April 6-9, 2024

Our primary objective for the start of the trip was to make it to Dallas to see the Total Eclipse that would occur on April 8. Trying not to drive too many miles on any given day, we headed for a stop east of Dallas at Brushy Creek Park – a Corps of Engineers park. Beautiful park adjacent to a large lake. We attended Mass that evening at the nearby town of Jefferson and got to view the new Parish Center for the church that was just about finished. The small town churches always notice visitors, and generally they make us feel very welcomed and want to talk about what brought us there.

On the 7th, we headed to Ed’s brother’s house north of Dallas in Corinth. Ugh – Dallas traffic is atrocious! it probably didn’t help that a half million extra people were coming to the city for the eclipse.

It was great to visit with Rob, his wife Bliss, and his son Wolfgang. We were treated to extra visitors – two doctor friends of Bliss’s – Susan from Montana and Jill from Washington State. We had some very good conversations over the next few days.

The big day had arrived. Corinth was expecting about 97% totality, but Plano was expecting 100%. Bliss’s mother Camille lives in Plano and we all headed to her house, about 40 minutes away. The weather reports were anything but promising – but one must keep a positive attitude. Camille does a lot of art – different media. It was a treat to see her house which was filled with much of her work.

Behind Camille’s house is a large Nature Preserve. The fields had been mowed and provided a perfect place to view the eclipse. Lots of neighbors were all headed out there. As the time approached 1:40 – totality, the clouds split apart and gave us a perfect view as the eclipse darkened the sky. Sometimes it’s a good thing when the weather reports are wrong. We were so enthralled with WATCHING the eclipse, that we forgot to take pictures. Oh well – we’ve all seen plenty of them on line. After the event, as the sun started to reappear, the clouds did come in, but by then we were all headed back to the house to eat and party.