April 8, 2024

April 8, 2024

We woke early in Fort Stockton, TX. After breakfast, we made a brief stop at the town’s Visitor Center. Despite not officially opening until 9 am, we were greeted an hour early by a lady proud of her local history. Aimee and I are also very interested because we both recently read "Empire of the Summer Moon", a fascinating book about the rise of the Comanche Indians. They were among the first to adopt and capitalize on the horses that the Spanish brought to the New World. With this instant mobility they were able to dominate the entire southern plains. Like the Mongol Raiders of Eurasia they could attack from hundreds of miles away with no warning. They terrorized Indians, Mexicans, and Texans alike. Their brutal warfare was a major contributor to Indian hate by settlers who couldn't tell a Comanche from an Osage.

Fort Stockton was the site of Comanche Springs, the largest natural artesian spring in Texas. This vital water source was a major stop on the Comanche War Trail that allowed them to raid Mexico with impunity. With the introduction of large-scale agriculture, the spring has dried up. The Visitor Center has a recreation of the spring. Fort Stockton was built to guard this watery oasis. The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican-American War required the US eliminate Comanche raids into Mexico. We did a drive by of the Historic Fort area and then headed east on I-10.

After a couple hours we crossed the Pecos River and hit the edge of the zone of totality for the eclipse. My lucky charm of a wife is feeling better and working her magic. We see patches of blue sky. Feeling encouraged we head another half hour closer to the center line where we could get the full four minutes of eclipse totality. We find an area off the Interstate exit for Fredericksburg where a large group of eclipse tourists have already set up.

While we were waiting for totality we introduced ourselves to our neighbors. They have traveled from all over. One family even traveled here from Poland and this is their third eclipse. There was a reporter from San Antonio interviewing all of us.

We eat our Subway lunch as the moon begins its transit across the sun disk. Unfortunately at the same time clouds start to move in. The high wispy clouds are tolerable, but low-level storm clouds are also coming in obscuring the sun totally. Over the course of the next hour, the sun peaks into and out of the clouds. With pure luck the low clouds part as the eclipse reaches totality. We watch the diamond ring flash appear and the sun disk become completely covered. Astonishingly we can then see significant solar flares emanating from the sun.

Even more captivating is the sudden darkness. Very eerie. After a long three minutes the sun flashes back into view. We got so lucky today.

We watched the sun re-emerge for a few minutes and got on the road. Despite the poor weather forecast, the traffic is fierce headed to San Antonio. I think the entire city must have been on the road with us. It is a long painful six hour drive to our next accommodation in Columbus halfway to Houston. Twice as long as expected. The only saving grace is all the wildflowers in the highway median.