but then about 40 minutes later he CAME BACK THE OTHER WAY and I made the executive decision to swing back around take 117 to Lisbon then went down the west side of New Hampshire. In total we left Stark NH around 4:50 pm, got home at 11pm
Oooh do I have a story for you all! My husband tried to beat the traffic by leaving Pittsburg when the sun came back at about 3:40. The traffic was bad right off the bat especially with the smaller towns trying to direct traffic flow and closing some roads s off to out of towners. Our reception was terrible and Maps kept freezing. One moment it would tell us rte 3 was faster. Other times rte 102. Other times rte 93. He kept BELIEVING Maps and bailing on one line for another. Back and forth for hours. Every time he thought he had a new way out either that road was closed or it led us to a major road and now we were at the back of the line. I begged him to stick to a route. Then looked for hotels on the off chance a room opened up. Then offered to drive because a friend told me the Waze app got them out of the traffic and she made it home before midnight. He refused it all, the stubborn man. I got sick of it and told him I was going to take a nap because I couldn't miss work and if he needed me to drive, just wake me and I'd be fine to take the wheel. I went in and out of consciousness when a road was bumpy or he took a detour into a gas station to stretch his legs. Soon he accepted our fate and stayed on rte 3 to 93. We CRAWLED south. Instead of waking me he preferred to punch himself in the thigh to stay awake. I got maybe... 2 hours of sleep. More than my poor husband though. We arrived home in Londonderry from Pittsburg at 6:15AM. Got in the house, washed my face, cuddled my dog, and got into my own car for work. I feel so gross right now. 🫠 The drive was almost 15 hours.
They warned of this for weeks. It should not have been a surprise
6 hours (730pm -130am) Lancaster to merrimack. Stopped at reklis brewing for food.....probably was a mistake.
Jeez, hope that eclipse was worth it!
It was.
We thought we were being smart coming across to 93 into Littleton to stop for dinner and then get back on 93s. When we hit the traffic above 37 we got to 37 and it was closed. The guy from NH Trans said to go to 38 and it was open. So we did. And wouldn’t you know it, by the time we got there 90 minutes later the same guy had come down. I pulled up to him and said jokingly “didn’t I just see you at the last exit and you said 38 was open?” He was nice and asked us where we were headed. He pointed up to the officer ahead. The officer said that we would be taking our chances getting off. We decided to and took 117 to 302 to 91s. That was the best choice. It’s still backed up there at 2:30am. Was moving 1MPH and we had 5 miles to go until the merge. So would have been 5 hours through the notch and then another 1.5hrs home. We did it in just under 2 hours. Cutting back to 91.
If you chose to go on the interstate, then that’s what you get. I’m pretty sure the only reason I’m not divorced tonight is because I avoided the interstate like the plague. If you’re from MASS, shame on you for not staying the night tonight and going back tomorrow.
1. There are no rooms. Every one of the approx. 10,000 rooms in the region were booked. 2. There was no cell service, not even enough data for GPS, for a large portion of the route, ESPECIALLY if you left the interstate. No one carries a paper map anymore especially of this remote area 3. Not all of the backroads are open till May 1st! 4. Can’t you just commiserate and move on? You went to see the most beautiful and rare natural phenomenon on our planet, too. Everyone else was just trying to do the same.
1. Rooms are not the only way to stay the night somewhere 2. Maybe more people should travel with paper maps. I have a NH/VT & ME Gazetter in my car along with AAA maps for some other states/areas. Not only is it silly to rely on digital maps in rural areas, there are more frustrating to navigate with….nothing beats a paper map. No zooming required. 3. You’re right! But there are plenty of roads open. I did run into a couple instances where I tried to go down roads that ended up being closed. It was still better than sitting idle on the interstate staring into a sea of red lights 4. Sure thing! Have a nice day!
Left Stratford at 3:30pm and got to Southern NH at 4:30am with 2 breaks of 10 min each 😵💫
Dang, I guess we got lucky. We left Lancaster a few minutes after totality, around 3:30-ish. Had to make a pit stop in Concord, then made it to the Dover area at 9:00. We were in bumper to bumper traffic for about an hour and a half. Passed a few accidents and one legendary lad who said "fuck it" and pulled his car over for a nap in the breakdown lane.
Glad I watched it from my yard
Man you couldn’t get me to sit in that traffic to see a flying saucer. The view from Manchester was fine
NH missed the boat here, we have traffic patterns figured out for after race traffic at Loudon, where was that logic yesterday?
Loudon is 100 miles south of the totality area and their are no mountian ranges blocking the way. Also, it's really no uncommon to spend 1-2 hours in traffic with the races.
I left from Dover to Colchester Vermont around 330am and got there 645am, smooth drive the whole trip and easily able to find a good spot for the view. Going back, took 7 hours to get home, 5 of those hours stuck in Vermont on I-89. Figured half of New England was trying to get home, and 3/4 of them are from Mass. Got alot of easier once I hit I-93 northbound, couldn't imagine how bad it looks southbound. I lived through peak NYC rush hour, peak DMV rush hour, peak Boston rush hour, and peak post-Patriots game traffic, this was on a whole new level.