Well. After my trip to the 2017 total eclipse, you'd think that I would have gotten it out of my system. 

Nope.

The 2024 total eclipse is a big one, with many millions of people in the path of totality. The closest part of that path, for me, is southern Texas. To make the trip to the eclipse more meaningful, I wanted to bring along a companion. Ultimately I talked my older brother, Pat, into going with me. Pat and I haven't been on a long road trip since I was a freshman in college and he was a sophomore. During Pledge Week at Cal State Long Beach he and his fraternity leadership brothers were "kidnapped" by the pledges and taken to Kingman, AZ. Pat managed to escape their clutches and get to a phone. He told me to "come get me." So I drove my '63 VW Bug several hours to Kingman, picked him up, and we drove several more hours back to Long Beach. 

This time, we're going to drive several days to to get to the path of totality, in Texas, and back again. My most fervent prayer is for clear skies when we get there. Right now, the weather forecast is... maybe. 

I've covered this ground before, on a 2015 cross-country trip on a Ninja 250 motorcycle. The Big Bend country in April was gorgeous, so I'm hoping for a similar experience this time. Using a Ford Flex instead of a Ninja 250 should make things more comfortable all the way around.

What's our ultimate target? I reckon that this blog won't be monitored by lots of eclipse fanatics who go where we go , so it's safe to say: Tivydale, TX, just a wide spot in the road near Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is where a well-known eclipse photographer will be setting up, and I'm sure the German-culture tourist town will be overrun by eclipse viewers from Austin and San Antonio, so I wanted to be farther away from the crowds, on a back road. 

Along the way there are the various birding delights of Southeast Arizona, the cuisine of New Mexico (sopaipillas!), and the oh-so-odd town of Marfa, an island of culture in the desert of West Texas. You'll hear more about that stuff in the coming days.

Heh - I was looking at Google Maps to consider alternative routes on some of the days. In the Big Bend town of Alpine, TX, there's a street called "Nodeerhere Lane." Think they were trying to keep hunters away?

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