The Eclipse: San Antonio, TX

Well ok I have to tell you the story of the 2024 total eclipse of the sun, from my point of view. I do not presume to speak for my lovely, intelligent, patient and kind stepdaughter Sylvie Andrews, who graciously accompanied me on the journey. Our trip originated in Altadena, CA (at Sylvie's home) on April 7, and culminated April 11 at the same location. (I happily drove to and from my home in Cambria to meet in Altadena.) Special thanks to Nicholas, who drove us to Burbank airport and picked us up at oh-dark-thirty at Union Station upon our return.

The short version: This was a five-day experience that included delayed flights, a late night Uber ride, our female driver wearing proudly on her arms the tattoos of two young Uvalde school shooting victims who were her nephew and his little girlfriend (both just 6 years old), many miles of walking the streets of downtown San Antonio in 85 degree/90 percent humidity, a visit to the Alamo (just as tiny as people say), amazing amounts of junk food bought at a sketchy roadside convenience store (almost all of it expired, but oh well), some truly delicious meals in the dining car of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle, glimpses of The Wall and colorful Mexico border towns just beyond, an intriguing interview over dinner with Bears Rebecca Fonte’, director par excellence of the film genre known as lesbian vampire horror, a spectacular tumble by yours truly (AKA “senior falling on her derriere after tripping over a curb in the dark”) — complete with large bruises to prove just how tough I am — a surprise mooning experience when a nice man accidentally opened the door of my Amtrak train bathroom, another fall involving an elderly gentleman who pulled a standing-plank-backwards-fall onto my roomette bed (with me in it), and much, much more.

The Longer Version of the Eclipse: Now let me focus on the eclipse experience. WOW! Even though, as many in the path of totality experienced, there was a cloud covering that did not allow for more than occasional glimpses of the phenomenon. Bummer, but we did get some cool photos while milling around the grounds of the Alamo, where a fairly large crowd of eclipse nerds had gathered. One guy’s t-shirt read, “The Universe is made up of Protons, Neutrons, Electrons and MORONS.” We laughed. We were amongst our kind. Each time the clouds would briefly part, the collective crowd-generated *gasp* alerted us to take photos of the heavens. Some turned out to be interesting. While the sun and moon weren’t actually clearly visible, there were crescent-shaped shadows and reflections among the same clouds that were working so hard to obscure our view. Somewhere in the collection is a keeper.

On the day of the eclipse, we walked 20,000 steps: a daily record for me. I think that’s about 8.5 miles. More than enough, though if someday I want to fulfill my dream of walking the Camino de Santiago, I’m gonna have to woman-up and do more of those kinds of treks. Some surprises were in store for us that day. While I expected near-total darkness at the moment of totality, those trusty automatic on-off light sensors installed at the Alamo switched on when the eclipse approached totality. So what we experienced was an artificially lit courtyard. But the birds and other creatures did stop chirping and singing, so the eerie factor kicked in pretty hard. Well, except that hard-working construction guy who kept right on using his jack hammer to bust up the concrete on a nearby building renovation. Once the totality moment passed under cloud cover, we decided it was time to eat, and proceeded toward some nearby restaurants. And suddenly!! The clouds parted and we saw a wonderful view of maybe 95% eclipse coverage for a few minutes. Success!!

Our Amtrak train left San Antonio at 2:45 am (yeah, that’s right) on April 9, and we arrived at Los Angeles Union Station at 5 am (yeah that’s right) April 11. The time in between was fun and uncomfortable, sticky and delicious, with outstanding culinary experiences (thanks to the chefs in the dining car), NO WiFi, and sketchy cellular coverage (mostly available for only a few minutes at at time when passing through the larger towns and cities). We were the last car on the train, with an interesting sign on the back door: "Lounge car this way" (posted on the glass window, which provided a view of the disappearing track in the wake of the train!) Most of the rail cars smelled like hot dogs, and one was reminiscent of a young men’s football locker room (hint: don’t buy seats in coach for long-haul trips.) We met several people who were Eclipse groupies, and one guy proudly and loudly proclaimed “This is the Eclipse Train!!” as we were de-training at LAX. 

I’m grateful to have made this trip with Sylvie. It was truly wonderful to sit in a 6’6”x3’6” space for 28 hours and talk about everything from memories of family experiences to climate change, wars, technology development, current events, health issues and wellbeing solutions. We are no longer on the awkward adult/child plane, we are adult-to-adult, aware, thoughtful, kind and loving. Thank you, Sylvie. A trip to remember!