Rogersville, Alabama

Joe Wheeler State Park Marina in Rogersville, Alabama is where we’ll call “home” for the next month.  It is 60 miles upstream on the Tennessee River past our turn to go down the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  It is also the location for the annual Looper Rendezvous.  There are already a ton of Loopers here to stay for a month (the event goes from Oct. 24-28).  

Pictured here is the main building with convention center, hotel and restaurant (our boat is in the middle).

 

 The boat pictured here at the marina took over 19 years to build and was quite impressive.

 The pool was gorgeous…but cold!  We all tried hard to stay in it, but even on the 90 degree days it was still rather refreshing!  It’s been unseasonably warm here all summer and fall (over 90 degrees every day we’ve been here and will continue through the week).

 Kids loved running through the water spouts.  They made friends at different times over the weekend which was fun to see. 

 We walked by the convention center one evening and they were having a square dancing event.  They were insistent that we come in to watch and had the girls up there doing the electric slide and river dance. 

 The two sisters pictured here were especially nice to the girls and introduced them to other kids their age that night. 

 Out for a dinghy ride and saw this ideal location for a picture. Look closely to find the girls.

 The girls didn’t even hesitate for us to leave them on this rock. 

 The kids all worked hard this week with studying so we wanted to make this weekend extra special.  The weather has been so nice that we took a dinghy down to Athens and swam in the warm water. 

 All day long we saw these “school of fish” swimming by the hundreds. Hard to get a good picture of it, but they were little and would swim in the same direction constantly. Morgan caught two of them with a net and each time Jaxon said, "we got a Schoolfish"!

 

At 2:00 am Sun. morning I heard a bucket drop.  I ran to the cockpit of the boat to check it out and a raccoon was staring back at me. After over thirty minutes of trying to get him out of the boat, he left after a big meal.  The kids four little baby turtle pets were eaten along with all the grasshoppers we caught that day for bait.  It was a sad morning telling them the news, but showing them the videos and pictures gave them a little laugh. 

 Sunday we had to make a fun day out of rough morning.  We brought the boat out of the slip and anchored in the middle of Wilson Lake for yet another 90 degree day of playing in the water....complete with water and BB guns, water balloon launching, music, a picnic on the bow, lot’s of swimming, fishing, etc.   

This week we plan to rent a car and take in the sights of lower Tennessee and upper Alabama area. Next posting will be on Monday!  Thank you all for your support and continuing to watch my blog!! 
This map is a request from Carrie!  Here's the map so you can follow where we're at! I know its tough to see, but hope it works!!