In 2017, my dad’s house was 1.5 miles off the line of max totality (about 1.5 minutes at that location).
I told him in 2015, my kids and I will be using your guest room August 2017 for a few days.
We arrived the day before. In the morning the clouds were so thick we couldn’t see the sky or the sun.
We considered chasing it, but decided that would be too hard on the kids (ages 4, 4, 6, 14).
About 15 minutes before totality, the clouds opened up, and stayed open until about 15 minutes after. It was surreal.
A few months ago, I booked an Airbnb cottage in Arkansas, not too far from max totality (about 3.5 minutes here). Arrived this evening with my three youngest, now 11, 11, 13. They were too young to remember the 2017 eclipse.
Weather prediction is partly cloudy.
I hope you’re successful. It’s definitely worth the effort, if you truly get to experience it.
FYI, my dad’s house is less than one mile from I-35. In 2017, shortly after totality, I drove to the bridge over the interstate. It looked like a parking lot in both directions.
Start early and don’t expect to return quickly.
This was a first for me. It was perfect here in sw Missouri. Thankful.
Glad it worked out for you.
We had perfect weather in Arkansas.
I made the mistake of leaving when the gps said the trip home would only be 3 hrs 50 min (when the normal drive is 3 hrs 30 min).
What I failed to consider is that the 20-minute delay was essentially a delay that would persist in front of us for most of the drive home. Basically, every 30 to 40 miles experienced a 20-minute delay, for nearly 200 miles. It ended up taking us 2 extra hours to get home.
We had the cabin for another night, but didn’t want the kids to miss another day of school. In respect, though, we should’ve delayed leaving a couple hours rather than trusting the gps calcs.