November 6-7, 2015 - The Parties

After catching our breath a little after Wednesday, we got around to popping the cork on the champagne Friday night.  Jack and Jane drove down from Guntersville to celebrate with us and it was great to see them again.  The Friday night party was at Vicki and Chuck's house (Patriot).  It was great to see them again and it was a great gathering -- Richard and Nicole (Coeur de Lion), Donadee and Wayne (Always Home), Jonathan and Rosa (Salty).  It was a great evening of celebration with friends.  Saturday we met at the Grand Mariner Restaurant for a Looper luncheon.  That group included Jack and Jane, Donadee and Wayne, Chuck and Vicki, and Connie and Marv (Sadie Too - they had just come into Dog River the day before).  Jennifer and Katie also joined the celebration as we were in our red Loop Cruise 2015 shirts (Kayla was out of town on a church trip).  We had a great lunch and a great time talking and sharing stories.  Even though our Loop Cruise 2015 has ended, the friendships and parties will continue for a long time.

Sadly this will be our last blog entry.  This blog was done as a labor of love to share our adventure with family and friends (and to help us remember all the amazing places we visited and people we met).  We thank everyone who followed along on our great journey.

Jonathan, Richard, Nicole, Donadee, Jane, Jack, Rosa, Chuck, me, Jack, Wayne and Vicki

Jonathan, Nicole, Richard, Jack

Vicki, Chuck, Jack and Wayne

Jane and Donadee

Our Saturday lunch group - Jennifer, Chuck, Vicki, Connie, Marv, Jack, me, Jack,

Jane, Donadee, Wayne and Katie

November 4, 2015 - WE DID IT!!!!

At 10:12 am on November 4, Nearly Perfect crossed her wake at the entrance to Dog River!!  We stopped the boat long enough to put up our gold flag and then passed under the Dauphin Island Bridge and docked at Dog River Marina, where we began our journey January 9, 2015. We traveled 299 days, 6,376.4 miles, and too many locks to count!  As we look back at the pictures, we are amazed at the places we visited, the wonderful people we met, and the life long friendships we have made.  People have asked us what the best part of the trip was, and we say all of it.  It was definitely an adventure of a lifetime!  Of course, one of the highlights was traveling with our girls during the month of July.  They were excellent crew by the time they left us and are already wondering how we're going to top this next summer!

Our GPS showing where we crossed our wake

We did it!!

Proudly displaying our gold flag

Heading under the Dauphin Island Bridge flying our gold flag

Gold Loopers!!

November 1-4, 2015 - South to Mobile

We left Demopolis at 6:40 (CST) and ran 98 miles to Bobby’s Fish Camp.  We tried an anchorage, but it didn’t look good so we kept going to Bobby’s and had a good catfish dinner with Brian and Allen (Radiant).  It rained most of the day.  On Monday, we left Bobby’s around 6:00 am and headed to the Coffeyville lock (our last lock of the Loop).  By 7:00 we were leaving the lock.  It was cloudy and misting most of the day as we traveled through the lower Tombigbee River.  We spent two more nights anchoring out on our way to Mobile (mainly because we didn't want our journey to end).  Monday we anchored at the Alabama River Cutoff and Tuesday night we anchored at the Tensas River cutoff (our last anchorage on the loop).  Both anchorages were beautiful and we enjoyed peaceful afternoons watching the fish, birds, and pelicans diving for food.  We left our anchorage Wednesday morning at 7:45 in a dense fog and used our radar to get down the river.  By the time we reached downtown Mobile, the fog had burned off and we were able to enjoy the busy port city and downtown area.  About 9:30 we entered Mobile Bay, our last body of water.  We were back in the land of shrimp boats, crab traps, and dolphins.  It was the first time we had seen dolphins since South Carolina. 

