For more than thirty years I’ve been chasing totality. I’ve spent thousands of dollars (I don’t have kids that need orthodontia and college tuitions). I’ve crisscrossed the globe seven times. (TSE2017 was in my home state of Oregon; I could have walked to the umbra). TSE 2024–The Second Great American Eclipse–will be my ninth attempt at viewing our blacked-out sun.

I had to look this number up.

The aspect of the Paul Gauguin 2019 attempt I disliked the most wasn’t the shut out; it was the asterisk that now complicates my chaser story. No longer can I say just the number of eclipses I’ve seen, it has to be “well, I’ve traveled to eight but I’ve seen seven totalities and I’m not counting the ’92 annular.”

In short, I’m 7 for 8. Fingers crossed for clear skies on April 8, 2024—the other “once in a lifetime” eclipse.

The journey to my chosen site (Lampasas, Texas, to celebrate or cry with other Airstreamers) has entailed a long and wild road trip in my Interstate van. I pulled over for roadside oddities and tiki bars through California, Arizona, and New Mexico to reach the Texas border at El Paso. From there, on to Marfa, the famed art community in West Texas. Next stop: Sonora. (Texas, not Mexico. That would be a grave navigation error.)