Road Trip 2024- #5

Road Trip 2024- #5

The Solar Eclipse

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

Seneca Falls, NY

April 7-9, 2024

The solar eclipse was on April 8, 2024. It started in TX and made its way to ME.

I left on Sunday in an attempt to beat the traffic.  My 4 1/2 hour trip took about 5 1/2 hours.

I was trying to get to my hotel by 4 PM so that I could watch the last half of the Women's Basketball National Championship.  As it turned out, I was so delayed that I went to a bar before I checked in to my hotel so that I could watch the last 10 minutes of playing time.  I found a great seat at the bar and started a conversation with the couple next to me.  The guy had captured the last eclipse and wanted to show me his outstanding video he took.  SO he just parked himself right against my right shoulder and started showing my a video.  I didn't know how to tell him that I really wanted to watch the game. His video was beautiful but I would have shown more interest if he had just waited until the game was over.

I watched the moment in the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, near Seneca Falls. I was hoping to see if there were any snow geese in this refuge at this time of year. Unfortunately, they were gone at this time. Hundreds of other people had the same idea as me.

Cloudy skies really interfered with the moment.  But I was thrilled to see the darkness fill the skies and throw off the wildlife.  I could hear the birds making lots of noise as the skies went dark for a few minutes and then became bright just was quickly.

I stayed at a Motel 6 in Syracuse for $80/night.  The hotels in Rochester were charging over $500/night for the whole eclipse weekend. My hotel was just fine.

I went to three breweries:

• Local 315 Brewery in Syracuse, NY
• Prison City Brewery in Auburn, NY
• Copper family's Brewery- Scranton, PA