The Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce is reporting several visitors coming to the area and a lot of calls to the chamber office. President and CEO Dani Pugsley visits with KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot’s Heather Loftis.
Listen:
PUGSLEY: We had a lot of steady foot traffic and phone calls to the chamber yesterday. We had several calls from people looking for places to stay last minute. But it was really fun to just talk to the visitors from the people that came in town, and one group that really stuck out to me, it was two gentlemen from Pennsylvania and another guy that was with them was from Mississippi. And I asked him, I said, okay, of all places, how did you choose Mountain Home to come for the eclipse? The one gentleman from Mississippi is actually a physicist, and after all of his research, he decided that Mountain Home was where they needed to be, so that’s where they came.
LOFTIS: So he actually is a rocket scientist. This is rocket surgery.
PUGSLEY: You know, it probably is, but it was fun because I asked him, “where are you staying? Where are you going?” And so we talked about all of the different places that they could go get a drink and a meal, and it was just nice from a chamber perspective to be able to have options for our guests that came in town. I know for a fact that they made their way to some of those businesses that we recommended because we did talk to those business owners and they got to talk to them as well.
LOFTIS: You and the Chamber of Commerce, you have been talking about this for three years, probably. I mean, that’s when it first came out with the state of Arkansas. So, you know, now it’s, it’s finally here. It does feel like, you know, we’ve had lots of conversations with folks in town and, and that’s why they’re, they’re tuning in to listen to us today. They want to know what’s going on. What are you hearing? What are you seeing? It does feel like local people heeded the warning and prepared early Thursday and Friday in town seemed like there was a lot of traffic, a lot of business. I know I went to the grocery store three times in two days. It’s more than I’ve been to the grocery store in a month probably, but it, you know, it has kind of slowed down. There’s not a lot of activity. It kind of does have that sense of people are hunkering down and waiting for tomorrow.
PUGSLEY: You know, I think that’s probably possibly it. I also think this is almost the calm before the storm. A lot of the local people, not only here, but across the state, did listen to the warnings to get gas, get their groceries. But, after looking at the latest weather reports, it looks like the weather IN Texas, even South Arkansas, is going to be cloudy, maybe raining. So I think at the last minute, you’re going to see this massive push of people moving north. A lot of these people that made hotel reservations south of us probably had the same thing where they were three, four night minimum. So they’re invested. They’ve paid. Well, the day of the eclipse, they’re gonna go. So right now we’re just kind of enjoying the peace and quiet, just preparing for what could possibly happen tomorrow morning.
LOFTIS: I’ve heard from a lot of local people that there’s a lot of family coming in town. A lot of people have cousins and different family that are traveling in and a lot of that feels like it’s coming in this afternoon.
PUGSLEY: I actually am guilty of that as well. My father came up from Texas a couple days ago, and then my brother and sister-in-law, we’ve got aunts and uncles that came in from Memphis, and they came in on Friday, just trying to avoid some of the traffic. But yeah, a lot of the people that I talked to, their families coming in later this afternoon.
LOFTIS: My Texas family, it’s gonna rain on them, and I said, too bad, you made your plans.
PUGSLEY: I think that that happens to a lot of people is that it was that last minute they thought they were good and now that they’re really starting to pay attention to those weather reports, we were just watching a national news channel and they were showing how Arkansas and Missouri were going to be the prime viewing spot. So it was that conversation. How many people are watching this? And you know, and they’re doing live interviews with people that are saying they’ve already drove. They drove 10 hours and they’re willing to go another nine. It just blows my mind.
LOFTIS: I have to give the Chamber of Commerce credit. The, the social media graphic that everyone has loved all week long was the timeline of events. We are guilty of recreating that ourselves. You can see it on ktlo.com as well, but all credit to the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce for that. Everything on Monday will start at 12:36 p.m. local time, and then a totality will begin at 1:53. Maximum totality will start at 1 54. Dani, how long does that maximum totality last? Like three minutes and 12 seconds or something?
PUGSLEY: Three minutes, 12 seconds. And to put it in comparison, it’s longer than the Kentucky Derby. That’s what we’ve been telling people.
LOFTIS: It’s the fastest two minutes in sports, and the partial eclipse will end at three 12. I don’t know. Sammy and I are kind of the mindset, we’re more concerned with what’s gonna happen at 3:12 p.m. than we are anything between now and then.
PUGSLEY: Absolutely, and I think that just goes back to when the people ask the question, “Why are the kids out of school?” That’s it. Because school gets out at 3:10, and the last thing that anybody wanted were these poor kids to be stuck on school buses all night, stuck in traffic. I think we’re all waiting patiently and eagerly to see what happens at 3:12 tomorrow afternoon.
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