This year’s vacation was truly a journey under the stars. As a family, we ventured from the San Francisco Bay Area to Uvalde, Texas, to witness the Great American Eclipse at the Neuces River RV Resort—a magical experience that coincided with my birthday on April 8th!
We had been lucky enough to see the previous total eclipse in 2017 in Oregon, but our son was a bit too young to remember that one. He will definitely remember this one!
This year, despite the partly cloudy skies, we had a wonderful view of the eclipse. Just as totality approached, the clouds parted, revealing the mesmerizing sight of a “double-diamond” eclipse—a rare phenomenon where sunlight sparkles through lunar valleys.
The world around us plunged into twilight; the temperature dropped, and the crowd erupted into cheers and wolf-howls. For nearly four magical minutes, we were enveloped in darkness, witnessing what felt like a cosmic miracle.
Celebrating my birthday under such circumstances was extraordinary. I joked with my husband that he was the ultimate romantic for having brought me both the sun and the moon on my birthday. But this family trip together was truly a gift beyond compare.
The rest of our journey was a lot of fun, even though it involved many days of intense driving. In two weeks we drove for more than 60 hours and covered more than 3,800 miles in the car. Our route took us down to Morro Bay, where we got to see a SpaceX rocket launch. From there, we went east to spend a couple days at the Grand Canyon, then to Texas. On our return trip, we visited Pismo Beach.
When I was a kid, my family did a lot of road trips, and one of the highlights of long car rides for me is getting to listen to audiobooks. It was really fun to get to share that joy with my husband and son.
Together, we delved into Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is a humorous non-fiction book about science. Our family loves science and we love humor, so this was a perfect fit for us. It was the perfect book to listen to while contemplating the geological history of the desert of the American Southwest, and the miracle of cosmic bodies migrating across the heavens. Bill Bryson does such a good job capturing the human stories behind scientific discoveries.
My husband and I also enjoyed listening to several of Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novels as we drove across the desert. This was the perfect set of books to listen to, as we drove past many of the landmarks mentioned in the books. We listened to The Blessing Way, Dance Hall of the Dead and People of Darkness. Hillerman’s books are more than just mysteries; they paint vivid pictures of the Navajo Nation and the Southwestern landscape. His writing brings to life the region’s magic and nature, enhancing our journey with stories as compelling as the landscapes themselves.
Reflecting on this trip, it’s the shared experiences and discoveries that stand out—the cosmic dance of an eclipse, the stories of land and sky, and the laughter and wonder our family shared. Each mile brought us closer in ways that only a cross-country road trip could.
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