Totality is coming! (And a giveaway!)

This is a big week here at The Touring Camper: We are headed to the Nashville, Tenn., area to join thousands of others in viewing the historic 2017 solar eclipse! Nashville is one of the big cities that lies near the path of totality, so we are booked at a campground north of the city.

Jarrett has been planning for this trip for about 10 years. He used to tell his ninth grade students each year during his astronomy unit that in 2017, he’d be in the path of totality to witness the solar eclipse. (And thankfully school doesn’t start until after we get back!) So here we are gearing up for totality–and to celebrate we have a fun eclipse giveaway going on! (More on that in a few.)

Campgrounds, hotels, and other lodging along the path of the eclipse started selling out a few months ago. We booked our “first” eclipse campground reservation at a Tennessee state park about 12 months ago. But it wasn’t the spot we really wanted to be: The spot we preferred, though, only had a six-month reservation window. We didn’t feel comfortable waiting that long to make reservations in the event we couldn’t get a spot at the second campground. So we decided to make the first set of reservations, and then as long as we scored reservations six months later at our preferred spot, we’d just cancel the first set (and deal with losing our small reservation fee).

This plan worked out perfectly, and we ended up saving a bunch of money because the Tennessee state parks in the path of the eclipse were charging an “eclipse fee” that basically doubled the typical cost. The best part about where we are located on Cedar Creek is that if we have a clear day for viewing the eclipse we might not even have to leave our campsite to see it!

While we are in Nashville we plan to do some non-eclipse related touring too. Nashville is rich with culture, history, and music, so this is really just a “preview” trip and we’ll have to return at some point to explore some more. But during our stay we are looking forward to stopping by the Anderson Design Group’s headquarters and store where we can’t wait to browse their extensive collection of prints and related products.

If you have not yet heard about this team of talented designers, then you are in for a treat: Their vintage-inspired prints are crafted through a hand-illustrated style that hearkens back to yesteryear with a modern flair. They already have over 800 designs to their credit, with series that range from the national parks and world travel to vintage ads and camping fun.

In honor of the eclipse, the design team created several special prints to capture the excitement and mystery surrounding the 2017 solar eclipse. Of the solar eclipse souvenir prints, my favorite is this first one; which one do you love?

In addition to creating the eclipse-related prints, the Anderson Design Group is selling a special eclipse package just perfect to mark this historic event:

And whether you are in the path of totality or not on Monday, Aug. 21, you could still win some cool eclipse merchandise from the Anderson Design Group! To enter the giveaway, just head over to Instagram (starting Tuesday morning the 15th of August), find the giveaway photo post in our feed, and follow the instructions. (The contest concludes at the end of eclipse day, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017.) And if you can’t wait to see who wins the giveaway to snag some awesome solar eclipse souvenirs, then head over here.