After driving up to 20 hours or even across the ocean, dozens of people set up tents or mobile homes along the riverbank in Ingram, a city in south Texas, to witness something rare and beautiful; total solar eclipse.
The river flows alongside a park called Stonehenge II, which features replicas of prehistoric monuments. Ingram is located on the so-called path of totality, where the Moon will completely obscure the Sun’s light.
Here, this Monday (8/4) afternoon, it is expected to turn into night and stay like that for more than four minutes, starting at 13.32 local time.
The Weather Service predicted cloudy weather and a hurricane warning, so the state government had emergency teams on standby.
But that didn’t discourage the eager visitors, who were hoping for clearer skies. Some of them even brought sophisticated telescopes and telephoto lenses.
“We have a saying in Texas that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes,” said Jennyth Peterson, Director of Special Events for the Hill Country Arts Foundation, which manages the park.
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Shelli Ezell, 44, came to Texas with her family from Alabama. He is an eclipse lover. She wears sun-shaped earrings with black centers. Her nails are painted like stars.
Ezell has a 10-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter. At the 2017 eclipse in Idaho, their other daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was with them. However, the girl later died of cancer at the age of 12.
“It was a beautiful moment. And I keep those memories well in my heart,” said Ezell.
“I’m going to enjoy today. By witnessing this phenomenon, you really feel how small you are compared to how big the universe is. And in that moment, I think I probably felt closer to my daughter,” said Ezell.
About 2,500 people are expected to gather at Stonehenge II at the time of the eclipse — a fraction of the millions who will watch the dark mass of light crawl from Mexico through the United States to end up in Canada. (AFP/M-3)
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