Looper Fall Rendezvous......

rlehardt

Oct 17, 20223 min read

Last week we attended the AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association) Fall Rendezvous at Paris Landing in Tennessee. We spent 6 nights at the marina with about 50 other Looper boats. There were a total of 350 attendees, including current loopers, those planning to loop and several people who have already completed the loop (Gold Looper = done the complete loop once, Platinum Looper = done the complete loop at least twice; note: you can tell by the color of their burgee on the bow of their boat). We attended talks on the route from Paris Landing down to Mobile, crossing the gulf in Florida’s panhandle, traveling around Florida (or thru it via Lake Okeechobee) and up to Norfolk, VA. It was very informative and provided more details on places to stay/anchor along the way. We even attended a talk on a side trip to Bahamas….and are contemplating possibly doing that towards the end of February. Sad to say that Hurricane Ian (as of now) is forcing loopers to avoid much of the SW coast of Florida from just below Venice all the way down to just north of Marco Island. We went golfing Sunday afternoon at the Paris Landing Golf Course and had a lot of fun! Beautiful golf course but lost a bunch of balls in the woods….due to narrow fairways! The first night there we were invited to a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey by many of the Canadian Loopers – had a wonderful time (Robin made corn bread & cookies). We participated in Looper Crawls two of the days……where loopers open up their boats for attendees to tour. It’s a great way for looper planners to get an idea of what type of boat they may like to do the loop in. We met a ton a great people doing this. We left Friday morning and travelled almost 40 miles to Birdsong Marina and Campground, near Camden, TN. As they say……it’s a marina with character. Super nice people, but marina a little aged. We were able to use their courtesy car to restock our food supply and did laundry on Saturday. They invited the boaters to join them at the camp store to watch the Tennessee and Alabama football game….it was a lot of fun and a GREAT game. The TN Vols won for the first time in 15 years with a field goal in the last few seconds of the game……lots of excitement in the room! We left Birdsong this morning (Sunday) and are making our trek to Chattanooga with an anchorage at Swallow Bluff tonight. We’re still afloat, still married, and having a great time!