The best place to view the eclipse in totality on Monday were in northern New England, and it showed on the highways.
Some people started the trek up north Sunday, others started already Monday morning. Shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, Interstate 93 north in New Hampshire was already flooded with cars trying to make the trip to both northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Later in the day New Hampshire State Police tweeted out video of crawling traffic as revelers attempted to make it to an ideal viewing spot.
While the total solar eclipse cut across more than a dozen states, the weather and cloud cover meant that northern New England was one of the best places to get a clear, unobstructed view of the rare event.
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New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine were all expecting tens of thousands of visitors.
In fact, AAA Northeast said the traffic before and after the solar eclipse is expected to be like traffic for a holiday weekend.
So, anyone just thinking of casually heading to New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine, just know you're not alone.
State officials are estimating up to 20,000 people will head to the most northern part of New Hampshire, up to 40,000 people will visit Maine and around 160,000 are going to Vermont, according to the state's Emergency Management Agency.
But that's not stopping people driving hours for a once in a lifetime experience.
"We want to see the entire eclipse, get the full experience, so we don't care about the travel. We got the day off from work today, so yeah. It's worth it," said Danielle Printz.
"I def think there's going to be some traffic, but my son really enjoys this type of stuff and it's just going to be an experience that we don't get to see too often," said Dave Dixon.
"It's going to be like cool, like the ring of fire basically," said 12-year-old Conner Dixon.
"It's just a cool opportunity. It's not something that comes around every several decades, so we've got my son coming up here and hoping we can see it, and get some work done while I'm driving," said Tom Duquette, who was driving to Lancaster, New Hampshire.
Police in New Hampshire are warning people to be prepared with your own snacks and water, gas up before you get up there and be prepared for the added traffic.
The total eclipse in the path of totality is expected to happen at about 3:30 p.m. depending on where you're watching.
