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On October 15 last year we watched the Partial Solar Eclipse at the George Bush Presidential Library. Niece Emily and Andrew came to visit and we drove down to SMU for a guided tour of the Laura Bush Native Texas Park. We had planned ahead and had our Eclipse glasses ready. The Partial Eclipse occurred while we were walking the grounds. It was a lot of fun and we vowed to watch the Total Eclipse when it came in 2024. We saved our Eclipse glasses for reuse in 2024.

Early in the year Anne made plans to walk over to Connemara Conservancy for the Eclipse. They had an event planned with t-shirts, parking, and places for families and friends to setup. As the day drew closer we touched bases with our next door neighbors, the Parkers, to see what they were planning. They said they were going to hang out at the house and maybe walk over to the Bear Park. That's the park near us just west of Norton Elementary School. Stewart thought that would be more fun, a shorter walk (5 minutes vs 45 minutes, one way), with neighbor kids to talk to and hang with.

Anne still wanted a t-shirt, so on April-8 Anne pulled her bike out and biked over to Connemara while Stewart headed next door, as the moon slowly started slipping over the sun. Anne got to the main entrance and found the t-shirts were sold out. She bought a moon pie to bring home and eat at the Bear Park. She got another Moon Pie from our neighbors, the Mitts, who had stationed themselves on the Bethany berm along with friends, family, and other neighbors to watch the Eclipse from the hill. Somewhere along the way she dropped one of the Moon Pies so we had to share the one. Hopefully somebody found it and got a nice Eclipse Surprise.

In the meantime Stewart walked next door as the Parkers came out and started milling about, looking at the sun with their special glasses. We spent some time carefully holding the glasses to our iPhones and taking some pics. They came out okay. Frankly, it was a miracle that we got anything at all!

Everything Stewart had read said it will get _totally_ dark during the eclipse, and the temperature will drop 5-10 degrees. The schedule was -

12:24:06 pm : Partial eclipse begins
13:41:42 pm : Totality starts
13:43:21 pm : Maximum eclipse
13:44:58 pm : Totality ends
15:03:00 pm : Partial eclipse ends

However, even though the moon was starting to obscure the sun it didn't get dimmer outside. We had read that the shadow of the moon would flow across the land at 1000+ mph. Would we see that actually happen?? We hoped so. We wondered about the promise of it getting "...as dark as night...".

As the Eclipse approach 50% Stewart packed up his chairs, backpack, and movie camera and walked over to Norton Elementary to stake out a high point on the hill right in front. It turned out to not be crowded at all, nobody else was up there! We figured out that was because the Eclipse could be seen from anywhere, just step outside and look up. So there was no real reason to group together like we would for a concert or show.

Anne was still biking back home when the Parkers showed up walking to the Bear Park. They wanted to be closer to the playground so they walked on around while Stewart waited for Anne to bike up. Anne showed up, biked back over to the house and stashed her bike, changed her shoes, and we both walked over to join the Parkers just west of Norton.

There were several groups of family and friends very widely spread out on the park. The weather forecast was hit-or-miss. All week long NBC5s Rick Mitchell had waffled : It was going to be cloudy; No, there would be high clouds but not block the Eclipse; No, the low clouds would be heavier just south of the city and move slowly north; etc. So we didn't really know what to expect. As the Eclipse progressed the clouds cleared, then slowly covered the sun, then cleared. Oh my, fingers crossed!

As the moon covered more and more of the sun, Norton Elementary brought all the kids out to view it. There were maybe 100+ kids standing in the playground just over the fence from where we were sitting. They all had Eclipse glasses on, their heads tilted up, pointing fingers and talking. The heavy clouds separated, and then it happened. It quickly got darker and darker, then completely black. The street lights came on. The Norton Elementary parking lot lights lit up. The temperature dropped 10 degrees. The Elementary School kids started screaming, all of them. We were in awe. To the west, the sky was still lit, the clouds could be seen in the sunlight that was outside the cone of the moon's shadow. This was because we were at the western edge of the Eclipse. Looking east, toward the centerline of the Eclipse, it was pitch black in the sky. This lasted for 4 minutes, then started lightening up, quickly back to full daylight.

It was over. We were totally amazed by the experience. We all knew what was supposed to happen, conceptually, in our mind's eye, but to actually experience it was so unique and different.

We packed up our gear and slowly headed home. We will all be ready for the next Total Solar Eclipse in the DFW area - in 300 years!