4/15/14 - 4/25/14   Houma LA is a great place to stop.   We know the dockmaster from previous stays.   He rides from home on his bike to collect $25 per night including electricity and pump-out.    We shook hands like old pals.    We met a couple on a fairly large sailboat that was registered in Deer Lodge, Montana.   You can apparently register a boat wherever you want, regardless of whether there's enough water there to float it.    Anchored out the next night on Lake Salvadore.    Lots of noise from airboats, presumably on tourist swamp tours, but that quieted with evening.  

   We planned to stop for a couple of days to visit friends that we hadn't seen since the loop in 2011.   They live in a swamp on the Tickfaw river which is northwest of Lake Pontchartrain.    If you look in the encyclopedia under "Cajun Hospitality" their picture is in there.    We stayed three days and they fed us three squares a day, took us to West Marine (twice), Walmart and the grocery store.   The highlights were "Shrimp and Grits" and Chicago style deep dish pizza with homemade crust.   Nice folks.   We said goodbye and two days later we were across Lake Pontchartrain.and back on the Intracoastal Canal headed east.
    Mississippi Sound is basically 90 miles of open water punctuated with a few barrier islands.   It can really be uncomfortable if the weather turns bad on you but we had a great crossing including a night at anchor off of Horn Island, a National Seashore.   At the eastern end is Dauphine Island, Alabama where we stopped at the marina for the evening.    Dauphine Island has some nice attractions including two Civil War forts and an aquarium but we wanted to take a pause.    Tomorrow we start north into Mobile Bay.
   

    4/1/14 - 4/14/14    We planned on taking the Confetti up to Lake Michigan and to leave it there as our summer escape from Texas summers.  Our projected departure date was April 1st but a couple of bad weather days and a string of mechanical difficulties (aft head pump froze up, fresh water pump quit, galley lights stopped lighting) all seemed to be conspiring to prevent our leaving.  Thank you Mike and Linda for the taxi service through the false starts.   As it turned out, all those events were fortunate because they were fairly easily overcome at the home dock but would have been practically impossible to remedy after we were already underway.   We stopped in Seabrook Shipyard to get the Confetti's bottom pressure washed and scrapped then waited a day at the dock for an extremely windy day to pass.   On April 9th we finally set out on a perfect travel day and ran the length of Galveston Bay to enter the Intercoastal Canal.   We docked at Stingaree Marina on the Bolivar Peninsula.   We walked 1/2 mile to a Valero for a $4.00 half gallon of milk and then half way back when we felt our steam running low.   I thumbed down a local in a pickup who trucked us the last 1/4 mile.   Funny how you forget how far a mile is when you're on shoe leather.
    The 50 miles between Bolivar and Port Arthur is almost totally undeveloped because it is so low and flat that it is an unsuitable dwelling for anything except many varieties of birds and the occasional cow.    We enjoy the birds (and the cows).
    The boat was performing well.   The new navigation software on the laptop with it's Bluetooth GPS was working great (Thanks Johnny!).   We anchored at Shell Island just shy of the Louisiana state line and the newly rebuilt windlass pulled up the anchor the next morning without a problem.
    Bow Tie Marina near Lake Charles is a nice place to stop.   It has reasonably priced fuel and is walking distance to a Dollar store.  It's in the shadow of the L'Auberge Casino but we didn't donate.   We wanted to leave early because the first obstacle of the day was a lock that reportedly was closed for maintenance.   It turned out the lock master was cordial to pleasure boats and he passed us through with very little delay.   Later an alligator was sighted entering the water from the bank.   It reminded me of the Tarzan movies.    We were now 160 miles from the Mississippi and we stopped a day in Intracoastal City, to wait out a line of thunderstorms.   It's a nice commercial dock with WiFi but the work boat traffic goes by 24/7 so we were waked and rumbled occasionally in the night.   Next stop Houma, LA.

11/19/11 -  11/30/11   We left Dog River Marina and completed the Great Loop at 11:30 in southern Mobile Bay.   We toasted with coffee and changed the burgee (the small flag on the bow) to our gold looper flag signifying that we had completed the Great Loop.  Now all we had to do was go 600 miles west to home.   We crossed Mississippi Sound in two days anchoring at Cat Island and Rabbit Island Louisiana.   We crossed the Mississippi River with it's two locks and headed for Houma Louisiana City Dock.   This stretch of the Inter-coastal Canal is flat and swampy with few turns and long straight waterways.   We traveled several more days through Morgan City, Port Arthur, and finally into Offats Bayou in southern Galveston Bay.  We had a very fortunate weather window and made it up the length of the bay amid heavy ship traffic and into Seabrook Marina on November 30.   In ten and a half months we had traveled 7251 miles.  We had a great feeling of accomplishment but I was ready for a change back to hard ground.   Lace wanted to stay on the boat and never go home.  Of course we did go home and even now are working on a staggering to-do list.   We don't know what we'll do with the boat.   What we do know is that we are going to stay close for another year and then maybe we'll do it all again.   There will still be a lot to see:  Padre Island, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and lots of places in Canada that we missed.    For right now it's good to be home!

