Traveling to Texas

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What a day! With so much travel, it's hard to believe this is one single day. It feels like two!

Over a year ago, we began planning our trip to Texas for the total solar eclipse. We went eclipse chasing for the 2017 eclipse and loved the experience. However, there was one thing I learned from it: traffic is just terrible after the eclipse! So, we wanted to stay within the path of totality and hopefully see the eclipse from our hotel without having to travel on the day of. So, we booked our hotel in northwest Austin (that area was predicted to get 2 minutes and 58 seconds of totality). This location was picked because it was great for the eclipse. However, it made it longer to go visit family.

Then came some discouraging eclipse news. The 10 day weather forecasts were predicting clouds and thunderstorms for Austin. I stayed optimistic, knowing that forecasts change as dates get closer. Yet, this forecast didn't change. As our trip ticked closer and closer, we continued to see predictions for clouds & thunderstorms. We almost cancelled our trip to drive to Indiana instead. I called my in-laws on Thursday to talk to them about it because they're traveling there, too. They supported us with canceling the Texas trip. We ultimately decided, though, that if Texas was too cloudy to see the eclipse, at least we'd get to see family and be able to check out the bluebonnets. If we drove out to Indiana and it was cloudy, we'd have nothing. So, we continued with our plans to Texas!

We woke up at 3:30am, and my dad came to drive us to the airport at 4am (thanks, Dad!). Andrew is normally so easy going, but the early hour even had him on the grumpy side. Our flight was at 5:50, and the lines at Des Moines International are almost never long. So, Andrew felt like we could have slept in just a little longer. It's a good thing we didn't! For whatever reason, our laptops were popping up as a problem in the X-ray. They gave them an extra scan that was inconclusive. Since Andrew was the one with the laptops in his bag, he had to get a full body pat down. They even had to test the gloves they used to pat him down! It was quite the ordeal. By the time we got through security, it was basically time to board our plane!

We had a package of graham crackers on our Southwest flight (What happened to the peanuts? They're more filling). In St. Louis, little was open near our gate. We ended up grabbing a donut at Dunkin'. Then, we got another little snack on our connecting flight to Austin. We landed in Austin at about 12:30pm having only consumed sugar at that point. We were famished! We picked up Burger King on the drive to our hotel (Impossible burgers ftw!). Our hotel let us check in early. We ate, showered, and changed out of our plane clothes and then headed down to Wimberley to spend time with family! We can't pick up our rental car until tomorrow (the cost was nearly double if we picked it up today), so we rode in the Tesla with Paul & Colleen. There are SO MANY Teslas in Austin! We saw them everywhere. It's not an exaggeration to estimate close to 20% of the cars on the road in Austin were Teslas.

Anyway, back to our trip to Wimberley. We drove about an hour down to Wimberley. We stopped the charge on the way there. Andrew and I went into Target and hung out together at the in-store Starbucks. They were offering an eclipse macchiato. I wanted to want to get it because I'm a sucker for that kind of thing, but it was hot, and I wanted something cold. I got a passion tea lemonade instead (but I still regret not at least trying the eclipse macchiato!). After our miniature coffee date, we set back out on the road. We saw wildflowers most of the way. They're stunning! I was excited to see the bluebonnets, but the Indian paintbrushes were just as stunning! The highways are lined with orange (Indian paintbrushes), blue (bluebonnets), pink (primrose), red (Indian blankets), yellow (black-eyed susans), and white (some sort of poppy). We enjoyed the drive but were definitely drifting in and out naps for much of the drive, too.

We love seeing family in Wimberley. The area is so beautiful, and I could sit out in back under the trees for hours. The kids had fun playing together. Our kids are the big kids of the group, aged 14 and 12. The other kids ranged in age from 6 down to 1.5. Our kiddos still had fun with them, though. They designed railroad tracks with chalk, and the little kids drove their trains on the tracks. They also had fun with the swings and the cascarones (confetti eggs). Matt (the husband of Andrew's cousin) drove into town and came back with some Texas barbeque. Having eaten BK not that long before, I wasn't too hungry but enjoyed some salad. The kids loved the barbeque, though!

It was about 6:30, I think, when we headed back to the hotel. We stopped at a supercharger on the way. The kids wanted to nap in the car while Paul & Colleen charged up, so Andrew and I took a walk together through the shopping center. There was some sort of festival nearby, and we could hear live music. It was nice. When we returned to the hotel, it was roughly 8pm. We'd been up for about 17 hours, and our little misadventure from the Des Moines airport felt so long ago. How was it the same day? We all changed into our jammies and were asleep by 9pm.

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