Plan was to dock the boat at Joe Wheeler State Park for the
AGLCA Looper Fall Rendezvous…best laid plans. Unfortunately we signed up to late to get a slip…ok, lets
anchor? A couple of weeks before
we found our new fangled Odyssey TPPL batteries would discharge 40 amp-hours
vs. the 424 amp-hours they were suppose to. No anchor…so we stayed at Florence, rented a car and drove
back and forth to the Looper Rendezvous.
By the way, the distributor warranteed the batteries shipping new ones
to Joe Wheeler (JW). So our first
trip to JW was to pick them up and install…hopefully we are good to go!
The Looper Rendezvous was an agenda packed meeting/social
gathering focused on seminars by local experts to help get us around to Norfolk
and parties to reacquaint plus make new Looper friends.
Part of the Rendezvous is a ‘Crawl’ where Loopers open their
boats up for tours. One of the
first boats we toured was an Endeavor 44 Motor Catamaran called Sandpiper. The couple that owned the boat are 75+
years old and thinking about selling her.
To say the least the boat is beautiful. We both were smittened. Before long we were dreaming keeping her in Pickwick Lake
and steaming down the Tenn-Tom for winters in Florida/Bahamas! We can dream can’t we?!!
After the Rendezvous we had an extra day before departing
Florence so we took in a couple of the local attractions. First was “Ivy Green – Birthplace of Helen Keller.” We’ve all seen the “Miracle Worker”
(did you remember that Patty Duke played Helen in the first movie and Annie in
the second?).
Later we went to out to dinner at a 360 degree restaurant at
the Marriot in Muscle Sholes. It was $20 steak dinner night! Where’s the beef?!!
Today we retraced our steps back down the Tennessee River
making a left turn (South) on the Tenn-Tom Waterway returning to Grand
Harbor. Tomorrow we are taking the
next step towards Mobile (450 miles South). None to soon since the low tonight is 37!! We need that Endeavor Cat to get us
South fast!!!!!!!