Leaving Demopolis - we're going to get wet

A stop at Bobby's Fish Camp

Not the classiest marina but the catfish was really good

Early morning wait at the Coffeyville Lock - our last lock

Still foggy and rainy

The cows seemed pretty content with the weather

The Tombigbee really meanders

Tuesday morning - still foggy and rainy

By afternoon it is starting to clear up

View from our Tuesday night anchorage

Wednesday morning sunrise - our last sunrise on the loop

Entering the busy port of Mobile

Downtown Mobile

More barges

And more barges

More downtown

More downtown

Back with the fishing boats

October 26-31, 2015 - Grand Harbor to Demopolis

We spent two uneventful days at Grand Harbor waiting for repairs and for Patricia to pass.  Finally on Wednesday morning, the TV was fixed (yeah), the windlass was working (yeah), and the rain had passed (we thought).  We had docktails one evening aboard No Zip Code (Kenny and Kathy).  Jonathan (Salty) was also there.  We pulled out of Grand Harbor at 7:00 am and turned south on the Tombigbee for the last leg of our trip.  We saw blue sky for a few minutes around 8:30 but it was rainy most of the morning.  It finally cleared up in the afternoon.  The weather the rest of the week was great.  Friday morning it was very chilly (48 deg) and very foggy when we left our anchorage, but cleared up after that.  We anchored out 3 nights before pulling into Demopolis on Saturday.  We went through 10 locks with only a 30 minute wait twice.  The anchorages ranged from nice (Fulton Lock) to nicer (Columbus Cutoff) to great (Rattlesnake 1).  Wednesday and Thursday we traveled about 60 miles each day; Friday was a long day - 105 miles, 11 hours (our longest day).  We were a little tired but happy to pull into a great anchorage.  Already anchored were Kilt Dancer, Melinda B, Pearl, Firebird and Moni Joan.  We left our anchorage Saturday around 8:50 for a quick 9 mile trip to Demopolis.  We fueled up and were in our slip by 10:00.  After a quick trip to Walmart (along with Rob and Sandy from Sandrobber), we just settled in for a rainy day. We were supposed to get the courtesy car to go out to dinner, but when we went to get it (in the pouring rain), there was no record that we had reserved it. So back to the boat for dinner. 

Entrance to Grand Harbor from the road

Leaving Wednesday morning in the fog and mist

The first blue sky we had seen in several days

Along the manmade channel of the Tombigbee Waterway

Areas for water runoff from the rain

Our Wednesday night anchorage - not the picturesque places we like

(but you have to take what you can get on the Tombigbee)

We did get a great moon though

A nice start to our Thursday trip

Nice calm waters, narrow canals

Aberdeen Lake - one of the lakes along the way

More calm water and beautiful scenery

Early Friday morning fog (and cold)

Come on sun - burn this stuff off

A little later - back to beautiful scenery

Anybody need to make a phone call?

Hard to see - but several turtles sunning themselves on the logs

Limestone cliffs

More cliffs

The view from our anchorage Saturday morning

October 22-25, 2015 - Guntersville, Grand Harbor Marina

We spent two more days in Guntersville running errands and visiting with Jack and Jane.  Jane and I spent some time walking around the downtown stores of Guntersville.  The weather was great, so Jack got his jetski out and let us take it for a ride.  It felt great to ride a jetski again.  New Loopers Kit and Pam (Indigo Jayne) came into the marina Thursday.  They had just started the loop in Green Turtle.  We all had docktails together and then went out for dinner.  Saturday morning we said goodbye to Jane and Jack.  Hopefully they will make it to Mobile for our wake party.  We left Guntersville around 7:30 and made it through the lock with no waiting - a good start to the day.  We took two days to get to Grand Harbor Marina.  Saturday night we anchored out by the Wheeler Lock in a beautiful cove.  Early Sunday morning Jack saw 5 deer come down to the water for a drink.  We left our anchorage around 7:20 and by 10:00 we had made it through the Wheeler and Wilson Locks with very little waiting.  Since rain was headed our way (Tropical Storm Patricia), we decided to head into Grand Harbor Marina.  Once we were docked we met John and Cindy (Encore, also a 43' Hatteras).  We had docktails together and then toured both boats to check out the differences.  Since we were in a marina, we were able to plug in our cable and watch Sunday night TV.

Pam - Indigo Jayne

Great day for a jetski ride

Goodbye Jane and Jack

Leaving Guntersville - A little more color in the trees

Passing the painted rock - again

Getting the last view of the mountains

View from our anchorage on Wheeler Lake

Wilson Lake - more color

Last ride in the Wilson Lock - a 94 ft. lift

(the biggest lock we will be in)

It's starting to rain a little

I think Patricia has found us