Ditto Landing Marina (Huntsville, AL) to Joe Wheeler State Park (Rogersville, AL) to Lee Spry (Iuka, MS) incl the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous and on to Iuka, MS

Monday, October 21:  Hi to all once again!  Clay and I arrived at Lee Spry Marine Services late yesterday afternoon for some anticipated boat repair work plus a few additional repairs that he's itemized along the way.  The list keeps getting longer; after all, it's a boat!  And, we seem to have plenty of company, with a boat docking next to us after dark last eve and another one fairly early this morning.

Don't think you are alone in this cold snap that has descended on the lower half of the USofA!  We awakened this morning to a thick layer of fog and temperature about 36 degrees.  FYI, Lee Spry Marine is located near Iuka, MS and, of course, on the water (this time, the Yellow Creek which is the beginning of the Tenn-Tom (Tom Bigbee) Waterway). Fog lifted relatively early, and Mother Nature has produced an absolutely beautiful day, cool with a cloudless sky. The weather this past week has reinforced the need to be ready for any kind of temperature and precip.  Glad I packed my cold gear! 

I think the last time I emailed we were at Ditto Landing, Huntsville, AL about nine days ago on our way to the Great Loop Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park, Rogersville, AL.  We departed Ditto Landing last Saturday, Oct 12 after watching the MU-GA game on tv. Hooray for the Mizzou win!  We overnighted that night at Decatur behind the Pickwick Belle excursion boat and headed to Joe Wheeler on Sunday, both days being short cruising days.  Although the Rendezvous (convention for those who have completed the Loop, those currently doing the Loop and Looper wanna-be's) was to begin Monday afternoon, we were in good company with lots of others arriving prematurely. Our friends Randy Schmitt and Margaret Reid arrived for wine late afternoon and stayed for dinner at the Lodge and an overnight.  Fun having them, and fun having two more names and comments added to Clay's log book!

Last Swim of the Season!

Fun entertainment

Boats at the Joe Wheeler Rendezvous

Boats of all sizes

Carol, Sue, and Sally

Cocktails on the Deck

Monday evening through Thursday evening was spent attending cocktail and food functions as well as information sessions to enlighten us on our upcoming adventure.  The trip was subdivided into 'legs' from the head of the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Norfolk, VA (where another Rendezvous will be held Spring, 2014), and those who have done various legs and are familiar with marinas/harbors/anchorages offer suggestions on where to go and what to see and do...and suggestions on how to stay afloat and not run aground!!!  Important!  We'll soon be dealing with salt water and tides, and having done neither, Clay and I are willing to absorb all the info we can get in order to avoid trouble...which is probably unavoidable!

We met many nice folks during the Rendezvous and became adept at associating peoples' names with boat names. One night's banquet 'program' was the introduction of those who have done the Loop (got pretty redundant hearing how "wonderful the people are you meet along the way"); it was surpassed the next night when the Looper Wanna-Be's introduced themselves. The humor was infectious when each tried to out-do the previous introduction.  Felt good to laugh!

KGB Band

We were hit mid-week with a weather front which brought rain and cold weather. Inconveniently, it was also the day of the concert event at the local B&B, arranged as a private showing for us Loopers. But the 'show must go on,' so we boarded the shuttle bus which took us to an extremely-entertaining outdoor (under tent) concert by the Kerry Gilbert Band (KGB).  The warm-up act was a set of thirteen-year-old twins who sang and played mandolin and bass guitar; they were promoted as 'destined for stardom in Nashville.' Kerry Gilbert introduced his band and sang only one number with them after telling us of his recent diagnosis of cancer and continuing chemo treatments; the reaction of the crowd was kind of like a group hug. 

I saw a little bit of the downtown of Rogersville when I went with two other boater gals to the local grocery store on Thursday afternoon. Being female, we of course had to detour through the shopping district. We zeroed in on a darling store called Too Peas where I bought a couple of early Christmas gifts, and Diane bought some birthday presents for her college freshman daughter. Our third female boater friend Meg had biked into town each of the previous three days (a pretty good haul at that) and had scouted out this particular shop, claiming it to be 'the only store you need to visit.' Whether she was right or wrong, I'll never know because, it was the only store we got to visit besides the Foodland grocery store.

We awakened Friday morning to find a very dense fog had descended on Joe Wheeler State Park and was going to interfere with the pre-arranged departure schedule. Since all of the Loopers were, for the most part, continuing the Loop from here to the Gulf and beyond, there were some 25 boats all departing this morning.  The first Lock (Joe Wheeler Lock) couldn't accommodate 25 boats all at once to lock through, so Jim and Belinda, aboard Second Wind, took charge of the departure, scheduling eight boats at intervals determined by the completion of the locking by the previous group.  Went smooth as silk but for the fact that the 7 a.m. group couldn't leave until just after 8 a.m.  What a beautiful sight seeing eight boats departing simultaneously in the lifting fog!

Clay and I had plans to spend both Friday and Saturday nights at the Florence City Park Marina as did many of the other Looper boats.  It was almost like a mini-reunion, and most we had just met the week before. Amazing how quickly the friendship bond occurs when you are all in the same boat!

We had made friends with three different couples from the St. Louis area, one of which was eager to experience the Joe Wheeler-to-Florence, AL leg with us on Friday.  What treasures these two people are! Finding a driver for their car to ferry it to Florence for them, Gary and Diane boarded the SaSea Sally and got a good dose of Looping (Locking) 101 from us. What a nice trip at a gentle cruising speed, and a good intro to locking at the 48' and 93' locks between Joe Wheeler and Florence. All of us remarked that we were glad the locking was down and not up (these two locks were where Clay and I had experienced so much turbulence on the way to Chattanooga!). Down is almost always more gentle that up!

Having noticed some weird oversized 'canoes' with about 20-22 rowers each on our way into Florence Harbor on Friday, we soon found out that Saturday was the Dragon Boat Festival. What we'd witnessed was practice round; Clay and Gary thought it looked, from a distance, like a bunch of Cub Scouts rowing a canoe. We bid Gary and Diane good-bye as they headed toward Tuscaloosa to celebrate their freshman daughter's nineteenth birthday. We then registered, started a load of laundry and settled in for the weekend.

Saturday dawned foggy and cool, but the weather certainly didn't dampen the spirits of the contestants.  We saw team spirit everywhere....dressed alike team members in red shirts and black pants, Dr. Seuss hats on some, face-painted teams, etc.  Tents were set up for various teams to congregate, housing box lunches, tee-shirt distribution, bottled water coolers, etc. Clay took plenty of pictures while I jogged the perimeter of the encampment. Having secured the courtesy van for a 2-hour time period, we saw less of the races and more of the town of Florence on our way to Wally World for restocking.  Our printer had stopped printing and troubleshooting brought no good results, so Clay headed to the office/electronics department while I stocked up on groceries and toiletries.

Saturday night we pulled the 'big hill' into town for dinner at Ricatoni's. Brick oven pizza for me and a veal entree for Clay, we enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant and the cute, young waitresses.  A brisk 25-minute walk back down the hill helped our meal settle--and we had leftovers for another night.

Sunday found us one of the last Looper boats to depart Florence; we had only a short distance to travel, cruising leisurely for about 5 hours and arriving well ahead of dark at Lee Spry...which is where we are now for boat repair work as previously mentioned.