Journey to Totality

 

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.