One day we were showering on the bow (in our swimsuits :) ), when a guy on a SeaDoo (a beefed up jet ski) zoomed up and peppered us with questions on the Great Loop. We invited him on board (after we rinsed the soap out of Bob's hair) and had a lovely visit. He dreams of doing the Loop on his SeaDoo. He travels now for about two weeks at a time, either on his motorcycle on land, or his SeaDoo on the rivers. A very interesting form of travel!.
Everything is waterproofed, he camps along the shore wherever he can find a spot to pitch a tent.
Oh, by the way - showering on the bow is a great way to escape the 90+ temperatures we've been having! (No air conditioning while at anchor unless we run the generator).
We said goodbye to our dear friends David and Kim on Overtime as they head back home to Chattanooga after crossing their wake. They will be missed, but perhaps they will choose to come to the Bahamas with us????
Ed and Sue on Angel Louise brought their car back from their "dirt" home in North Carolina so we had a fun few days touring the area including Shiloh. The battlefield from the Civil War Era was well remembered with markers of many of the prominent battle sites, and a movie that was a very realistic reenactment of the battle. After viewing the movie, you drive around the battlefield stopping at whichever landmarks you choose.
Many beautiful monuments
and rows of cannons are throughout the area.
We stopped at The CatFish Hotel for a lunch of...you guessed it - CATFISH! Not too bad, but I prefer the meatier Halibut or Cod.
Sue's Catfish tacos
Ed's all you can eat fried catfish
Sue and I with a Confederate soldier who has seen better days!
Saw my first sorghum field in my memory. Looks very much like stunted corn.
With all the hot weather we've had its nice to be reminded it really is fall. This beautiful town near Shiloh was decked out for the season.
More and more Loopers are arriving as Rendezvous draws closer. We have docktails every night and meet more and more people. I'm loving it!
Abby, the one eye dog, who lives aboard The One Eye Dog joins us for docktails.
The docks when we arrived - 3 Looper boats
The docks 6 days later with over 51 Looper boats in residence! (not all of them are pictured here).
We attended many presentations at the Rendezvous and learned what lies ahead for us as we transit the rivers between here and Mobile, Alabama, then enter Florida and "make the crossing" from Carrabelle, Florida to Tarpon Springs, Florida. This is an overnight crossing (our first), so we are a bit nervous, but we received a lot of encouragement and instruction from experienced Loopers. From there we will tour Florida for part of the winter before crossing to the Bahamas. We are still not sure of our time table - we will build it as we go.
We did have a lot of fun times in between the classes. The most fun was the dinghy race. The "captain" was blindfolded and was required to steer the dinghy in reverse to a buoy and back. All this was at the direction of the "first mate". It was a lot of fun with much laughter. The winner was a "captain" who had never driven a dinghy before directed by her husband. (our friends Bev and Bruce on Seaquest). She HAD to depend on his instructions as she had no idea what she was doing! She joked that she still had to follow his direction AFTER the blindfold came off as she still had no idea what she was doing!
This couple ended up going round and round and never did find the buoy!
Jaws paid a surprise visit and tried to eat the second place winners.
Luckily he missed!
After a week filled with learning, fun, and lots of new friends we headed back into the rivers to put our new found knowledge to work. Our first dilemma was how to get 20+ boats through a lock that is closed for maintenance during the day. The lock master worked with us and said if we were there EARLY, he would lock us through before any waiting tows. 21 trawlers, 1 sailboat, 1 canoe were lined up and ready to go when he opened the lock at 4:30 in the afternoon. One of the captains offered to coordinate the operation and informed us who would tie up where in the lock. There are only 10 points to tie up to so many boats had to "raft" on to another boat.
Waiting...waiting...waiting...
After all the larger boats were safely tied up, our lone canoe makes his way to the front of the line.
It went so smoothly that the doors were shut just 30 minutes after they opened.
This heron appeared to enjoy the show.
The lock master was kind enough to take this picture from his perch at the top and send it to us!
As we exited the lock we were met by this beauty - a paddle wheel tour boat. Such a gorgeous sunset farewell to rendezvous as we all continue the adventure....
Anchored in First Creek, Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama - 10/7-10/12
Docked at Joe Wheeler State Park, Alabama - 10/13-10/19
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