This week, the wife and I decided it was time for another road trip. We'd planned for years to get a Subaru to camp in the back of, and we finally had that ready to go!

I re-purposed an old plywood Warhammer table and two and a half six-foot 2"x 8"s, polished off with a 2" thick memory foam pad we bought online to make our main sleeping space. We topped it off with several sliding plastic bins that fit perfectly in the spaces under the platform. After all this, there was still a respectable 2' of head space at the lowest point, and a ton of storage space behind the front seats. Not to mention on top of the platform itself, although most of that was reserved for the dogs to ride in. Even with the limited space though, we squeezed in hammocks, a camp stove, clothes and essentials for the trip, and two inflatable kayaks generously loaned to us by Jen's parents!


The big inspiration for this particular trip was the upcoming eclipse, being as close as we were to Totality, it was the perfect opportunity to find a campground and get a front-row seat!
On the first day, two days before the Eclipse, we set out from Little Rock by noon, and covered as much ground as we could. That said, we didn't think we'd find anything in Nashville or past it, so we stopped for our first night a little West of town.

We had a campsite reserved already at a place called Defeated Creek for the night before the Eclipse, but we didn't think we were going to make it all the way there on the first night, and we didn't have a previous reservation for that first night. So as I drove, my wife looked up other campgrounds on the route, and we picked one - Natchez Trace State Park, right off the freeway. There was no guarantee there would be an open site, but we had to try and cross our fingers. There were quite a few campgrounds, so we were fairly sure we'd find *something.*

And we got lucky! First try!


Not only did we find a spot, but a pretty cool spot, and right on the water no less :)
Zelda, our elder pup, was very pleased with the primo frog-chasing territory. And we were doubly lucky, because it was an absolutely jaw-dropping camping area:



There were two bridges crossing over a lake that one of the two camping areas jutted into, and it made for some wonderful views. Both were right next to each other, and not a dozen yards from our campsite. So we took every opportunity to walk around that first night.


Sunset was particularly nice, and quick, but the stars that followed were even better. Those, of course, did not come out on camera, so you'll just have to go check this one out yourself ;)

The morning came out pretty well too, we were nervous going into it because we hadn't tested our setup at all, but it worked out just fine.



My view of the morning, part 1, and part 2:



This also was our first night out, and first time ever sleeping in the car (!) so it was our trial night, to see what we'd forgotten and still needed. Which, as it turned out, was quite a bit. But we'd prepared for that, since Nashville was still on our route, we had plenty of opportunity to resupply.

We caught a quick lunch in Nashville - complete with a live show by local artist Morgan Clark!


But, as much fun as Nashville was, we'd spent a long weekend there in the past. And, whether it was because of the eclipse, Vanderbilt just starting back up, or both (probably both), the whole city was an absolute mad house, so we skedaddled as quickly as possible!

But we didn't leave right away - one of our number-one stops every time we hit Tennessee is Trader Joe's. How much do we love Trader Joe's? A lot. A whole lot. And since we needed a few supplies we'd forgotten (like toothbrushes. Who forgets toothbrushes?) and dinner for our next camping night, it was both practical and pleasant. And who knew! We happened to roll in during their 50th birthday celebration! It was chock full of people, balloons, decorations, discounts, and we even caught the manager singing karaoke before we made our way out!

We also took the time to swing by an estate sale that was down the road. Because, estate sale, and because we'd forgotten more things. We managed to find a tablecloth, skillet, a little silverware, and some cooking utensils that all proved completely indispensable. Woo, estate sale!

Our second day went without incident, all the way out to Defeated Creek, which despite the unfortunate name is a truly amazing campground. It's big, entirely surrounded by the lake, and while mostly meant for RV's, perfectly fine for tents or car camping. That every single site has electricity and water makes it positively decadent for a more rugged camper. One caveat though was that since it's RV-focused, when we tried to find firewood we were given a number to a local lumber yard that was very nice, and delivered, but had a *$30 minimum order* for firewood. As folks camping for one night, that was a ridiculous amount of wood. But, we needed it, planned to camp for a few more days at least, so we sucked it up and got it anyway.





At this point, we felt like pros, so our camping setups went up and down quickly like a well-oiled machine!


Note the lovely tablecloth! We had a pretty swanky setup at this point. Although this doesn't show the hammocks we had set up. It was nice to have another sleeping option, but we still haven't quite figured out sleeping in the hammocks...

This post has gotten more than long enough, so I'll wrap up here. But the eclipse was absolutely incredible - truly, one of the coolest events I've been lucky enough to see. And the eclipse glasses my parents sent us worked like a charm! It was a great day!

Please enjoy a few shots of our first trip with the inflatable kayaks while you look forward to my next post :D

Zelda was nervous the whole time, but still made a top-notch copilot. We took the boats out twice, once the day before, and then again for a much longer trip around the lake the day of the eclipse.


Trudy was a trooper the whole time, but had a rough time with how much sun she got by the end of the trip. Here Jen is showing off the half of the full-paddle we shared on our trial run. We forgot one of the paddles before going - d'oh - but the marina next to the campground rented us an extra for $5 a day when we did out longer, proper trip out.


Sunset the day before the big show: