SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Thousands of eclipse tourists ran into traffic troubles as they tried to head back home Monday.
Eclipse-goers took in the celestial sights from Newport to Montpelier on Monday, but the short show led to long waits on Vermont interstates.
On 91, when we were traveling through, you know it was at least five miles an hour. It’s kind of between five and 20 miles an hour, which you know felt really slow to us but that was nothing compared to what it was on 93,” said Geoff Johnson, who drove with is wife Melanie from Hooksett, N.H. to see the show in Newport. But a drive that typically takes 2.5 hours stretched to nearly 12 hours.
VTrans says traffic was heavy on the interstates heading southbound immediately following the end of the eclipse, with delays in several areas — mainly on ramps — as thousands headed home from Burlington.
Just down the highway in Williston, southbound lanes looked like a parking lot as cars stopped not long after totality. “Occasionally you’d move, you know, two, three miles an hour for about 10 feet, then you’d stop again for another like minute or two, moving under five feet. So, it was really agonizing,” Johnson said.
Some got a friendly wave as they left, leaving a lasting impression after what could be a once-in-a-lifetime moment. “Something that is just indescribable. And if you haven’t seen it, there’s just no, there’s nothing that compares. There’s nothing that you can do or see that compares to a total solar eclipse,” Melanie Johnson said.
VTrans officials say they are still crunching the numbers and expect to share the final visitor data on Wednesday. We already know Monday was the busiest day in the skies in Vermont history.