10/14/11 - 11/5/11 After visiting Chattanooga, TN we're back on the Tennessee River west bound toward Wheeler State Park at Rogersville Alabama. We were a little ahead of schedule so we took our time and enjoyed the fall colors and the wildlife (lots of Bald Eagles) We arrived in Rogersville on 10/20/11, three days early for the America's Great Loop Cruisers Association Rendezvous but we enjoyed the park and took long walks in the woods. Lots of deer. When the conference got started there were 53 boats from all over the U.S. and Canada and over 250 people attending. At this point in our journey we had already taken the boat over 6000 miles so we didn't expect to benefit from the educational part as much as previous meetings but we found the classes useful. Of course we enjoyed seeing old friends and made some new ones. That was probably the last time that we will see some of those folks and we were sad to see it come to an end. We were back on the river toward the Tenn-Tom Waterway which is near the intersection of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. The Tennessee Valley Authority built hydroelectric dams on the river to supply electricity to the nearby communities but I was surprised to see the number of coal fired power plants we passed. We saw many barges piled with coal. We were southbound now and as we began to approach the Gulf of Mexico, we felt the end of our trip growing near.
