GLOVER — It was standing room only inside The Busy Bee Diner in Glover just after 11 a.m. on Monday, with people from around New England and beyond hoping for a table either inside the tiny Northeast Kingdom eatery or outside under the warm sun.
Over the weekend, the forecast for eclipse-watching in the rural Kingdom had improved to make it one of the best spots in the state and the country. Cars with license plates from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey lined either side of Route 16, creating a festival atmosphere.
Among the visitors fueling up for a glimpse were a group of three 26-year old friends from Boston who drove up Monday morning to meet up with another pair who had secured a short-term rental in town months ago. One of them, Koby Nachenberg, a traffic engineer, said he had been drawn to the breakfast spot, also popular among locals, because his grandfather had run a store with the same name in Quincy, Illinois.
Another Boston couple with a short-term rental in West Glover, Ben and Melody Schindler-Giron, were waiting to order. Ben, 33, a violin-maker turned home renovation specialist, and Melody, 34, a professional cellist, had come to town with a friend who had flown in for the experience from Freiburg, Germany.
But before the Schindler-Girons had set out, they secured two crossed clothes pins over Melody’s stomach. She is of Guatemalan heritage and 5 months pregnant. They promised her relatives they would follow a Mayan folk tradition to keep the baby safe from the rare celestial event.
Ben Schindler-Giron said that they chose the location because of its rural nature. They were looking for solitude. “Hopefully, we can find a little field where we post up and not annoy anybody and wait for what is to come,” he said.
