Today was the day a total solar eclipse swooped across a path through Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Maine.

It’s also the day I went to an Urgent Care - again.  I’m getting a bit tired of this. 

A couple weeks ago, while we were staying at Two Creeks Crossing Resort in Livingston, Texas, I got a neck spasm that would not loosen. I talked to the wonderful people at the front desk and they recommended a care center. It tuned out to actually be a small hospital, but the urgent care was really fast and efficient. I got to see a doctor and got some prescriptions that were actually affordable to fill at the local WalMart pharmacy. 

I assume this is standard WalMart procedure, but both times I have had prescriptions filled on this trip, they check GoodRX for a better price.  

For the past five or six days I’ve had a nagging cough. It is worst when I try to lie down, so I’ve been “sleeping” in a chair. I don’t get a lot of sleep. For that matter, neither does Tony because I cough all night long.

Yesterday, when we arrived at our Harvest Host site, we had some leftovers for dinner and I took my temperature. It was a little bit elevated. Our friend Patrick, who’s a nurse, urged me to get checked out. Everything within 40 miles was closed, but a lot of places open at 8:00 on Monday morning.

While we have always had really good luck with Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome, we have finally found a place we are likely not going to recommend. We found the property easily, although since she only “suggested” we call ahead, we entered the wrong driveway. No biggie, Tony IS the world’s best backwards driver, after all. 

We got parked and got some work done. Another family arrived in a big fifth wheel toy hauler. We worried that they would run the generator all night, but they didn’t. That’s not what kept us awake at all. It was the dogs barking all night long. And maybe the midnight-crowing rooster. But mostly the non-stop barking. Without hookups we couldn’t run the air conditioner for white noise. Tony did run his Ryobi fan by the bed. I was sitting in an office chair, and kind of cold, so I thought about getting my fan but decided against it. My coughing was keeping me up anyway. 

After another pretty sleepless night, we headed out, taking Peggy to find a doctor.

The nearest clinic on our route north and west was in a strip mall, which made for good parking for Tony to wait for me outside. Tony got some work done and I went in and told them I had a cough. I always feel kind of silly - like who can’t handle a cough? But this was bad and not getting better, and we need sleep!!

The paperwork was easy, and the nurse took me back pretty quickly for my vitals. After a short wait, the doctor came in. The whole place was pretty quiet, so I don’t know if I got more attention than I might have otherwise. This is one of the reasons we decided to go early in the day. We talked about allergies, viruses, sore throats (not until I had coughed myself raw), Covid, swollen tissues, stuffy noses, and humidity. My lungs were totally clear, which I thought would be the case. It’s never felt like a lung issue.

The doctor called in three prescriptions to the WalMart pharmacy. I got a cough syrup (obviously stronger than over-the-counter; I’m now taking 5mL instead of 20mL). I got some pills that may help with cough suppression. And I got a nasal spray. 

Then we got on the road. I had only scheduled about a 150-mile trip today, so we would have time to stop and watch the eclipse. Well, we got such an early start that we wound up further north than expected. We drove right out of the path of totality! But that’s ok, we stopped in Sherman Texas to watch the almost-total eclipse. We poured some iced coffee, used the bathroom, and took a few photos. 

The funny thing about this is that we didn’t really have a place chosen to watch the eclipse. Instead Tony drove around and found an abandoned building on the side of the road and that’s where we watched it. 

As we drove through Texas you could tell this was a big deal as there were people everywhere with their glasses parked in parking lots, on the side of the road, in churches and anywhere else they could find a safe spot to pull over and look up. 

If you didn’t see the eclipse it was as you would expect - it gets darker and darker sort of like dusk and then you look up and see the sun through your fancy glasses as the moon passes in front of it and it becomes an ever smaller sliver of light. 

Tony was more fascinated by the fact that all the street lights and business signs illuminated as the natural light diminished. Even the lights in the abandoned building’s sign, which was now just a frame with some fluorescent light tubes in it, illuminated. 

Today’s destination was another Harvest Host in Thackerville, Oklahoma. We only crossed the Texas border (AKA the Red River) by about six miles. 

This time it’s another alpaca farm and we’re looking forward to seeing those creatures and what they are making with the alpaca fur.