ABOVE: John Walcek doesn’t shy away from driving his Lincolns cross-country. Here he is at it again, in Fort Stockton Texas, with his two sisters, Rosie and Annie, along with Annie’s son, Will. The giant roadrunner is Paisano Pete.
Originally published in the September-October 2024 Lincoln and Continental Comments magazine (Issue # 380)
(Photos courtesy of John Walcek.)
I’ve always been interested in collecting many things, including collectible older cars, Lincolns being my favorite. I’m also into traveling and attending noteworthy times and events. A rare and noteworthy event – a total eclipse of the sun happened in America, stretching from Texas to New Hampshire last April. I had to go, this being my fourth one (others being Marsabit, Kenya, 1973; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 1991; and Oregon, 2017). I took my 94-year-old father to the third eclipse, spent with LCOC members Steve & Becky Ambrosia in Oregon in 2017, a trip I recounted in Comments issue #350.
There’s a lot of hype when many people can view an eclipse, and hotel rooms and flights are booked years in advance. In my family, any excuse is cause for a family reunion, and I have a niece, Alina, and her family live in Pflugerville, north of Austin, and a college friend, Paul, and his wife, Debbie Hafner, who live in south Austin, Texas, under the path of totality. Many of my brothers and sisters came in from around the country.
I live in southern California and decided to drive the nearly 1,000 miles to Texas with my two sisters, Rosie and Annie, and Annie’s son, Will. My 49,000-mile 1997 Lincoln Continental behaved very well with four people and luggage. The comfortable three-day trip hugged the U.S. / Mexico border. We enjoyed the sand dunes at El Centro, California, and the Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. We crossed the Continental Divide in New Mexico with my Continental!
Continued below.
TOP RIGHT: Exploring the ruins at the Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.
LOWER RIGHT: Photographer John Walcek with one of the guardians of the American Southwest at Arizona’s Saguaro National Park.
ABOVE: Breathtaking! One of the amazing natural formations at the Chiricahua National Monument.
ABOVE: The disappointment! Clouds in the Texas sky obscured the eclipse. Could it be they came all that way for nothing?
ABOVE: John’s niece Alina and her family in Pflugerville, Texas.
ABOVE: The crowd of eclipse watchers get a glimpse at the show they’ve been waiting to see.
ABOVE: The payoff- even red solar flares are visible.
ABOVE: The eclipse chaser with the tools of the trade.
We arrived in Texas to cloudy skies – a major concern for eclipse viewers. The next day was even worse, with the sun only peaking out momentarily between thicker clouds. As the eclipse approached, we were able to view the partially obscured sun in the thinner clouds without solar glasses. A quiet depression fell on everyone. To our delight, the clouds broke, and we were able to view the total eclipse – a black sun surrounded by a whitish, pulsating corona and with some red solar flares clearly visible! A roar, arm-raising, yelling, and hollering went up by everyone there as I watched through my camera’s telephoto lens. Though the totality lasted just under five minutes, it was one of the most ecstatic times I’ve experienced.
I stayed with my college friend Paul and his wife Debbi in south Austin, and clouds completely obscured the eclipsed sun there. The trip back to California was leisurely, and we took three days to enjoy the LBJ Presidential Ranch and the Sonora Caverns in Texas, the White Sands National Park in New Mexico, and Saguaro National Park in Arizona. I guess you can say I’m an Official Eclipse Chaser!
John Walcek is an LCOC member from Placentia, California, and the official photographer of the Club.