Got to North Platte NE 2 days early.
Made reservations 1 year ahead.
Room priceds were up 10X.
Spent Sat. and Sun. evenings sweating out cloud forecasts with groups from
Sweden, Norway
and Germany. They had 2 professional meteorologists with them. The big question
was
whether to go east or west to avoid the clouds. It was obvious the Norht Platte
was NOT the place to be.
Unanimous decision at 10pm Sunday ... west.
My wife and I got up at 2 AM and drove about 250 miles into Wyoming
Alliance NE was closer but about 50-50 on being out from under the clouds.
The forecast said WY was the place to be.
We ended up about 20 miles south of Lusk WY.
Ended up about 5 miles north of the center line ( missed a full 1.5 seconds of
totality)
Skies were total clear, with a little haze, and the totality show was great.
Got cool .. wind stopped ...... 360 degree sunset on a far far horizon
Saw shadow bands before and after. They were very wide and so made the highway
look
as if were flipping (faintly) between two shades of gray.
Great coronal structure showing and three prominence visible near the end of
totality in 10x50 binoculars.
Getting back to Denver was the real adventure ( 7 hours worth)
Cell service in some small towns crashed .... as did cars on the road.
One truck stop informed me they were almost out of coffee.
Gas was pumping very slowly
Spoke with some people in Denver later who said it took 12 hours to get home.
Back in Chandler now recuperating from my vacation.
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