You would think that I would know better by trying to be a cheapskate. It is obvious since someone actually came with a saying, “You get what you pay for.” The problem is that I am not wealthy, and I don’t like to waste money, either. The situation is further complicated by trying to figure out how to get a good deal without just ending up with a load of crap.

This trip is my second attempt at photographing a total solar eclipse. I included my experiences of my first attempt already in my book on Travel. The trip was a failure if you base it on my failure to accmplish my two primary objectives, one of them being to view and photograph the eclipse, my wife and I did manage to see some cool things and we also got to spend some time with good friends.

So now here I am planning another trip where my main goal is to photograph a total eclipse. When I plan a trip, I usually make three lists. The first one lists the main objective and other must-see things. The second list contains things I really want to do and see, but I won’t die if I don’t get to do or see them, and the third list, is my gravy list, which is quite fluid and can change at a moments notice. I don’t always make a 3rd list. It is usually relegated to longer trips. In some instances, I may combine the second and third lists into one.

My first mistake on this trip was that I put all my eggs in one basket. My one and only goal or objective was to see the eclipse. That is putting a lot of stress on a natural event, one in which I have no control over. But in my defense, this eclipse is the last one that will take place in the US in my lifetime. My only other possible chance of seeing one will be in 2027. The eclipse will be in Egypt and is my failsafe plan.

To backtrack a little the planning stages began all the way back in 2017 when I started doing some research, which my case involved buying a book.

This little gem has turned out to be a godsend. Without it, I would be totally lost. I have based this entire trip on the information I gleaned from it.

I knew that this eclipse would generate a lot of attention, so I made reservations months in advance. Thanks to Biden’s failed energy policies and his war against fossil-fuel based vehicles,  car rental prices have skyrocketed. So, after using Expedia to make my plane reservations, I continued on with the car rental. This is where I made my first big mistake. Let me give you a good piece of advice, don’t use Expedia or any one of these discount services to rent a car. Just go straight to one of the rental services. Budget Rental is usually a good place to start, though there are plenty of other excellent choices.

I can’t only blame Expedia the fault also lies with me. I just looked for the best deal and did not pay attention to who the rental company was. When we got to the rental kiosk at the airport, there was, of course, no matching name for my rental company there. If you have ever been to the International Airport at Dallas Fort Worth you know that I quickly found myself in quite a pickle. When you arrive at the airport and after you pick up your luggage, you have to take a bus to get to the car rental area. The rental area is huge. It is kind of  like going to an Automall.

Considering how extensive the place was, you think thatthere would be a help desk. No such luck. To make matters worse, there were huge lines at every rental company, except you guessed it at Fox Rentals.

There was still hope that I could salvage this mess, so I went to a rental company that had the shortest line (not Fox). After I waited a while, I asked the next guy in line if I could just ask the agent a quick question, and he kindly said yes. Unfortunately,  the agent was of no help what so ever. He had never heard of the company.

So when all else fails, start crying, just kidding. After that misstep I sat down and started looking through all my papers a second time to see if I had missed anything. There was a phone number hidden in the text of the confirmation data. Eureka! So I made the call, and after much fumbling, a rather abrasive agent on the phone pointed me in the right direction. I then called the car the rental vendor with the provided number. This second agent was also rather abrupt. He immediately asked me why I did not answer his phone calls. Being extremely taired and cranky i fired right back and asked him why he had not left any messages when did not answer the phone. He, of course, was nonplussed by my witty reply. By then, I was reaching my breaking point and comtemplated on reaching through the phone and ripping his snotty little lips off his face.

All he said in reply was that if I had answered my phone, I would know that they had overbooked and there were no cars available. Now I really felt like crying. I looked at all those lines of people waiting to pick up their cars, and a feeling  of hopelessness and a sense of dispsir came over me. Of course, Fox Rentals had no lines. I quickly put that thought out of my mind. I still could pour gasoline over my head and set myself on fire. So I next went to Budget, and of course, they had no available cars. The agent recommended Enterprise, and that effort proved fruitless as well.

Running out of straws to grasp, I asked my wife if she could call her friend up and make arrangements. That idea quickly fell through because she was at work. Are you kidding me, working on Sunday. Welcome to the World of retail. It turns out that she didn’t get off work until early evening.  It was now 11 AM. No way in hell were we hanging out here for that long.

