AGLCA Fall Rendezvous 2015

Last Tuesday we made it to Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville Alabama for their fall meeting....we're still here. There were over 250 people in attendance along with about 60 boats. We decided to stay here a few extra days to let the herd thin out. The folks here were about 50/50 of those currently doing the loop and those in the planning stages. In the 3 days of the conference there were seminars on route planning between here and Norfolk VA (where the spring rendezvous will be) as well as sessions on buying, outfitting and even selling a boat. We took away some good information that I'm sure will help us along the way as well as meeting some great people that we will be traveling with.

The marina did a great job of making room for all the boats including moving some folks from their regular slips so we could all be close to the lodge. Two afternoons they had "Looper Crawls" where people opened their boats for others to see and trade ideas.

Most meals were included and there were even evening cocktails hosted by some of the many sponsors of the event. I've found that if you mention free drinks to boaters you're sure to get a good turn out.

Speaking of sponsors, one of the boat brokers had their IT guy flying a drone taking photos and videos of boats coming and going. He has a pretty cool web site if you're interested. There are even a few good pics of Chasing 80, too bad he didn't get us underway.

The sponsors brought along plenty of SWAG so we all had gift bags with t-shirts, coozies and other fun stuff. The big highlight for us was the fact that Jill won a major door prize...a free 2 week stay at Marker 1 Marina in Dunedin FL. This will be a great chance for some R & R as it sits at the southern end of our gulf crossing. We hope to be there late November or early December depending on the weather.

Tomorrow morning we will get underway after a week here. The plan is to head back down the Tennessee river toward the start of the Tenn-Tom waterway. We will anchor out a couple of nights before spending the weekend at Aqua Yacht marina where the Tenn-Tom starts.Early next week we'll start heading down the 450 mile waterway toward Mobile. It looks like weather may be a factor in how fast we get there. We will be in rural Mississippi and Alabama with few marina stops so I'm not sure if we'll be able to blog but keep an eye on the "locate us" link and you can follow our progress to salt water!!

Until next post, goodnight from Joe Wheeler State Park...