ST. LOUIS — On Monday, the solar eclipse drew millions of people to the Missouri and Illinois regions.
Most of the commutes doubled or even tripled the usual drive time.
Several people who went to Cape Girardeau said it took them four to five hours to return home.
Nick Patterson drove from St. Louis County to his mom's house in Festus to see the eclipse.
A 25-minute drive turned into a two-hour commute.
5 On Your Side spoke to Jim Hastings from south St. Louis City, he said he was stuck in a tidal wave of traffic on Interstate 55 -- so much so, that he couldn't even make it to Farmington, which was his initial sightseeing site.
"I had my partner with me, I wanted him to see it. He's not in the best of health and we just wanted a trip to do that," Hastings said.
Hastings planned to make it to Farmington to see the eclipse in its totality for two minutes and 33 seconds.
Hastings said, "We left 10:30 yesterday morning, got on I-55 at Bayless Avenue, and there was traffic already. I knew it was eclipse traffic."
Their plan had to take a detour because traffic was backed up for miles.
MoDOT said that on I-55, there was stop-and-go/heavy traffic congestion southbound beginning to back up and before 9 a.m. there was about a 10-mile backup.
"This was from Richardson Road near Arnold to Route 67 near Festus. By 11 a.m., there was heavy congestion from I-270 to south of Route 67 (south of Festus). That’s a 25-mile backup," a spokesperson said.
MoDOT provided the following details:
- During the time of the peak of the eclipse at 2 p.m., I-55 in Jefferson County was flowing pretty much back to normal speeds, but by 2:30 p.m. heavy congestion started in the northbound direction.
- By 3 p.m., northbound I-55 had stop-and-go traffic from Cape Girardeau (mile marker 98) to Route Z in Pevely in Jefferson County (mile maker 180), which is more than 80 miles of stop-and-go heavy congestion.
- By 6 p.m., the furthest south backup was Perryville.
- By 8 p.m., the backup was at St Genevieve.
- Everything didn’t completely ease up until after 10:30 p.m.
Hastings said he realized it was too late and they made a game-time decision.
"It was 1:40, so we had about 10 minutes to get settled somewhere," he said.
It wasn't Farmington, and instead, it was Festus where they landed.
Along the way, they saw a desperate dad holding a sign saying, "I need eclipse glasses for my daughter."
"I pulled one out and said 'here' and I think he must've thought I was selling, I said, 'Come and get them.' He ran over grabbed them and as he did that he ran across the street, he hollered, 'You just made my daughter's day she can watch the eclipse now!'" Hastings said.
They then scurried along to a McDonalds for the eclipse.
Nearby, Kirk Biehle saw the wave of travelers in Festus.
"The highway was insane, you can see people parked on the highway, on the ramps, on the side here on the highway," he said.
He just opened Biele Street Pub last week.
"We tried to throw music out there and people would be like what's that and come over, but that didn't happen. For the area, I'm sure it was great business but not for us," Biehle said laughing. "It was a lot crazier than I thought!"
Still, Biehle was grateful for the exposure and a free show.
Some of the businesses in Festus right off the highway on Interstate 55 did see a rush of customers.
5 On Your Side spoke to one employee at a Waffle House and they said it was like Christmas Day with triple the amount of customers. She said she worked an 18-hour shift and it was non-stop the entire time.
For Hastings, while the Golden Arches weren't his desired final destination, he was able to help a little girl make a memory.
"It had that moment in it, which turned out to be so good. Here is this guy standing on the sidewalk ... yeah I think it was a destiny situation with it," Hastings said with a smile.
As for the commute back, eclipse watcher Terri Krueger said they drove from Jackson, Missouri, back home to St. Louis County, which was a five-hour ride.
Jeanie Smith from St. Charles County she said it took three hours to get to Goose Creek Lake and back.
"I’d sit in this traffic 10 times to see that eclipse again," Smith said.