11/6/11 - 11/18/11   We were again southbound in the Tombigbee River.   We saw a fellow in a sail boat built from sticks, plastic bottles and blue tarps.   We passed him very slowly so as not to upset his fragile craft.   A couple of nights later, as we were anchoring in a very secluded lake just off the river, Lace saw a bear.  We scrambled to get the binoculars but he ran into the woods and we never saw him again.   We later found that this part of Alabama has a sizable bear population.   We were now approaching the old "14 mile" railroad swing bridge that was under renovation.   The new bridge was already in place and as we rounded a corner there was the old bridge span coming up river on two barges.   It took up nearly the entire river width but after a radio chat with  one of the tug boat captains we were able to pass.   Unfortunately when we got to the new bridge, it had stopped functioning and couldn't be opened.   We anchored in the river to wait for repairs.   It was just as well because it was cold and raining and not a good travel day anyway.   The next morning wasn't much better but the bridge opened and we passed under and made our way down to Mobile, Alabama.  Mobile Bay was pretty choppy but we made our way down to Dog River Marina expecting to stay a few days until the weather cleared up.   Over the next seven days we re-provisioned, did some maintenance and with the help of friends' rental cars visited the battleship Alabama on permanent display in Mobile, visited the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola and visited Fort Gaines, a civil war fort on Dauphin Island.   Even though we had not quite completed the loop, we combined forces with a couple that was about to complete their loop, and hosted a champagne happy hour on the Confetti.  By one count we had twenty loopers on the boat to toast our completion.

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.

10/2/11 -  10/13/11    The Tennessee River does not flow as fast as the tributaries of the Mississippi so the travel was much more relaxed.   Deciduous forests beginning to turn their fall colors covered the limestone river banks.  Anchorages were easy to find so we anchored several nights on our way to Grand Harbor Marina for Lace's birthday.   The marina is a big one and it had several loaner cars for transient boaters.   There happened to be five other looper boats there that day and everyone went into town for supper at Freddy T's.  A good time was had by all.  At this point, we decided to depart from the usual looper route and take a side trip to Chattanooga Tennessee.  The first lock was the Wilson which has the largest lift east of the Rockies at 84 feet.  We were going up-river which means we entered the lock and after they closed the gates, they added water to the chamber until we reached the level of the river above.  The locks were mainly built for commercial traffic so the turbulence inside as they filled it tossed our relatively small boat around quite a bit, but we managed to control it without damage to life or limb.  Over the next five days we anchored up in increasingly beautiful surroundings as we neared the Appalachian Mountains.  We really enjoyed Chattanooga.  In fact, Lace believes it is her favorite city of any we have visited.  The city is spanking clean, they have a world class aquarium, they have free public transportation, and there are sculptures mounted on sidewalks throughout the city.  The city was of course made famous by the Glenn Miller Band in 1941 with it's recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The song refers to a railroad route which took passengers from the eastern states to the southern states beginning in the late 1800's. We spent two days there.  Lace got a hair cut, we visited a once-a-week farmers market, got groceries at an upscale organic grocery store, and went to the I-Max theater for a 3-D movie about orphaned elephants and orangutans.

9/22/11 -  10/1/11   As we entered the Mississippi, the first landmark was the St. Louis Gateway Arch, a monument to westward expansion completed in 1965.   I had been up in the arch years before and St. Louis is not easy to visit, so we didn't stop.  A little further down the Mississippi is Hoppies Marine Services at Kimmswick, Missouri.  I believe I read somewhere that Hoppie Hopkins is descended from one of the last lamp lighters whose job it was to go around and light the navigation lamps on the river.  Although it is just a rather haphazard arrangement of floating barges tethered to the river bank, it is a favorite stop for loopers because it is the last fuel stop for a couple of hundred miles and Fern Hopkins gives a daily briefing on the latest river conditions.  The next evening we tied up to the lock wall at the Kaskaskia River where there were already 9 other boats tied.  Great happy hour!  The Mississippi River is extraordinarily turbulent in places and it takes continuous attention to steer the boat.  The next couple of days were rainy and foggy so we found an anchorage behind a wing dam and waited it out.  Wing dams are rock structures that radiate from the shoreline to keep the channel deep and navigable.  The next day we turned into the Ohio river at Cairo, Illinois (Unlike the Egyptian capital it is pronounced kay-row).  The Ohio River was even swifter than the Mississippi and since it flows into the Mississippi we were now going against the current.  At one point, as we were passing a dam, the boat actually stopped briefly which means the current was between 6 and 7 miles per hour.  A short time on the Ohio and then an even shorter time on the Cumberland brought us into Barkley Lake.  The starboard engine was running hot so we took a day at Green Turtle Bay Marina to change a water pump impeller and we were off again and into the Tennessee River.

