Celestial Magic!

 

The total solar eclipse. April 8, 2024.
Taken from Stillhouse Hollow Lake, TX.

Spoiler alert: Murphy tried and failed to foil our plans for the eclipse! It was touch and go for a bit, but we persevered, and it was incredible.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, on Sunday, 4/7, the weather was perfect for taking the pontoon out onto Stillhouse Hollow Lake. After their very challenging week, Randi and Jose opted for a leisurely morning and we headed to boat ramp around noon. Jose’s parents opted to stay at the hotel to rest and meet us later for dinner.  

Now I want to give Randi some serious props. Launching that ginormous pontoon boat is an acquired skill and both she and Jose are still climbing the learning curve. With the water levels so low, the boat ramp was steeply pitched and at least 40 yards long. Randi opted to back the boat and trailer down the ramp, while Jose handled getting the boat off the trailer once they were in the water. Girlfriend backed that monster like a boss! Speaking from experience, (I cannot back anything in a straight line to save my life) that is no easy task.

Backin' it like a boss, you go girl!

Another consequence of the low water levels, the pier was high and dry. Which meant there was no easy way on/off the boat and no way we could bring the pups along. We launched with Jose, Rog and I, and Bob and Carole in the boat. Jose backed off the trailer and then pulled in close to shore. Once Randi had parked the truck and trailer, she had to hike back down the ramp, wade to the boat, and scramble aboard.  Finally, we were ready to roll and Captain Jose took us around the lake.

Perfect day on the lake.

See all those smiles?

We were having a great time. The boat is huge (16-person capacity!) and went a lot faster than I expected. Until it didn’t. We were in the middle of the lake when we lost all forward thrust. WTH? Jose raised and lowered the outboard and it worked fine…for a minute. After a little troubleshooting they figured it may be the liner in the propellor shaft. It’s a sacrificial plastic piece designed to protect the shaft/gears if the propellor hits something hard. But we hadn’t hit anything. Hmmm. Lucky for us Bob has been a boat owner for many years and was able to pull the prop and confirm that indeed the liner was shredded. Double lucky for us, Jose had a spare! Triple lucky for us, the guys were able to replace the piece and after about a half hour we were back cruising the lake. Take that Murphy!!  

Emergency repairs were successfully completed! Yay!

We had a grand afternoon on the water and then Randi did her boss move again, backing down the ramp so Jose could drive the boat up onto the trailer. They make a great team. When we got back to the campsite, Jose’s parents were waiting. They had brought a feast and prepared linguica, a spicy Portuguese sausage, and carne asada. Jose's Mom also gifted us a mountain of delicious homemade tamales and our own stash of linquica sausage. The RV freezer and fridge are stuffed and we will eat like kings for weeks. What a treat!

Loading Lola back onto the trailer.
Randi and Jose make a great team.

Randi pulls her up the boat ramp.

After a fantastic meal, we had a campfire and smores for dessert. 

A lovely sunset on Stillhouse Hollow Lake.

Monday, 4/8, was the big event we had all been waiting for – the total solar eclipse. The day started off cloudy but with enough patches of blue sky to give us hope. We were all on the water by noon. Totality would begin at 1:38 pm and last 3 minutes and 46 seconds. But totality is just the highlight, what was surprising is how long the entire process takes - 2 hours and 41 minutes!

I see some blue sky!

The Captain and First Mate. 

We all got eclipse t-shirts, but Randi's was my favorite!

It was amazing to watch as the moon’s shadow slowly ate away at the sun. There was still quite a bit of cloud cover so Jose would watch for patches of sunlight on the water and navigate to those spots so we could see. Smart guy! While Jose tried to dodge the worst of the clouds, I tried to get pictures. Overall, it wasn't too bad considering my primary equipment was a cell phone with a taped-on filter, shooting from a moving boat. Lol. During totality, I grabbed my compact travel camera - no filter needed!

Bob and Carole enjoy the show.

Rog finds a quiet spot to stare at the sun.

The clouds added dramatic atmoshpere.

Jose navigated to a sunny spot and stopped to enjoy the view.

