Before eclipse, area towns busier but not packed
Weather concerns may mean fewer Hill Country visitors than expected
FREDERICKSBURG — Carolyn Hunt adjusted the angle of her Sunspotter, ensuring the lenses and mirrors were aligned correctly.
A projection of the sun appeared on a white piece of paper, and Hunt pointed out a dark patch, telling her daughter, Ember, that it was a sunspot. The toddler pressed her fingers against the paper, seeming to understand at least some of Hunt’s scientific explanation.
The family’s campsite at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, which they’d nicknamed “Camp Cosmic Convergence,” was stocked with supplies for Monday’s total solar eclipse: a telescope, binoculars, solar filters and a slotted spoon and white sheet to capture projections of the sun.
The park was full of tents and RVS, filled with eclipse-seekers who came in search of more than four minutes of totality Monday afternoon, when the moon will obscure the sun and turn daylight into darkness.
On Sunday morning, Hunt was still debating where, exactly, their group of six from West Texas would be watching the spectacle. With clouds in the forecast for much of Central Texas, she was considering whether it would be worth a two-hour drive Monday morning to an area that seemed drier, with a chance for better visibility.
Forecasters are predicting mostly cloudy skies throughout the Hill Country and into San Antonio on Monday, making for poor viewing conditions for the eclipse. Forecasting models show between 70% and 90% cloud cover throughout South Texas. There is some possibility of clearing skies in some areas, forecasters say.
The weather concerns might mean fewer visitors than had been expected in Hill Country communities such as Fredericksburg, where officials have been preparing for years for the event, expecting tens of thousands, if not more. There were steady flows of people in Fredericksburg and Kerrville on Sunday, but the cities showed no signs of being overwhelmed by an influx yet.
Locals in both towns said it was busier than a typical Sunday, but not extraordinarily so, comparing the crowds to normal busy days during their peak seasons.
Jarrid Dietert, who stood on Fredericksburg’s Main Street overseeing his daughters’ bake
sale, said the crowds were typical for a peak Saturday, or similar to the city’s Oktoberfest. That event usually draws about 40,000 people; some projections called for the city seeing closer to 100,000 for the eclipse.
About 25 miles away in Kerrville, NASA staffers were setting up camp Sunday at Louise Hays Park, where the space agency planned to livestream the eclipse and a panel of experts throughout the day. A handful of food trucks were parked on the edge of the empty park as city and NASA employees buzzed back and forth.
Prepared for eclipse
Some local businesses and residents were looking to cash in on visitors, advertising parking spaces for sale — for as much as $125 in at least one case — while others had cordoned off their property to keep people away. Near the Gillespie County Airport, one man was putting up “no trespassing” signs on a vacant lot, and in some areas, signs lined roads warning people not to park.
Darla Strawther, who lives east of Fredericksburg in Stonewall, said some property owners in the area are worried that visitors from outside Texas will drive onto their land, not realizing it’s private property.
“They don’t know you just can’t do that in Texas,” she said.
Strawther said she’s noticed an increase in police presence in the days leading up to the eclipse. Between Blanco and Stonewall, “I saw three cop cars on the side of the road looking for speeders,” she said. “And they’re all up and down (U.S.) 290.”
Inside local businesses, the eclipse was almost all anyone could talk about. Coffee shop customers chatted with baristas about their drives and their expectations for Monday, while families in the aisles of H-E-B debated what food they’d be making and how many disposable plates to buy.
Fears of supply shortages seemed to be unfounded, perhaps a sign that people took warnings seriously and stocked up in advance.
Joe Bachmeier, who with his brother Max operates Fredericksburg property management company Bach Bros, said people seem to have heeded warnings to stock up well ahead of the eclipse.
“I went to H-E-B Tuesday, and they had no produce whatsoever,” Bachmeier said. “But then Max went the next day, and they’d restocked everything. H-E-B seems to be staying on top of things.”
Most Fredericksburg residents he’s spoken to have already bought whatever food and other supplies they’ll need and plan to hunker down at home for the actual event. Following suit, Bachmeier said he and a few friends plan to watch the eclipse from his backyard.
Outside River Hills Mall in Kerrville, Franklin Ostronski was hoping people would be in search of novelties, not necessities. From the back of an SUV, he was selling T-shirts with iron-on eclipse designs.
He borrowed $1,000 from a friend and drove from San Bernardino, Calif., to watch the eclipse in Kerrville.
He was hoping to sell 130 shirts to pay back the loan, and he was sleeping in his car to save money because hotel prices in the city have surged.
“I need to see it before I die,” Ostronski said. “I’m like a kid when it comes to this.”
‘Worried about the clouds’
Pretty much everyone in the Hill Country — residents and visitors alike — said they are keeping an eye on the skies, hoping the weather will cooperate and the eclipse will be visible from the ground.
Several visitors from New York’s American Museum of Natural History will bring umbrellas when Judi Younger leads them on a tour of Comfort, a community of about 2,000 in northwest Kendall County.
“They said it’ll help ward off the rain,” said Younger, vice president of the Comfort Heritage Foundation. “I guess even scientists can be a little superstitious.”
Uncertainty about the weather has whipsawed Phil Jenkins, who operates an Airbnb property in Comfort.
The property was first booked months ago, but the reservation was canceled soon after the first long-term weather forecasts were released. It was soon rebooked but then canceled a second time as the forecasts remained negative.
As of Sunday morning, the property, which sleeps eight and is going for $800 a night, was still available, according to Jenkins, who usually gets $595 a night for it. “Everybody’s too worried about the clouds,” he said.
Daniel Vigil, who was camped at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park in Fredericksburg on Sunday, said he would focus on the bright side: beautiful bluebonnets and the chance of a short window of clear skies Monday.
“I’m being rather optimistic,” he said. “All we need is a few minutes.”
He drove 900 miles with his wife and dog to watch the eclipse, and he had his telescope set up outside his tent, ready and waiting. They traveled to Wyoming in 2017 for the last total solar eclipse and started planning this trip two years ago.
“A total eclipse really gives you a sense of scale, of yourself in the universe,” he said. “Time just seems to stand still.”