Well, you guessed it. I swallowed my pride and quickly made plans to refinance my house and sell my family jewels and went over to Fox Rentals, where, of course, there was still no line. After fending off their bait and switch schemes, I finally rented a car. $860.00 for 4 days. Fuck Joe Biden. Sorry for the profanity,  but it had to be said. After I concluded the transaction, I asked for a receipt. The agent replied that it would be at the pickup site, a feeling of dread quickly came over me. The agent then gave me very vague directions, with a lot of arcane gestures and signals. After walking what seemed like miles, we reached the rental pickup site. In their defense,  the place was absolutely huge and was shared by over a dozen car rental companies, so the distance we had to walk was hardly their fault. What the hell am I doing, defending Fox Rentals?!

At least the agent signing the car out to us was pleasant and proved to actually be quite helpful.  I am sure he will he quitting soon. To my surprise the car was quite nice, it even started right-up.

We quickly exited the lot, before, Fox Rental changed their minds on the price or terms. After an uneventful drive we made it to Plano where our hotel room was located. It was still a few hours before check-in. But I decided try my luck and gave them a call to see if the room was available. My jaw dropped when they said it was clean and ready. Though, the clerk conveniently neglected to tell me that there would be a $10 charge for getting the room early. By that time, I had no willpower left and just paid the money. I didn’t even have energy for a snide remark, which is so unlike me. I am so disappointed in myself.

After unloading our luggage, we went back out to get a bite to eat and quickly found a delight restaurant Fish N’ Tails. It turns out that Plano is quite the little foody town. It also appears that eating out is the only thing that there is to do on a Sunday  after going to church, that is, in Plano. Every restaurant we drove by on that day was packed. The fish was quite fresh and tasty. After filling our tummies, we drove back to the hotel for a much needed and well deserved nap.

The hotel we chose to stay at was Studo 6. The rooms are all designed for long stays and have a fairly well-appointed kitchen, including a range top and microwave oven and a nice sized refrigerator.

After waking up  from our nap feeling refreshed, we decided to review our itinerary. It was then that I discovered that we had not reserved the room for enough nights. Thankfully, I was able to rectify that problem. That is one problem when you make your plans so far in advance, you sometimes make mistakes. So always double-check your vacation schedule, starting with your plane reservations. It is also helpful to have a cheap calendar in front of you that you can write on and mark up. If I had taken my own advice, I wouldn’t have made the hotel reservation mistake.

I think the time is appropriate to now discuss the matter that I briefly eluded to earlier, and that is the natural event that we came to see. Three days before our flight was to take off, my wife Connie received a call from her girlfriend living in Dallas. She informed Connie that the weather forecast for the 8th was cloudy and rainy. What the hell Dejavu all over. After getting off the phone we checked with Expedia about canceling our flights. Of course we had no such luck. I can hear the chatter in the background. I know I should have paid for travel insurance. The problem is that I don’t have unlimited funds, so I had to cut expenses somewhere. Besides, this wasn’t supposed to be a big and expensive trip, so who needs insurance, right? After this trip, I think I will change my philosophy on travel insurance.

Now, back to my planning. The closer you get to the path of the eclipse, the longer it is. Considering what happened in Kansas with the clouds, I figured the more time we had to view the eclipse, the higher the probability we had of getting a good photo. So, we made some adjustments to our shooting location. This small change will give us another 45 seconds of viewing time. Hopefully, this extra time will be enough if there is any cloud cover blocking the sun.

All this planning left us quite hungry,  so we went out looking for a restaurant and a  Walmart to stock up our kitchen. We scored another hit with Saltgrass Steakhouse. The food was excellent and the staff were quite friendly.  After stuffing our faces, we continued on to a super Walmart where we picked up our goodies.

We called it an early night, because we were quite exhausted from our day of travel. To give you an idea of why we were so tired, our day started at 2:30 am.

The 8th proved to be a memorable day. The sun played a veritable game of cat-n-mouse for almost two hours before the time of totality. The solar eclipse started at 12:20, and the totality ended at 1:44. During this time, the sky was virtually covered with clouds. I was able to catch glimpses of the progression of the eclipse and snap a few fevered clicks of the camera shutter. Just 6 minutes before the start of totality, the entire sky was blanketed with clouds. Then, when totality started at 1:40, a roar of cheering could be heard at the Garland Central Park where we were ensconced as the sun became visible. During the approximate 4 minutes the eclipse lasted the clouds behaved, and the crowd basked in the glory of the solar corona. During this brief time, I ripped off the solar filter and rapidly made all the necessary changes to my camera, only to find that the sun did not show up on the viewfinder. I zoomed in and out to see if I had lost sight of it. Still, no image appeared. Just as I was about to give up and put my glasses back on so that I could at least enjoy the view, the image of the solar eclipse appeared on my viewfinder. Oh, joy of joy, there was nothing left to do but to start snapping photos, and sanp away I did. I took so many that I have, in essence, a video of the eclipse.