The entire process is celestial magic. Midday turned to deep dusk as the moon completely covered the sun, casting a shadow 115 miles wide over the land. Although totality is a little eerie, it is an experience not to be missed! You can remove the special eclipse glasses and safely stare directly at the sun. It was also the four minutes when we had the worst cloud cover, giving us only intermittent glimpses of totality. Still, it was super cool. Rog decided to take a dunk in the lake during totality to commemorate the event. I passed on that portion of the celebration. Lol.

As we near totality the clouds acted as filter.

Totality.
Midday turns to deep dusk as shadows cover the land.

Rog takes a celebratory dip in the lake.

Did you know that the eclipse can also effect on the weather? The temperature drops, clouds disappear, relative humidity increases, winds change, and the upper atmosphere is disturbed. We saw the temperature drop about 10° and all the clouds dissipated – so we had totally clear skies shortly after totality. Talk about timing. Ugh.

What do you think, with or without the shades? Lol

Given the potentially disastrous weather forecasts, we were pretty pleased with how everything turned out. It was fantastic to share such a memorable experience with friends and family. I was a little disappointed with the clouds that interfered with getting a clear shot of totality. So to show you what it looks like, here are two pictures of totality that I took during the 2017 solar eclipse. Rog and I drove to Oregon to see it and we were so awestruck we determined right then that we’d see the 2024 eclipse. Our next one? There aren’t any in the USA until August 2044, but there is one in Namibia in November 2030…just saying. 😉

Totality.
Clear skies in 2017.

Totality 2017.
Such a cool picture!

Yeah, we could do this again. 
Namibia? 2030? I'm game!

Shortly after totality we made our way back to the boat ramp. The local sheriff and fire department were both on hand and had warned us that there was a possibility of severe weather later in the day. We got the boat loaded up and headed back to the campground for a bbq.

It was an incredible day, but tiring too.

Riding back to the campground in style!

We fired up the grill and had hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled corn. Jose’s mom showed us how to make elote (Mexican street corn). After grilling the corn in its husk, you strip the husk back and lightly char it. Rub the corn with lemon, butter it, lightly spread with mayo and sprinkle liberally with grated cotija cheese and then season with chile powder to taste. Delicious!!

We were supposed to have some of our favorite key lime pie for dessert, but we had barely finished eating when it started to rain. We quickly cleared the picnic table and called the day a success.

Enjoying good food and good company, until the rains came.

To avoid eclipse traffic, we were all staying Monday night and heading our separate ways Tuesday morning. Those plans were nearly derailed when the severe weather arrived with a vengeance Tuesday morning. A huge storm cell moved across us with lightning, thunder, and torrential rain. We just do not get storms like that in the PNW. It was like a fire hose was aimed at us! I ran the garbage up to the dumpster and then was stuck for a good 15-20 minutes under the eaves of an outbuilding because the lightning was striking so close and so fast it wasn’t safe to leave shelter. I loved watching the storm, but when I finally did make a run for it, I was soaked to the skin in seconds!

No blue skies today!

Riley dove for cover, he's not a fan of the thunder.

Randi and Jose had to put down the boat awnings (biminis – learning new words!) which are supported by a folding aluminum structure. Ah, not in the middle of a lightning storm – thank you very much. So they were stuck in their truck waiting for the weather to calm down a bit before they could get everything stowed and hitched. The boat was parked in front of Bob and Carole’s coach, so we weren’t going anywhere either. Not that we had any desire to pull out in that crazy weather. Lol. We were extremely grateful that the storm held off until after the eclipse. Otherwise, this would be an entirely different post and Murphy would have claimed the day.

Waiting for the worst of the storm to pass before
 we start playing with the aluminum lightning rods. Lol.

It continued raining, but at least the thunder/lightning eased up so we could all get underway. We had about 250 miles to our next stop in Paris, TX and it took almost six hours! It felt like we were tracking that storm cell for half the day. You know it’s bad when the truckers in Texas, who are usually flying by us at 75-80mph, are going 40mph on the freeway!

So why are we in Paris, TX? You’ll have to check out the next post to find out. 😊