Granite Staters took a shine -- totally -- to solar eclipse 2024
Apr. 8—LANCASTER — First came the cooler temperatures, then the dimmed day and finally cheers and applause from eclipse gazers at the Lancaster Fairgrounds when the moon totally blocked out the sun for less than a minute on Monday.
"Scary and sad and magnificent all at the same time," Boston's Shirley Lee said after her daughter, Ella, convinced her to drive five hours to experience the total solar eclipse.
Lee, whose daughter was visiting from Los Angeles, said the eclipse made it feel "like we're in a dust cloud."
Thousands packed the fairgrounds parking lot looking to enjoy the eclipse while others threw down blankets and coats on the snowless grass downtown to gaze at the sun.
"Just incredible, worth the trip," said Greg Pollock, of Deerfield. "Maybe we'll fly around the world for the next one."
After totality, the sun's returning brightness looked different reflecting off the windshields of pickups and SUVs.
"It looks like lights on cars at a football game," said Erika Zadravec of Berwick, Maine.
Many tried to leave immediately after totality but were quickly stopped in long lines of traffic at the fairgrounds and on area roads.
People came from the next town over and from the next time zone over.
Tennessee's Kevin Barry chased the best weather, at the last minute scuttling upstate New York as his destination and settling at the Lancaster Fairgrounds to witness his third total solar eclipse.
Barry, 72, called the previous ones "just mind-boggling."
Anne-Marie Armstrong was chasing her first total eclipse, leaving her Massachusetts house in Scituate at 4:30 a.m. By mid-morning, she lounged in a chair by her car bundled up under a cloudless sky in the fairgrounds parking lot.
The eclipse swelled the population way beyond the town's normal 3,200 residents.
"For me, it's definitely on my bucket list," Armstrong said. "I just wanted to experience the totality part."
She said Northern New Hampshire was "my best chance" to see a total solar eclipse. She's already planning to go on a cruise to Spain in 2026 for another one.
Big business
Tim Charbonneau, a fair director and former police chief, said the town falling under totality for the eclipse meant a lot of customers for town businesses.
"Lancaster since Friday has been so extremely busy," he said.
The Yellow Deli on Main Street chose Sunday and eclipse Monday for its soft opening, which drew lines of hungry visitors.
"It's only under great duress that you can see where the problems are," said employee Jeremy Waters.
Heidi Glavac of Bethlehem attracted attention, while donning sun-shaped sunglasses downtown.
"We lucked out big-time with the weather," said Glavac, who would have been skiing if not for the eclipse.
Joy Souza of Groveton was having a snack at the Polish Princess Bakery with her daughter, Charlotte Jeannotte, and son-in-law, Brian, who drove five hours from Bar Harbor, Maine.
"Good to see all the traffic," Souza said. "We're so lucky to have this (fine) weather today."
"Once in a lifetime, I figure. Why not," Brian Jeannotte said. "It's more of a curiosity thing."
Good for business
Dozens of people along Main Street walked around in T-shirts advertising the eclipse.
In Lincoln, motorists who looked for gas off Interstate 93 in Lincoln found dry pumps at the 7-Eleven on Monday morning.
"We got hit hard by the end of the world hitting us yesterday (Sunday)," said clerk Erika Lighthall.
Down the street, another gas station got more customers because the 7-Eleven bathrooms were closed.
If she charged a dollar per bathroom visitor, clerk Sheila Simino Kleinpeter said, it would have been a lucrative eclipse side business.
"I could have made $55 from the bathroom" by 7 a.m., she said.
Many people stopping in were heading for Colebrook, north of Lancaster.
"Everybody is all excited," she said.
