A few minutes of spectacular darkness
by Tom Sullivan
If you are reading this, we are setting up already up for today’s total eclipse at an undisclosed location in the path of totality. Three hours’ drive east of here, information signs on I-40 Saturday morning between Winston-Salem and Greensboro warned of high traffic on Monday.
It’s going to be a zoo out there. The I-85 corridor in South Carolina will be inundated with visitors for the eclipse scheduled for 2:38 p.m. EDT. The path of totality spans from the Georgia welcome center nearly to Spartanburg, SC. Visitors are coming from Charlotte and points east to Atlanta and points west. From there the shadow tracks down I-26 through Columbia to Charleston, SC and out to sea.
Closer to home, mountain ridges on the Blue Ridge Parkway would make for spectacular viewing if one can get up there. But it’s two lanes and 45 mph. We expect a parking lot. Blue Ridge Public Radio advises:
Unless you’re walking to your spot to watch Monday’s total solar eclipse in Western North Carolina, you will be sitting in some kind of traffic. Authorities are expecting heavy traffic just about everywhere in the region, compounded by the fact many of the rural roads in the path of totality are only two lanes.
People I know are leaving at dawn. The eastern edge of totality passes less than an hour east of Asheville, NC.
Please pass along any reports of animal or human sacrifice to the proper authorities.
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