April 5 - April 10, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Brown Chicken Brown Cow Ranch Llano, TX

Friday April 5, 2024 Go/No Go Decision Time : Although we had been planning to go to the total solar eclipse notionally since we moved to New Mexico we had always discussed driving to somewhere in Texas since it was cutting a wide swath across the state and we were right next door. About a month before the eclipse, we finally settled on Texas Hill Country - Llano, Texas and made arrangements to camp at the Brown Chicken Brown Cow Ranch just south of there.

Leading up to our departure date, the weather forecast was calling pretty consistently for clouds across all of Texas and we found ourselves feeling very ambivalent about getting in the car and driving over there only to be clouded out and, perhaps, rained on.

The night before we had a long talk and decided to cast caution to the winds and make the drive. While we might not get a fully clear experience, we felt we would be able to see some of the eclipse. SO on Friday morning we set out for our first leg to Ft. Stockton, TX. We were travelling pretty light - only the Esprit 100 with the Orion SkyviewPro mount, the Lunt Solar scope with tripod, foam matresses and bedding for our one night in the van and clothing.

Driving through Texas on I10,

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Although this photo doesn't really do it justice, there were long lines of motorhomes streaming to Texas for the eclipse.

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Driving through Texas on I10

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We started seeing these signs on I10 just a little east of Van Horn.

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We arrived in Ft Stockton around 4:30PM, ate dinner at KBob's Steakhouse, and checked into our hotel.

Saturday April 6, 2024 Arrive in Llano, TX :

This was the cloud prediction for the path of totality on Eclipse Day - not too optimistic for Texas or really anywhere. But we got on the road to drive to Junction on I10 and then turn northeast on State Highway 377 to Llano.

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We stopped in Junction and had some delicious Texas BBQ, filled up the van (we had been warned Llano might run out of gas) and then started out on Highway 377 - a two lane blacktop lined with blooming widflowers. Mostly bluebonnets and indian paintbrush. Absolutely gorgeous!

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We arrived in Llano and found the Days Inn and checked in. We had only been able to reserve it for Saturday night and had planned to camp out at the BCBC Ranch on Sunday. But with rain predicted, that didn't sound like fun. So Barry asked if they had had any cancellations and if we might be able to keep the room Sunday night as well. We were in luck!

We moved the telescopes and luggage into the room, then took a nap. We ate dinner in town (meh Chinese) and then drove out to the Brown Chicken Brown Cow ranch and checked in.

We found our campsite and set up the telescope to get a polar alignment once it got dark. We soon met the four Longhorn babies that made up the Brown Cow part of the ranch name.

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Here is Longhorn Number 2 whose name was Blanco and who wasn't actually brown!. They wandered around pretty oblivious of the campers. Blanco's favorite thing seemed to be eating out of the ashes of the campfire and sticking his nose into tents.

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We were told to give this one a wide berth as he could be a bit ornery.

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And this one was a really neat brindle color. We found out they were brothers and came from a nearby ranch. They are around 1 year old.

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Sunday April 7, 2024 Llano, TX :

We awoke on Sunday to a heavily overcast day. We went out for breakfast and found that many of the candiate breakfast spots were either out of business or closed on Sunday. We ate at a small donut shop down the road from our hotel. After breakfast we went back to the hotel, loaded the solar telescope into the car, and decided to go exploring.

When we drove through town we saw an interesting park near the Llano bridge and river so we went to see what it offered. Here is a view of the bridge from the park with several of the cairns built by the river.

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There is a dam on the far side of the bridge that creates this beautiful waterfall. The city has a greenspace that runs on both sides of the river and both upstram and downstram of the bridge.

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We were warned by the folks at the ranch that if the weather was good and the crowds materialized, this two lane bridge can back up traffic. Reportedly at spring break, there was a four hour backup of traffic trying to cross the bridge.

More of the cairns by the river.

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At the entrance to the park is a large bird sculpture of mud and clay.

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We also saw some beautiful wildflowers and very healthy cactus in the park.

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Across from the park in the downtown area is the Old Llano Jail. Apparently at one time Clyde, of Bonnie and Clyde fame, spent some time there.

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After we left the park, we drove out along Hwy 152 to Castell which is reportedly the next bridge crossing of the Llano River and might be an alternative if traffic gets too bad in Llano. It was a pretty drive on a winding hilly 2-lane blacktop and over every hill was another amazing field of bluebonnets.

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The Castell bridge was a one-lane paved path across the river (barely one car-width wide) sitting about a foot above the water with a low stone "guardrail". We decided we'd take our chances in Llano!

After lunch, a nap and some Final Four basketball, we drove out to our campsite to see what was going on and to eat our campfire dinner. These are the rocks that provided the backdrop for our little area. This area of Texas is very rocky with some interesting outcroppings of rocks.

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We also had our share of cactus. With all of the rain the cactus were very lush and abundant.

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Lori relaxing at the campsite.

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After dinner we went back to the hotel for the night.

Monday April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Day! Llano, TX :

Eclipse Day has arrived. We got up early, loaded up the car and checked out and got out to the Brown Chicken Brown Cow Ranch early to set up and have their pancake breakfast. Here Barry is setting up the solar telescope. The day is overcast and cool.

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The forecast for today from last night. Clouds covering the entire path of totality in Texas! Let's hope for the best.

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All set up and waiting for the sunshine. The clouds are getting more scattered. To the left we have the Solar telescope for visual viewing and in the middle is the Esprit with filter for imaging.

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Rozzie and Neptune with their custom Eclipse glasses!

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Here we are on Eclipse Day. The sky is looking better and better!

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The sun with a small bite taken out. Clouds are moving through but so far they have been light and scattered.

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Another view of the partial phase.

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A view of the total eclipse with a number of prominances visible on the lower right quadrant.

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Totality! The sun's corona is visible in this image.

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Here is a cell phone image of the sun with Venus visible to the lower right. Also visible are the clouds. Shortly after this they completely obscured the sun and we ended up shutting down right after totality.

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At mid-eclipse it grew very dusky and the path lights came on.

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A time lapse video of the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 from Llano Texas. Taken with the Esprit 100 telescope and the Canon 60Da camera.

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Once the clouds moved in, we packed up and decided to start our drive to San Angelo where we would be spending the night. We were concerned about traffic in LLano after the horror stories of traffic jams. Llano traffic was a bit underwhelming...

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We got to San Angelo around dinner time and decided pizza was in order. We found a highly rated pizza place and set the GPS to take us there. It turned out to be withing walking distence of our hotel.

Tuesday April 9, 2024 San Angelo to Van Horn, TX:

We got a reasonably early start after breakfast in the hotel and drove to Van Horn via Hwy 67 and I-10. We arrived mid afternoon and checked into our favorite Hampton Inn. We had dinner at the Van Horn Catlle Company. We had eaten there previously on various trips to New Mexico via Van Horn. It was quite good.

A quintessential picture of west Texas between San Angelo and Van Horn. No mountains, no hills, - just miles of flat land and blue sky

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Wednesday April 10, 2024 Van Horn, Tx to Home:

We arrived home after and uneventful drive and lunch in Las Cruces.