My Return to Joe Wheeler

It Looks Different Without All the Looper Boats

The last time I was at Joe Wheeler State Park, near Rogersville, AL, was last October.  I made my way down to see what the American Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) was all about. I picked up a lot of great information at a gathering/convention they were having there.  Most of the boats that were there were finishing their "Loops".  They usually start out by heading up the East Coast during hurricane season.  They go all the way up into the Great Lakes, up into Canada, then down near or to Chicago and find their way to the Mississippi River. From the Mississippi, they cruise onto the Tennessee River, then onto the Tenn-Tom waterway to the Tombigbee River and on down into Mobile Bay.  From Mobile, they take the Gulf Inter Coastal Waterway (GIWW) so one of the big topics at the meeting was tips on how and where to cross the Gulf of Mexico.  After that, they hug the coast, when possible, down to Ft. Myers, Florida, where they either cross Florida by way of Lake Okeechobee or go around the tip of Florida and possibly spend some time in the Bahamas.  By this time the hurricane season is over and the weather in the greater Florida/Bahama area is much more desirable than in the northern climates that many of the Loopers call home.  When they finally get to where they started, they call it "Crossing Their Wake" which means they have completed the entire Loop.    

Here's a picture of Wheeler my first visit in October

You may have noticed that my entire trip has been part of the Loop, but in reverse order.  This so I can get the boat back to Knoxville, Tennessee where it will be "home". Marci and I can access it easily there, use it on portions of the Tennessee River and hopefully enjoy some of the cool fall weather and fall color. In many of the publications and articles that I have read about the Loop, the authors have marveled at the beauty on the Tennessee River.  I believe it is considered the high point of the entire Loop.  However, as with any kind of travel in this country either by water or highway, I find each part beautiful in its own special way.  From the deserts of Nevada to the pine trees of Maine, it all has something to offer.  Or as Larry the Cable Guy would put a spin on my quote by Robert Louis Stevenson:  'It's not whur yu'r travelin', but that yu'r travelin'''.
 

The kids liked the shower play next to the pool

On to Ditto


The next stop on our trip was Ditto Landing Marina, outside Huntsville, AL.  While checking the web site and reading a rather old book about the Loop, this marina rated only two stars and posted comments like:  "We got plans".  We all figured that at this time in history, just coming off an economic depression, we would be looking two stars right in the eye. Wrong, they have done the up-grades and they look great.  So we can give more stars to the Ditto Landing Marina and recommend it as a good place to dock while on the Tennessee.

The Geese got feed at Ditto first day

Mitchell on his way to work

The girls squeezed into first space craft

While there, we took a day off from cruising and took a side trip to the U.S Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.  They had it all... the history of the space program, from the time Wernher Von Braun came to the U.S. rocket program,  to the moon exploration years, to the Space Shuttle programs and onward to future NASA projects. It is supposed to have one of the best collections of space travel hardware in the world. We also saw a dinosaur exhibit that was traveling through.  All in all, it was a great day for the home school set but  I came to the realization that space and dinosaurs are probably two topics about which I won't be buying reading material... just doesn't seem to excite me that much, other than the history part of it.

We arrived at Huntsville Space

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

So after our visit to the realm of space travel, we returned to Ditto Landing and got ready for our next day's travel up to Goose Pond Colony just a few miles up river.