I had multiple plans of action due to the climatological probability of clouds. The primary plan was to depart Norman early and go to somewhere in Northeast Texas/Southeast Oklahoma/Western Arkansas. Second possibility was to stay with a friend in central Texas which would open up opportunities to the border. I also booked a hotel room in Dyersburg, Tennessee a year in advance. The last option was going to family homes in Michigan.

With cloud forecasts ruling out pretty much all of Texas, I began to focus on option 3. There was a likelihood of high clouds over Missouri due to the jet stream being over head.

On the way to Dyersburg on Sunday evening, I was greeted by a little supercell over the town of Dyersburg.

Waking up and heading to Poplar Bluff

Traffic was light and we departed shortly after 7. The drive up was uneventful. We filled up and found parking at Academy in Poplar Bluff to watch the eclipse. We’d have 4 minutes 10 seconds of totality there.

Departure

We packed up shortly after totality ended because we had long drives home. Our plan was to get a NPS stamp in Van Buren and continue home along US-60 to I-44. Traffic was quite heavy at times and had a tendency to back up. Nevertheless, I was home shortly after midnight.