When we arrived in Texas on Thursday, the weather forecast for Monday's eclipse was looking iffy but not hopeless
But by Sunday it was clear that the sky would be anything but, and the best chances were on the west side of the path of totality
This image was taken about 3 hours before the eclipse started. Compare below to see that the cloud line follows the eclipse track almost perfectly. And one can see that northern New England had the clearest sky of anywhere in the US
Our original plan was to watch the event from Lyndon Johnson's ranch, a Park site east of Fredericksburg on US 290. After the eclipse ended we knew the traffic would be rough, but we had to get to Austin for our flight home.
With 2 hours til the big moment, we got to the LBJ ranch, but the cloud cover was no bueno
They were set up to host thousands. We bailed and headed west
Half an hour west we found a country road and blue sky
As with everywhere in Texas, ugly barbed wire lined the road
As the minutes ticked by and the partial eclipse started we could see the clouds coming in from the east
We thought we'd be OK until 10 minutes before, when low clouds rolled in
We couldn't even see the sun as totality approached
Suddenly the lights went out and it became eerily dark - compare this view to the one above, just minutes before.
We could see the 360-degree sunset. Did the insects, birds, and other animals react strangely? Can't tell you, because in this land of little water and endless barbed wire, there weren't any other living creatures around.
For a brief few seconds, the low clouds parted and we had a view of full obscuration
It's not the observation of totality that matters, it's the journey as well
When the lights came back on we hightailed it east and were thankful we didn't delay. There were backups at all the traffic lights and the trip that was 1.5 hours on paper took 3.5 hours, but we made our flight, arriving home around midnight. We joked that maybe our return was easier than those who drove north from Boston, but it was no joke. The next day we learned of people arriving home at 3AM and 5AM due to gridlock in Vermont.
We planned our third and hopefully final trip to Texas to coincide with the April 8 total eclipse. We worked our way west to east in the Lone Star State starting in El Paso, which apparently sells a lot of cowboy boots.
Excepting the pretty entrance sign, there wasn't a lot to write home about Guadalupe Mountains National Park. In the rest of the country this would be a State Park, but everything gets bigger in Texas.
The mountains are remnants of a massive reef complex laid down 275 million years ago
The landscape is nothing but scrub
We skipped the 7-hour shadeless hike up there to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas. Apparently when you get to the top you have amazing views of... more scrubby wasteland.
Just up the road and across the border into New Mexico is one of the truly spectacular Parks
From the dry landscape on top, you wouldn't suspect that an enormous cave system lies below
There are 2 ways in and out: the elevator or the 1.25 mile "natural entrance"
We chose to walk in
where the entire way was paved
The size of the cavern is hard to describe. Unlike other caves that we've visited (Mammoth, Wind, Jewel, Oregon) where there are larger and smaller rooms, here the accessible area is all one giant room, and it takes over an hour just to circumnavigate it.
Strategic lighting highlighted the coolest cave features
And then when you're ready to leave, the elevator whisks you back 750 feet to the surface
We spent a night in Marfa, TX, a desert-chic art town in the middle-of-nowhere West Texas. Their official motto is "Tough to get here, tougher still to explain, but once you get here, you get it."
On a lone desert highway sits the Prada Marfa art installation
We thought that this, too, was an art installation but turns out it is a Tethered Aerostat Radar System run by US Customs and Border Protection. The kite balloon floats up on a cable tether and uses low level radar to monitor activities on the US border. There are 6 in operation to cover the entire Southern border from Yuma AZ to Brownsville TX.
We rented this cute casita
that came with a cowboy soak tank. Sadly it wasn't warm enough to enjoy moist repose
The house was stylishly decorated - this is Tessie's sleeping quarters. There was even a house radio that tuned in a "pirate" station that only played oldies Western tunes
Erin needed to get in her miles and I joined her on a run through Marfa. It only took 10 minutes to cross the town from its western scrubland border to its eastern end
-Insert joke here-
Shortest book in the world
Nothing props up poor self-esteem like a vanity book project
It says "This is a bad sign". Now that I've gotten here, I get it.
The food was excellent in town, like this cafe in an old gas station
and for our 22nd anniversary we ate out at a fancy restaurant
Frontier forts always make for a good time and Fort Davis was no exception
Due to the dry lifeless climate, the windswept fort seemed like it hadn't aged a day since the 1860s.
Life was rough out on the frontier
Big Bend, situated where the Rio Grande makes a sweeping turn, is hundreds of miles from anywhere
We stayed in Chisos Basin, a large bowl with a north-facing notch
At sunset Caroline and I walked down into the notch
all the way to where the trail ended at The Window, a cliff with a stunning view
Coming back we caught the amazing sunset
Back at our hotel, Heather, Erin, and Tessie had an even better view
The night sky was undimmed by nearby civilization
The next morning we headed out to a remote area of the Park containing a hot spring
First we gazed at the mighty Rio Grande, which was looking mighty pequeno
The hot springs spilled over into the river
The older girls didn't trust the silty water but Tessie and I enjoyed our moist repose
It was yet another peaceful day at the southern border, which contrary to popular belief, isn't crawling with banditos. In fact the only border crossings we observed may have been these two girls.
Heading out of Big Bend, the desert looked, not beautiful, but certainly un-ugly, with several plants in bloom, like this ocotillo cactus
Contrary to its name, the century plant agave shoots up this long flower stalk at the end of its 10-30 year life
Heading northeast back to civilization we crossed the Pecos River, another once-major river reduced to a pathetic dribble, that forms the edge of Amistad National Recreation Area.
