Solar Eclipse
We have been in Texas about two months and were planning on leaving after we visited Big Bend park. Along the way I kept meeting folks who were coming into the area for the eclipse. I started to catch the “fever” after the third person I met, said to me, “I was at the one in 2017 and man I just could not miss another!” This year the path of totality, where there is complete blackout of the sun, runs in a thin band thru North America. Texas is one of the 13 states it runs through. So after some dowsing about it and getting a strong “yes ‘ we need to be at the eclipse, we decided to go to a smaller town just on the eastern edge of the path.
After a 3 hour drive back east to the town of Brady we we not sure where to go and set up for the event but as soon as we drove into town we saw a sign on a corner saying” Eclipse Event, family fun at Fair Weather Farm”, now I will say the name did not register at first, only the idea of going to a farm and having other kids around sounded really good. So next day we drove out to the farm, only a mile outside the town, and were greeted by the owner who welcomed us and our 50’ rig. '“C’mon in , “ he said and let us know we did not have to pay the 20$ per car load fee because a local business man paid for the first 5 cars into the event ! This was starting to feel like we made the right choice. This place was great, they had all kinds of games and activities for kids to do, feed the goats and sheep, jumping pillow, swings, sno cones, all kinds of cool set ups. On the way to the farm we bought some eclipse glasses at wally world and we were feeling excited for this auspicious solar event. However , the weather was calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon and the morning was already cloudy. I set a timer on the phone for when the eclipse started at around 12 :15 pm so we waited and we mingled with the other folks , some had cool camera set ups on tri- pods and were filming and taking time lapse photos. Then I started to notice the clouds were breaking up, the sky was clearing to blue. And the eclipse was starting in a few minutes! Needless to say the sky cleared up as we watched for an hour or so through the glasses as the moon slowly covered the sun. Finally, at around 1:35 or so it happened, the sun was completly covered ! The sky was like late twilight, the birds stopped singing, crickets chirped and a few stars came out. What a cool feeling, erie in some ways but awesome to witness. I felt moved by the event, like something shifted inside me, Inanna too, we both kinda felt like we had eaten some magic mushrooms …
We sat there on the grass at “Fair Weather Farm” and soaked in the energy of the moment and were so happy the kids were here to see this and feel this as we held hands and were amazed at the magic and the beauty of this world. As we drove away from the farm a little later, the sky clouded over and the rain began to fall.