New Year, new adventures

Happy 2024! This year didn’t start the way we expected- the trailer has been in the shop for various things: We got the roof repaired (we got it “fixed” enough last spring to allow us to make our big trip last year, but this was the real repair); We discovered we had the beginning of “frame flex”, so we got that taken care of before we had any serious damage; and we got the alignment fixed (again- hope that will take care of the tire wear we have been having!) We should be good to go for our next camping trip- fingers crossed! Like boats, which are holes in the water that you pour money into, RVs cost a lot!

This is also an unusual year because we got a Companion Pass on Southwest Airlines- which means that I can use my points to book trips, and Jerry flies with me for free- all we have to pay are the taxes, which run about $7-10 for each of us- Such a great deal! I have lots of points, so we hope to take several trips this year.

We took advantage of the Companion Pass and went to Texas to see the eclipse on April 8th. I didn’t even think about the eclipse until mid-February, so getting reasonably priced travel was a challenge. We flew Southwest using points and the Companion Pass, so we were good there, but hotel and rental car availability determined where we would see the eclipse. All the weather-guessers said Texas would have the best chance of clear weather, so we looked at our options: San Antonio, Austin and Dallas were all in the path of totality (full eclipse), but hotels in those cities were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive ($300/night for Motel 6, and prices went up from there) and rental cars were either unavailable or were $200+/day- Nope, not going to pay that!

So we flew into Houston, about 3 hours from the path of totality:

After looking for hotels and rental cars on my own, I booked a hotel and car package through Costco- what a deal! I originally booked the hotel for 5 nights, with the idea that we would drive 2-3 hours to see the eclipse on the 8th, but then I kept hearing about how bad traffic was going to be, so we modified our plan a little: stay in Houston part of the time and somewhere else closer to totality for the eclipse.

We spent the night at a Marriott hotel in Houston when we arrived on 4/6:

I had searched for a reasonably priced hotel in the path of totality- or close to it. This was pretty difficult because so much was booked and what was available was EXPENSIVE, but I found a new campground, The Old El Camino:

They had brand new cabins- for a VERY reasonable price! The campground was in the city of Kyle, which was going to have 99.9% totality, so we could settle for that or drive a few minutes west on eclipse day, to get to 100%. The next day we drove to Kyle for 2 nights (4/7 and 4/8): the night before the eclipse and the night after the eclipse, so we could avoid the expected traffic. This was PERFECT! Our “cabin” was really more like a duplex tiny home, and it was great!

We had a private bath and a kitchenette- who could ask for anything more?

I had identified a town about 18 miles from the cabin as a good place to see the eclipse, so we scoped it out when we arrived in Kyle. It looked like a good alternative, except that there was only 1 lane into town and 1 lane out, and if traffic was heavy, it could be a major hassle getting in and out. I reviewed maps and asked the owner of the campground, and we selected a park in Buda (pronounced Byou-duh) to view the eclipse- and it was perfect!

The day of the eclipse was cloudy, but I was optimistic that we would still see the eclipse. We drove to Buda early because of all the hype about expected crowds and traffic- and there was nobody there!

We walked around town a bit then walked to the park- there were 2 other people at the park! We were almost 3 hours early, so we made ourselves comfortable at a picnic table and read our books, walked around the park a bit, read some more, and watched people trickle into the park.

About 30 minutes before the start of the eclipse we set up our spot on the grass- and read and waited and people watched. I counted 80 people in the huge park when the eclipse started- so much for the expected crowds!

The clouds were fairly heavy, but there were tiny breaks in the clouds every so often, and we got some very clear glimpses for a few seconds at a time of the ongoing eclipse- it was AMAZING!

The clouds were very thick, but every now and then they would part and we would get a glimpse. We had about 30 minutes of solid clouds, and then all of a sudden they parted:

Our small little crowd cheered when the clouds parted and we could see the diamond ring and totality- it was so cool! And then the clouds came back together and we couldn’t see any more. We didn’t have any problem leaving the park and there was no traffic, so we went and looked at new homes- hey, you never know, maybe the Texas Hill Country is where we should settle! Prices were certainly cheaper than what we have been looking at in South Carolina!

We saw some really pretty wildflowers while driving to and from Houston and around Kyle:

We drove back to Houston on the 9th, stopping to look at model homes at a 55+ community. We really liked one of the floorplans, and while we were leaving a resident gave us an earful about everything she is not happy about, from the indoor lap pool only having 3 lanes, to somebody having a leaking window, to the breeze blowing daily! We stayed at the same Marriott in Houston for 2 nights. On the 10th we took a drive to Galveston, and saw the Gulf of Mexico:

We took a little walk on the beach until we got tired of fighting the wind- it almost blew us over!

We drove on several different freeways while in Texas and one of them had a great speed limit:

And, of course, you can’t go to Texas without stopping at Buc-ees! We went to 3 different ones! I love their billboards:

There is an Art Car museum in Houston, which has cars that have been decorated – like this one, which is on display in the Houston airport:

The night before the eclipse we went out for pizza in Kyle. The buildings in the development had these light sconces. They looked just like what the eclipse was supposed to look like, so I took this picture- just in case we were not able to see the eclipse because of the clouds. so, here is what the eclipse should roughly look like- if the sky were clear. 😉

As we flew over the Sierra Nevada mountains, we saw sooo much snow- I think this won’t be a drought year!

Stay tuned for our next adventure!