Texas Eclipse 2024 Day 5: Eclipse Party! (...eclipse, not so much)

The big day started with some clouds and a lot of hope, and I spent time after breakfast walking the ranch with a friend to look for the cattle and enjoy the wildflowers before the party really got started.

The sisters promised a party and delivered–complete with plenty of lawn games and a band playing music appropriate for the occasion (e.g. “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Here Comes the Sun,” etc.). “One More Moon Dance” was the one that got most of the crowd up and dancing.

The band warming up the crowd

dancing with Jenell

ready and hopeful for totality and clearer skies

The clouds got thicker as totality approached, but through eclipse glasses and then sunglasses, you could still see the eclipse’s progression. Unfortunately, the cloudy skies meant we couldn’t see the crescent-shaped shadows leading up to it, though. It was disappointing after so much effort and knowing what we were missing, but we still experienced a darker sky during totality and the night sounds of frogs and insects. But as a bit of grace, the clouds thinned just enough and I looked up at just the right moment to see the diamond ring effect, just as it was ending and only for an instant.

our view of near totality

darkening skies but too many clouds

The party continued with delicious tamales and desserts that included a selection of Blue Bell Ice Cream. And as a reminder that the weather could’ve been worse, the freezer that held the ice cream was dented from a hail storm just a few days earlier. It helped transform my perspective into this being a great trip overall, with just one (keystone) aspect of it not working out.

themed dessert

Blue Bell ice cream buffet

Later that afternoon, a few of us hopped in the truck for another drive, this time to the nearby LBJ Ranch. It was too late in the day to go inside any of the buildings, but I saw the runway they built for Air Force One to land, and we spent a bit of time picking up pecans from the grove of trees by his boyhood home.

view just outside the ranch

longhorns at the LBJ Ranch NP

Runway at the LBJ Ranch NP for Air Force One

Pecan grove and LBJ's boyhood home

My friend and tent-mate was eager to get home so she changed her flight and left that afternoon, and as the lone solo camper I was able to sleep in one of the casitas again.