The Bunch Enjoy The Eclipse And Camp At Mineral Wells

We had been looking forward to the eclipse since we learned we were in the path of totality way back in 2017. We had enjoyed that as a family even though it was just a partial eclipse. A's work decided to close for the rare phenomenon and we decided not to have any school. It was a fun day. We periodically checked on the progress until the totality got closer and then we went outside. The path ended up moving slightly farther south so we didn't get complete totality, but about 95%. It didn't get completely dark, but like almost nightfall, a very dark dusk. The automated lights came on andthe rooster went up to bed, but the hens did not. They huddled together and got quiet, but didn't go up in the coop. The birds quieted down, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, and we sat in our chairs and just took it in. It was exciting! In fact, it was almost a let down afterwards because there was such excitement building up to it. We might go see the total eclipse in 20 years just to see it in its entirety.

One of our many trips to check the progress. It was exciting!

Aren't they cute? 🥰

I set up some chairs in the front yard so we could relax while we enjoyed the eclipse. My neighbor laughed at us, but I think we're cute!

I was so happy A got to be home with us! ❤️

T was able to get everyone to play basketball with him.

We settled into our chairs as almost totality came. It was way darker than the phone portrays.

We played games and watched movies afterwards.

D, T, and I decided to camping for a couple of days this week at Mineral Wells. We went to let T explore some of the mini caves and rock formations, but he didn't really want to do that when we were there because "it was buggy". Instead, we went on a little hike. It was only about a mile but climbing up and down the cliffs is pretty good work. We were definitely sweaty afterwards and out of breath. There is a 20 mile trail that connects Mineral Wells and Weatherford. It was about 6 miles from where we were on the trail to downtown Mineral Wells and we thought we'd hike that way for a little bit. I think if we would have had ebikes it might have been fun to go all the way to downtown to explore and have some lunch, but the trail ended up closing for some reason about 1.5 miles into the 6 miles. It closed right at the Vietnam War Museum. We walked around and looked at some of the interesting aircraft they had outside. We would have paid and checked out the indoor stuff, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. We plan to try and visit it next time we're that way.

The top of the cliff

The beginning

There are some pretty views.

My little mountain goat.

T loves his cuddles.💗

After our almost 3 mile walk, we decided to rent some kayaks from the park. D and I rented a tandem and T rented a single. Here's what we learned. DON'T DO A TANDEM KAYAK! Especially if you haven't ever really kayaked and there is 15 mph winds! It took me maybe two minutes to start panicking and maybe 5 before making D turn around and go back to the dock for me to get out! I literally threw my oar on to the boat dock, latched on with my hands, and pulled the boat around the dock and into the shallower water where I jumped out and waded to shore. I went back to the dock to fetch my oar and turned my life jacket and oar back in to the rental facility almost exactly ten minutes after checking them out. D went on to continue by himself in the tandem kayak, which since it was only him in the kayak now made it sink back since my weight in the front wasn't there to help balance it. It was hysterical to watch him slowly start sinking as they rowed around for the hour! T was just running circles around him. I watched them from a bench by the fishing pier. Apparently, everyone was a witness to my freak out because when I first got there one lady informed me that she wouldn't have done it either!🤣 We are ALL going to just rent singles next time. I think that will be a lot more stable. Plus I will leave my phone and keys in the car so I am not panicked about them falling in. We ended up only staying about 24 hours at the park. A had some issues with her video project that was due and we needed to get back and try and help her. It ended up working out well because if we would have left the next day there would have been storms to deal with, but it would have been super fun to go out to eat with my in laws. We are going camping in a couple more weeks near C so hopefully since A won't be in school we can stay a couple of days or so.