9/12/11 -  9/21/11  Our tour through Illinois began with Joliet.  The free city dock was walking distance to a Harrahs Casino so we went over for breakfast.  I won about 40 bucks at a quarter slot and we left with our winnings.  Another couple of days at anchor and we landed at Ottawa City.  The city dock is suppose to accommodate about two and a half boats but more arrived later and we ended up with seven boats "rafted up".  We went to the grocery store and were given a ride back to the boat by the former owner.  He ended up ferrying several other boaters to and from the store.  He said his wife still worked at the store and he enjoyed doing it.  We were beginning to see an increase in commercial traffic as we approached the Upper Mississippi river and tug boats pushing 15 barges were not uncommon.  Also we saw a LOT of Asian Carp, an invasive species that has taken over the Illinois.  In fact we passed through a section of the river that has an electrified barrier to prevent them from passing into the great lakes.  They have an instinctive escape behavior that makes them jump out of the water when boat motors are nearby.  People in small open boats have been injured  when the fish jump out and hit them.  We talked to a boater that had to throw seven overboard after one "attack".  Anchorages were now harder to find because the river level was low.   Several more days at anchor and a tie up at Havana and Hardin and we found ourselves at Grafton, the gateway to the Mississippi.

9/10/11 -  9/11/11   At last, after dodging weather for weeks on Lake Michigan, we made our final crossing from Michigan City, Indiana to Chicago.  I was determined not to pay $100/night for a slip but while investigating mooring balls (much less expensive but then you have to pay a water taxi to get ashore), the guy on the phone said "Would you like to stay on the 'wall'?".   It was mid priced so I told him we'd take a look.   It turned out to be a great move.   The tie-up was next to the sidewalk along the harbor, it was walking distance to downtown, and the people watching was off the chart.   We arrived on a Saturday afternoon so we were present for the weekly meeting of the "Poor Man's Yacht Club".  This assemblage on the "wall" of several boats with their members, a couple of buckets of chicken wings and an unlimited supply of beer was apparently formed as a protest to the membership fee of the two yacht clubs on either side.  We walked to the Navy Pier and then came back to the boat and watched a top-notch fireworks display that was in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Nine-Eleven.   We got up Sunday morning, walked through Millennium Park to Michigan Avenue, and went to church at the Forth Presbyterian, a cathedral built in 1871.  The sanctuary was jaw dropping.  The river route to Mobile Alabama begins with a tour of  downtown Chicago.  We went under 40 old bridges that are so low that we had to fold down the radar mast on Confetti to be able to get under them.

8/21/11 - 9/8/11   Saint Ignace is a nice tourist town just before you turn into Lake Michigan.  We saw more fudge shops than one can count and the usual local art.  We did enjoy a tour of a retired ice breaker ship that was used to clear a path for freighters.  Maybe the center of tourist attention in Lake Michigan is Macinac Island (pronounced mac-in-aw (but why?)).  The only ways to get there are by ferry or private boat.  It has no cars so transportation is provided by several hundred horses or bicycles.  After talking to friends that had gone there we decided to bypass it knowing we would miss overpriced meals and more fudge shops.  In the summer time the prevailing winds on Lake Michigan are moderate and from the southwest then they shift into the northeast and get stronger and harder to predict.  Over the next three weeks we found ourselves dodging into anchorages or marinas waiting for the weather to change so we made little progress.  When we did move it was usually in marginal conditions and at least once we encountered 5 foot waves.  We were not enjoying Lake Michigan.  The highlight was when we got to Saint Joseph.  We wanted to spend some time in Chicago when we eventually got there but it is expensive to park the boat near downtown.  When we got to St. Joseph we expected to be trapped by high winds for several days so we decided to take the train into Chicago, an adventure in itself.  We took the two hour ride in, got aboard a topless bus, jumped off at the Art Institute for a couple of hours, got back on and finished a very entertaining two hour tour of downtown Chicago.  We then got back on the train and got back to the boat in time to feed the cats.  A great day.