But what will they actually do if there are hundreds or thousands of cars pulled over to the side of the highway? Do they have the manpower to cite all violators (and at the same time perform their other duties which in many areas will involve significantly more people than a normal day)?
Sure, large mobs of lawbreakers can always overwhelm the local police force if they decide to all break the law at the same time. But I suspect the Oregon cops will just do their best to cite as many as they can. Or maybe just drive slowly along the highways and order everyone to get back in their cars and keep moving (assuming they are not stopped watching the eclipse themselves).
I suspect that if people pulled over only for the 2 minutes or so of the totality they would likely get away with it. But if they camp on side of the road for an hour or two to watch the run-up, eclipse, and aftermath, there’s fair chance they might have an unpleasant encounter with a law enforcement officer.
^That’s exactly what happened in Seattle. The ones who parked on on ramps were the ones who slept in and could not find a good spot to (illegally) park their cars in business parking lots and on streeet shoulders. Cops were too busy watching the implosion and making sure that no one tried to get too close to the fallout zone that they ignored the lawbreakers. And the lawbreakers packed into their cars and began their slow crawl as soon as the show was over.
Here’s what they say:
http://www.oregon.gov/osp/Pages/Solar-Eclipse-2017–Information.aspx
“Several sites note getting them in stock sometime next week which at this point is really ordering early for the 2024 eclipse. Wonder how many of those will get lost in the next 6.5 years.”
The instructions printed on the side of my approved eclipse glasses state that they should be discarded after 3 years. B-)
Now y’all are making me worried…we have hotel reservations in the edge of totality for Sun and Mon nights, a reservation for Sat night about two hours (normal drive) away. We plan to drive out of the small city to a small town early Monday morning and if we can’t find a spot at the town park or nearby reservoir, then just to pull over along a farm road (NOT interstate!) We are packing lots of water, a pop-up shade structure, a cooler, lawn chair/recliners that we could sleep in if it’s really Arrmegedeon, TP, paper towels, bug spray, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, approved glasses, solar filters for cameras, tripods… what are we forgetting?
We were students in Washington during the '79 eclipse. Unfortunately it was typical February in Washington. Totally gray clouds. It got light, it got dark again, and then it got light. This time we are hoping for something more dramatic.
D sent me this video link today and it has lots of interesting information. While a small amount is specific to Vandy/ Nashville, most applies to the experience all will have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyxuJNSGH8U
My son in Denver and his girlfriend have been planning to make the trip to Wyoming for some time. They ordered glasses from Amazon but got a notice a few days ago that they were no good. They are scrambling, hoping they can find glasses at this late date.
Anybody have any idea where to find glasses in the Denver or LaQuinta, Ca areas? They have friends joining them from California.
Instead of scrambling they should do some research on the glasses they have. Amazon has chosen to recommend against using them in most (all?) cases because Amazon can’t confirm that they were sourced appropriately. That doesn’t mean they aren’t okay to use. Check out the American Astronomical Society website to see if the glasses are okay according to their criteria.
Very hard to come by in Denver. Some places are handing them out on Monday (the big NASA party at CC of Denver), the Museum of Natural History. I’ve heard there are some on the outskirts, and they are hit or miss at places like 7-11 and Target. CSU has 50,000 pairs but I don’t know if those are just for students or if they are giving them out in Ft. Collins.
If you are on Facebook, go to Steve Spangler Science and listen to his no nonsense rant about official glasses. You can test them…if you can’t see anything through them other than a dull red sun, they are fine. Retailers are going into a cya mode.
How will we follow the news on Twitter as the traffic jams materialize or don’t? #apoceclipse? Other?
I’ve been looking at weather reports and it looks pretty good for Glendo, WY, Asheville, NC, and Boise, ID. This will be fun for a lot of people!
I am now the proud owner of one (1) pair of eclipse glasses. The news station was giving them out at Grease Monkey but they ran out earlier this week, so for the last 4 cases they announce ONE Grease Monkey location on the 6 am and 4 o’clock news, and people raced to get them. The first three were way on the other side of town, in rush hour. The one at 6 am was more than an hour away. I was heading out, decided to ask DD if she wanted to go (reluctantly) and then my brother said he wanted to go too. He is a project. First you have to put the dogs out. Then you have to select a car (he has about 10), then you have to warm up a car (old VW buses). Then he gets in the slow lane and of course it is rush hour. Then I told him the wrong side of the street so we had to turn around. Tick tock, time was passing and I just knew we’d get there too late.
The line was around the entire building and then they moved the line to go up and around the shopping center. He got close, and we jumped out and got in line, and it moved fairly quickly as it was one pair per person (although they were giving them to babies).
The glasses are pretty cool. You look at the sun and it is just one orange circle, with no clouds or other things showing. I’m in a 93% coverage area and there are no glasses to be found unless you go to an ‘event’ and I might do that too. Nasa is sponsoring a view party at the community college and the museum of natural history is too.
Clouds are in the forecast for my partial eclipse area. As usual.
Congrat^!
My good friend needed 4–had none–why I have no idea. She spent 5 hours looking today.
I had two extra as a couple who are coming over are flaky and I figured they would not have any.
Target $1.99. H’s Amazon order had been canceled. The couple went to the library and they
were out but told them of a Columbia store and they were able to buy some.
There were many places that they announced they had them today and were out quickly.
One of our hospitals gave them out last week only to find out they are bad ones.
Some workers at my house said they will use their welders glasses–which I firmly and matronly
told them not to do so.
Salem, Oregon is a normal 75 minute drive tops in traffic. Now predicting 6 hours.
Our info includes “be creative about your restroom needs. Do not stop on the side of the
road”.
We live 800 ft high and have a deck with an open sky. Depending on clouds we should see 99.4%.
Kaiser medical has changed their employees schedule so that they can go outside. Nice.
For us it is like Christmas when you need to just go buy some underwear but the mall
is smacked.
My NEXTDOOR has had many asking and many selling. Might be good to check yours
if you are still in need.
My D, a junior at U of SC in Columbia where there will be 100% totality, was planning to pick up glasses at one of the public events this weekend. Luckily, the mom of one of her friends sent a carton of 50 pairs of glasses, so they are assured of excellent attendance at their eclipse darty* (for middle aged people like me who aren’t familiar with that term, apparently that’s the slang for a daytime party, which I did not know until she clued me in). Classes don’t start until Thursday, so I imagine the next 3-4 days will be a huge social event for the students down there.
My daughter’s school in Florida is having a big event. Classes do start on Monday, but the students can watch the full day of broadcast (NASA channel?) and then from 1-4 a party on the telescope roof.
My D will blow it off. I would kill to be there.
WOW! I just got a lovely text from…our kids main and first babysitter. She noticed a response I had
to someone selling glasses on Nextdoor. She now has girls 3 and 5. Her parents have 3 pairs of extra glasses.
H will pick them up in the morning–all for our friends.
So fun to connect over these glasses. One day in 1987 I saw a pleasant looking girl walking up our hill and I
immediately asked her if she babysat. Completely unlike me. She was stellar and now we are buying
eclipse glasses from her parents. Nice omen for the eclipse!
Heard from a friend (and former CCer) in Madras. Traffic was not an issue, Safeway was empty and well-stocked. ODOT (Oregon DOT) cameras look pretty good. Hopefully all of the gloom-and-doom soothsaying will be wrong. We leave early tomorrow morning for Madras. Fingers crossed.