We Have a VRBO - Annual Eclipse Planning 2024

We did it, we've finally decided where we want to watch the 2024 Total Eclipse...

Drum roll, please!

Jonesboro, Arkansas!

Yay... uh... huh... okay...

Okay, I hear you... Why the hell did you choose Jonesboro, Arkansas? It's not metropolitan. It's not hustling and bustling... It's just... Arkansas. (No shade to Arkansanians... Arkansavites... Arkansans!)  

And I get that. Let me explain how we settled on Jonesboro.

We kicked around the idea of west Texas, but we've already been to Texas and we wanted something different. We thought about Poplar Bluff, Missouri, simply because of the fact that I follow YouTubers who live in PB, and it was in the path (shoutout to The Endless Adventure!) I even kicked around the idea of going way northeast to New York or Vermont.

But after looking at locations, and what was nearby, cost of flights and travel, and what average weather looked like in early April, I thought that Poplar Bluff was the best option. 

But we waited way too long to decide on a VRBO and options were disappearing quickly. We narrowed it down to a few locations, including a gorgeous cabin and an over-the-top disco ball of a house. I pushed hard for the cabin, but Hubby wanted the other one; he thought that there was "too much new stuff" happening (flying AND going to a new state AND being out in the woods all secluded); he was more comfortable with a "normal" house within city limits. Plus the quirkiness of the Disco Ball House was too fun to pass up. So I went ahead and booked it.   

Sadly, I got an email from the property owner pretty quickly, telling me that the property was not available - she'd forgotten to block off the date after the same days were booked via AirBnB. Luckily, the refund process was pretty quick and easy. 

So now, I needed to find a different city location, within the path of totality. I pushed again for the cabin, but he talked me into skipping it in favor of a city location by sweet talking me into a winter vacation in the mountains next year, maybe something near Branson. 

I went back to my spreadsheet (of course) and reviewed the choices that were left, and we decided on Jonesboro Retreat Near Arkansas State University, a mid-century home right in the middle of Jonesboro. A big selling point is that it had a great big backyard from which we could watch the eclipse without having to go find an open area. No snafus with the reservation; it was through a company called Evolve, which took a certain amount due as a down payment, and the remainder will be due about a month before we travel. 

So I'm happy to say that I have two of three big parts of our vacation taken care of. VRBO is reserved, and rental car is reserved. We still need to book flights, which can't really be done until January or February of next year. Until then, it's time to make plans for what other things to do while we're up there, and where to eat! 

(Future Lazy here... about a week before we left, I was telling my boss about my plans and she wistfully said, "You always take the vacations the rest of us dream about taking! They're so thought out and detailed!" Well, yeah... I'm crazy like that, with the planning and the spreadsheets and the reservations... and the balls to go and do it! Life's too short to simply dream about doing something!)