During those two hours, I don’t think I prayed as much as I did then. I begged and pleaded and cajoled God to grant not only me but all the rest of the viewers in the park the chance to see the eclipse. There were so many clouds in the sky that the only way the sun became visible was due to divine intervention. Of  this, I firmly believe. You have to admit he really had me going. At 1:44 at the end of totality and the sun started becoming more visible, there were only small and thin patches of clouds left in the sky. I have never seen anything like it. A sky full of clouds does not just disappear in such a brief amount of time. All I can say is thank you, God. Though you could have told me your plans in advance. Maybe I could have saved a whole new crop of white hair appearing on my head.

By the time we got back to our hotel room, I was totally drained. I just barely worked up enough energy to grab a quick bite to eat from our cache before I crashed  on my bed.

The next day of our vacation was dedicated to my loving wife, Connie. She has a friend of over 20 years who lives in or around the Dallas area. During those years that Connie has been in contact with her, it has basically been a one-way transfer of information, or should I say that the storyline has been one-sided. So herein lies the lesson for this portion of the trip. There are always at least two sides to every story or even arguments. The person telling the story is usually  going to put themselves in a more flattering light or make themselves sound better in these interactions. This was the case with Connie’s friend. In their coversations the husband was always depicted as being the bad guy. He was someone who never wanted to do anything or go anywhere and to had insult to injury was totally domineering in the relationship. To tell you the truth, I was dreading our visit.

It turns out that I couldn’t have been more wrong about anyone. The husband was an absolute joy to spend time with. He was friendly, gregarious, and a joy to talk to. He was not only intelligent he was well-spoken as well. This shows you that you really have to make up your own mind about people, and for that matter, just about anything. You just can’t take people’s word because they are rarely objective and usually have alterior motives besides.

After we got back to our hotel room, we discussed our feelings and impressions about what had happened during our visit.  We both came to the same conclusion and that was Connie’s friend had been less than truthful about her husband. It turns out that she was the stick in the mud.

On our fourth and final day of our vacation, we drove to Dallas to see Dealey Plaza, the place where JFK was fatally wounded. The day was overcast and dreary. So we were not very optimistic about our prospects. When we arrived in the city, one of the first places we came across was the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. Since we didn’t really have much planned besides checking out the infamous Plaza, we decided to have a go at it.

To give you a little background information about myself, since I was a wee little lad, I have been in love with dinosaurs. I had the complete Aurora model dinosaur collection. I just couldn’t get enough of dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, my school library banned me from checking out one of their books on prehistoric life because I checked it out so frequently. While I have visited museums with dinosaur exhibits previously, they were very limited in their collections. I am now 60 years old, and until today, I had never seen a Tyrannosaurus rex’s skeleton or any of the other major dinosaur’s skeletons for that matter.

Much to my joy, they had not only an extensive dinosaur exhibit but they had a T-rex exhibit that was being shared with other museums. I was simply in hog heaven. I just about burned out my camera taking photos.

Of course, by the time we finished our tour of the museum, it had started raining, so we decided to just drive the route taken by the Kennedy caravan on that fateful morning. Finding the route proved to be a little difficult, however, but we eventually accomplished our task. To our joy, the sky cleared up some, and the rain took a brief hiatus, so we found a public parking lot and went for a self guided tour of Dealey Plaza. We quickly found the spot where he was shot. They have an X marked on Elm Street to commemorate the event. We talked to some other conspiracy nuts as we wandered around. I even stood behind the fence on the grassy knoll. The distance was incredibly short to the car. To he honest, even I could have hit him from there. My guess is that it was less than a hundred feet to spot where he was shot. In my estimation, the Book Depository Building shot would have been a much more difficult one to make. So why shoot from there at all? Oswald could have left the building and walked to grassy knoll in a few minutes. He had the time with his lunch break. It just doesn’t make any sense. Oh, and forget about the theory of a shot being made from the sewer drain. There is no way anyone could have made a shot from there.

We wrapped up our final day in Dallas by taking a very enjoyable respite at the Mangia Bistro in Plano, TX. The staff were excellent and friendly. The food portions were bountiful and delectable. If we lived here in Plano, it would definitely be a favorite of ours.

As the trip draws to a close we find ourselves at the airport terminal waiting for our plane to board. As usual, we got to the airport way too early, and the TSA agents were their usual chipper and helpful selves. So as we waited to board our plane, I am prepairing to sign out on my log of this trip. I hope you found my ramblings not only entertaining but helpful as well.

Of course, just when I thought it was safe to sign off, our flight is delayed. Oh well, you can’t win them all.