DAY 37 - November 7, 2023

This is a view of the trawlers "parked" at Joe Wheeler State Park in Northern Alabama where we're attending the American Great Loop Cruisers Association Fall Rendezvous. We're here to meet with, and learn from, other loopers. We've had a chance to tour others peoples' boats and even had a few people visit our boat. 

Among the sessions we attended today was one on how to follow the route from where we are now, to Mobile Bay. Another session was on the Gulf Crossing as pointed out with the red arrow in the picture above. This is an all night crossing that takes about 19 hours to complete. Denise also attended a session designed for women only. She came back to the boat pretty excited about the information the women shared with each other.

This evening we had a meal served outside with music provided by a disc jockey and lots of opportunities to share conversations with the 300 people in attendance. We have two more days of of the rendezvous, then resume our journey sometime on Friday.

 

DAY 36 - November 6, 2023

 

We stayed at the Economy Inn at Rogersville, Alabama overnight. This morning we rode our bicycles back to Joe Wheeler State Park where our boat is at and the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous will be taking place this week. I was able to find an unpicked "boll" of cotton to take a photo of. The boll is actually the bloom part of the plant where the cotton is located.

In the evening we took part in a looper crawl. The crawl is where loopers open 

their boats so people can get an idea of what type of trawler they want to buy.

The helm is where the captain pilots the boat. The helm in the first photo has everything! The photo of the galley (kitchen) in the second boat had counters that were lit up. All of the white areas of the counter are where the light shinned through.

At the introductory session of the "Rendezvous" all loopers that are in progress on their first loop had an opportunity to introduce themselves before all of the 300 people in attendance (that included us as "in progress" loopers. In the evening we joined everyone for dinner followed by drawings for door prizes. On the very last drawing, Denise won a really nice ice bucket with a matching scoop, bottle opener and some ritzy refrigerator magnets.

DAY 35 - November 5, 2023

 

It was early morning with us moving off at daybreak to go through the Wilson Lock. The lock was letting recreational boats go through early in the morning and just as it turns dark in the evening. We went through with seven other boats.

These are some of the other boats in the lock with us. Since we were the smallest boat, we had to enter last. The total lift was around 90 to 100 feet, which is the greatest lift or drop we've encountered.

This was our view as we exited the lock at the end of the pack.

While waiting to go through our second lock, the Wheeler Lock, this guy kept us entertained.

We've seen photos from Cincinnati and can see the autumn trees look beautiful this year. Where we're at in Alabama, it's been very dry. We've only had two days of rain since we started our trip 35 days ago. The local folks have told us that because of the dry weather, the trees are not displaying their usual bright fall colors. We're seeing a lot of reddish brown colors where there should be bright red and yellows.

Denise and I left our boat at Joe Wheeler State Park where we'll be through the end of the week. We'll be attending the AGLCA Rendezvous to learn about the art of looping. After tying up the boat, we got on the electric bikes and trailer to ride four miles into the town of Rogersville where we're staying at an Economy Inn. It will be our first night in a bed in over a month. While riding into town, we saw several fields where cotton was being picked and bailed. There are little balls of cotton all along the roads due to the harvesting.

Rogersville bills themselves as "The Gateway to the Shoals". Yesterday and today the downtown shops were featuring products for Christmas. A horse drawn wagon was giving rides around town.

It may not look that dark, but tonight I rode my little bicycle on a four lane highway to Clay's Pizza. I lucked out and found a long break in traffic, so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds. Denise and I both agreed that it's the best pizza we ever tasted! The jury-rigged bike rack I made from what I had available, worked pretty well as a pizza delivery platform.

DAY 34 - November 4, 2023

Not much happened today as we're getting ready to move out very early tomorrow morning for our long awaited trip to Joe Wheeler State Park for the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous. We returned our car to Enterprise Ren-A-Car this morning. Denise did laundry and I worked on the boat the rest of the day. I was worried I didn't have enough button-up shifts to wear at the conference next week, so I took a short bike ride to the Salvation Army Store. I found two brand new shirts that still had the folds from the original packaging. They were listed as $2.50 each, but when I checked out she said the total was $1.87. So, they must have had special pricing on Saturdays or maybe I got a senior citizens' price. Denise made fajitas for dinner and she had margaritas for us to drink. The picture may not look very appetizing, but they tasted great!

DAY 33 - November 3, 2023

 Today we were tourist. We rented a car from Enterprise and made our way to four of the many attractions in this area. 

Our first stop was Muscic Shoals Music Studio.The studio opened in 1969 as the only studio in the country owned and operated by studio musicians. In the following decade of operation they released over 200 albums, 75 gold or platinum records and hundreds of hits songs with artist such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, Duane Allman, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Seger, Staples Singers, Rod Stewart, Leon Russell, Willie Nelson, Cat Stevens, Dr. Hook, and Eddie Hinton. The first hit the studio recorded was Take A Letter Maria. The same week that record was being recorded during the day, the Rolling Stones were recording at night such songs as Brown Sugar and Wild Horses.

