David was the catalyst of our first mission. David, Gail and I had been planning to visit Paul in Texas on April 19 when, at the end of February, David said, "hey, maybe we should go earlier and see the eclipse?" He then said he was buying a plane ticket. So I asked Josh if he wanted to turn our first road trip into a three-week adventure to the Dallas area and back. His arm required no twisting, and we informed Paul that now three of us would be converging upon him and his lovely wife, Bea. Gail later asked me if I was seriously going to go; I said yes, and she arranged to fly from New Orleans, where she and her hubby would be on vacation, to Dallas. These are friends I would walk 500 miles to spend time with.
Full solar eclipse watching with old college friends is fabulous! We made lots of bad puns and watched the official video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" together, in between eating our way through Bea's delicious charcuterie board, yummy Italian and Mexican dinners, and two batches of chocolate chip cookies baked by Bea and David. During the main event, Josh put on an eclipse playlist to set the mood. We turned it off before totality, and one of my favorite things was listening to the world around us react. The birds went silent and the neighborhood broke into a collective cheer.
