Thousands pack Hill Country Mile for eclipse

Thousands pack Hill Country Mile for eclipse

City uses annular event as preparation for larger total eclipse coming April ‘ 24

BY JEFF B. FLINN Managing Editor

The hustle and bustle of a busy Boerne day came to a screeching halt last Saturday as thousands of people stopped in their tracks and cast their glasses-covered eyes to the sky, to watch the moon descend in front of the sun in an annular “Ring of Fire” eclipse.

Cheers and applause resonated from the masses gathered along the Hill Country Mile downtown Oct. 14 at 11:51 a.m., as the moon pulled in front of the sun for a four-minute stint.

The brightness emitted by the sun circling the smaller moon gave off the “ring of fire” effect -- pleasing the masses who flocked to Boerne for several events coordinated with the viewing of the eclipse.

“It was amazing, way amazing,” said Schertz resident Lara Payne, joined by her husband, Jason, a realtor, and 10-yearold daughter, Amy. “We watched it from early this morning, when it began to just barely cover the sun, all the way to the other side.”

Jason Payne brought his family to town as he was meeting clients from New Mexico who are looking to move to Boerne.

“This is something most people in their lifetimes don’t ever get to see,” Jason Payne said. “It’s just an amazing privilege we have, to be able to see both an annular eclipse and a full eclipse within a one-year time span. Amazing.”

Amy Payne had just returned from science camp Friday. “We talked about it a lot,” she said. “It was really cool to see this because it very rare for it to be like this.”

Cory and Julie Ferguson made the 75-minute drive from their home in Driftwood to Boerne’s Dog and Pony Grill to get a better view of the eclipse.

“We looked at different events for the eclipse party,” Cory Ferguson said. “We looked around Facebook, and it said they (Dog and Pony) were going to have a great eclipse viewing party here, so we decided to be here.”

This wasn’t Julie’s first eclipse, and certainly not the farthest she had travelled to see one.

“I viewed the 2017 total eclipse in Alliance, Neb., which was a life-changing event,” Julie Ferguson said. “You can’t describe it until you experience it, so I highly recommend everyone to get to totality – 99 percent is not good enough, you want to get the ‘total’ for the total eclipse in April.”

Living in South Dakota in 2017, she left home at 4 a.m. to drive to the small town in Nebraska to get a two-minute glimpse of the moon’s total blockage of the sun.

“I was just at a (highway) rest stop, and it was packed,” she said. “You could not find a place to sit for miles. People just came from everywhere. Like me.”

Chris Dingman’s day started early Saturday, as the city’s police department went “all hands-on deck” for the annular eclipse – a dry run for April, when the total eclipse is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the area.

“I got here at 4 a.m. and we started closing the road at 6,” said Dingman, a community police officer for the Boerne Police Department. “Even at 6 a.m., there were people already out, setting up lawn chairs, tables, canopies and everything.”

The day was indeed a busy one for the city’s police force, from blocking Main Street for the Hill Country Mile Rod Run, to working Boerne City Lake, where more than 600 registrants participated in the 5K-10K-half-marathon.

“It was all-hands-on-deck for the eclipse and everything, from the 5K in the morning to (Hill Country Mile) Rod Run, to the solar eclipse -- we’ve got officers spread out all throughout the city, in every park, the lake, everything like that,” Dingman said.

The city launched full preparation for Saturday’s annular eclipse, knowing it might be their best shot at a dry run for the total eclipse in April 2024.

“We sat in on a whole bunch of meetings where everybody speculated on what they thought it was going to be,” he said. “But at the end of the day, no one knew what was going to happen.

“I think we mitigated it well enough to where we're better prepared for (the total eclipse) next year,” he said. “We prepared as best we could, and we’ll prepare for April as well.”

Victoria and Jacob Pike of San Antonio brought their daughter, Milly, to town, where Victoria’s father and his brother entered cars in the Rod Run, which drew more than 250 pre-1975 American- made cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles.

'We came out here because my dad entered the car show, but we also really wanted to see the eclipse,” Victoria Pike said. “We have a little one and she’s just started school and learning science, so this is really a big deal for her.

“To her, it’s like this whole other world that’s opening up. It’s not something we see every day. For her, this is just about the coolest thing on the planet,” she said.

“This,” said Jacob Pike, “is a once in a lifetime opportunity … being in a place where it felt like the world just stopped for a moment, and everybody was looking up at the same thing. Not something you see too often anymore. Very cool.”

Joey Boatright, owner of the Dog and Pony Grill, opened at 9 a.m. with eclipse-themed food and a DJ spinning nothing but galactic-themed songs.

“We’re doing our food special, a black brioche bun with a sunny-side-up egg on a breakfast sandwich, a play on the eclipse,” he said.

Boatright said the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce and the Boerne Visitors Center had been discussing the eclipse for over a year and so the Dog and Pony started making plans within the past two months.

At 11:45 a.m., the DJ was going to play a song titled, “The Final Countdown,” leading up to the 11:51-11:55 a.m. annular eclipse.

“That’s followed by Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ during the actual eclipse,” he said. “It’s all space- and galactic-themed food and music here today.”