Initially the front of the building had no signage. But when Cher recorded her sixth album there, she had the address 3614 Jackson Highway added to the photograph. The studio liked it so much, they had a sign made exactly like the one on the album cover.

Remember the song Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band? The introductory measure was played on this piano, as well as many other hit songs.

The sound board used in the control room was originally designed for and used by Chet Atkins.

To get just the right sound, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones sang one of their hit songs in the studio's restroom.

Our next stop was the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Artists from Hank Williams to Martha Reeves to The Temptations to Jim Nabors and Emmylou Harris are among the nearly one hundred Alabama artists that have been inducted.

Nat King Cole was among the first four inductees back in 1985.

Jim Nabors was inducted in 2001. Items from his roles on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. were on display.

We had the opportunity to tour the music group Alabama's tour bus.

Our third stop was at the home of Helen Keller. She was born in the cabin next to the house she eventually grew up in.

In the 1962 movie, The Miracle Worker, Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft recreate the struggles Annie Sullivan had in trying to figure out how to educate Helen. This is a pantographic photo I took of the bedroom Helen and Annie shared and where much of Helen's education took place. Helen ultimately attended Radcliffe College and became the first deaf blind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

The majority of items in the house are original, including these dresses worn by Helen.

The last stop was to the W. C. Handy home and museum. I really didn't know much about Handy, but as it turns out I was familiar with his music.

Handy referred to himself as The Father of the Blues. While he didn't create the blues genre, he was the first to publish music in the blues form, thereby taking the blues from a regional music style (Delta Blues) with a limited audience to a new level of popularity.

One song Handy did write was The Saint Louis Blues, later recorded by Lena Horne, Bing Crosby and featured in the movie The Glenn Miller Story staring Jimmy Stewart.

The Handy Museum features a lot of his personal items, awards, letters from US Presidents and his instruments. One of the items I enjoyed seeing was a copy of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue with a note at the top written by Gershwin that said Handy's early blues songs are the forefathers of this work.

Although not a part of our planned tour for today, we went to the 306 Barbeque Restaurant in Florence and found we were there during the Florence First Friday celebration. I took this photo of Denise in a chair called Goliath which is supposed to encourage patrons to "Shop Small".

DAY 32 - November 2, 2023

We have little to share today. I made several trips on my bicycle to get things and spent time visiting with the couple that pulled in next to us with a boat that looks just like ours. Tomorrow we have a car reserved for the day so we can visit some of the attractions in this area. I took some time to plan our route for tomorrow so we can make efficient use of our time with the car. Tomorrow's blog should feature lots of photos and information. The only photo I took today was of the pizza Denise made for dinner.

DAY 31 - November 1, 2023

 We have a device installed on our boat called a NEBOlink. It automatically senses when our boat begins to move and stop. It creates a map of our route as we travel. At the end of the day it emails the map, miles covered, top speed and other specs. As we're moving we can see an icon of our boat moving on a Google map AND we can also see all the hundreds of other NEBO boats in the US. The map below is of the Florence Harbor Marina where we are now. At the bottom you can see the name Cheers. The dot indicates where they are "parked". The little flag displayed next to their name is an AGLCA flag, which indicates they are a looper boat. The next name/flag up from the bottom is mvDenny, which is where we're parked. Above us are a bunch of other looper boats. Most of us are here waiting to go through two locks to get to the AGLCA Fall Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler State Park. This event begins this coming Monday and lasts through Friday.

This map is from the month-end report generated by NEBO. I added the notes and bubbles. The first 438 miles of our trip, ending in Paducah, are not a part of the Great American Loop. So we've actually only traveled about 195 miles of the 6,000 miles which make up the loop.

Despite the cold weather, I took my bicycle out to explore the area around the marina. This strange looking structure seen through the porch swing is called the McFarland Lighthouse. 

Near the center of downtown Florence is a statue of W. C. Handy, who is considered the "Father of the Blues". While blues type music was being played before Handy, he was the first to take the form of music seriously and record it on paper. He was born in Florence and lived much of his life here.

The marina has a courtesy car which can be borrowed for two hour time slots. We were signed up and ready to go when I got a call from a Canadian couple who had just pulled in and tied up near us. They asked if they could go to Walmart with us, so I told them to come along. The couple's names are Colin and Wendy from the boat Detour (Colin will be a presenter at the rendezvous we are going to next week). They just completed their loop in September and are now on their second loop. The white flag Colin is holding in the photo is the one loopers fly on their first loop. Those on their second loop fly a gold flag.