Stories from the Great Loop
Boating Stories
Crossing my Wake
it's emotional, even for L.T.
Redd Hallow Campground
Land Between the Lakes, KY
September 22, 2019
Redd Hallow Campground
St. Louis, MO
Cape Girardeau, IL
Louisville, KY
L.T. posted the following on the AGLCA forum (American Great Loop Crusiers' Association). For my non Looper friends, I'll explain some of the terms L.T. used. Crossing my wake is Looper talk for getting back to where you started the Great Loop. Captains and Admirals are husbands and wives or wives and husbands as the case may be. Going Gold or Gold refers to the gold colored burgee (small flag) a Looper is entitled to fly by completing the Loop. Hoppies is an iconic marina since 1934 (that has seen better days) on the Mississippi River below St. Louis. The Rideau is another Canadian canal connecting Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario and The Inside Passage is a water route between Seattle and Skagway.
Hey guys and girls! Remember me, L.T. Looper, the ‘cute’ little C-Dory with my yellow kayak buddy on my roof and my Captain’s bike on my transom? I crossed my wake today at Redd Hallow campground in Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. I really enjoyed sharing the waterways with you over the past nine months. I know you big boys were only teasing me about my size and you smaller ones were just swell as we gossiped about Captains and Admirals! I even got to know a cute little canoe a few days ago who’s paddling the length of the Mississippi. Although she got to sleep on the beach, I’m still saying that for once, I wasn’t the smallest on the dock, at least at Hoppies.
I tried my best to stay out of the way of those big freighter guys at Mobile, Gainesville, Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, New York City, and of all places, Albany, NY. I know there’re just doing their job but I’m sure glad they couldn’t follow me on the ICW. Same thing for those low slung tugs with their pants down near their props. I loved how they flexed their big muscles pushing all those barges up the Mississippi, but their turbulence sometimes made me want to throw up.
Don’t ask me about those power showoffs in Florida who tried to ruffle my skirts with too much ego and too few brains. They were more bully than boat, and certainly not Loopers, who take care of each other so well. I flipped them a bird sometimes, but I doubt they could see it, or me, through their smoked glass windows.
My Captain says that I’ve been even better than he expected, whatever that means. He’s going to reward me by taking me with him to Lake Powell in the spring and maybe to explore the Inside Passage in a year or two. Sometimes at night I hear him dreaming about going back to some of the places on the Loop we didn’t have enough time to explore. It’d sure be nice to see more of those pretty anchorages in Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Maybe I can talk him into the Rideau so I can flirt with those lock boys like I did on the Trent Severn. Should be easy, he can flirt with the lock girls.
It’s been a good voyage. We’ve overcome my plumbing issues and gas belching when Captain fills me up and his learning curve, as well as some others too embarrassing to admit. So much has gone so well that I can’t help thinking Someone is watching out for Captain and me. But I think Captain still blames me for that snake in his bed.
I kid Captain about how old fashioned he is and not doing any social media. I had to threaten him with stalling out to get to post this. But he has written a bunch of stories about our trip and posted them on LTLooper.org. They make me smile, maybe because I know him so well. But they might make you smile too.
L.T. Looper
An adventurous, proud, Gold Looping 23’ C-Dory Venture
And for the final time, named for my Captain’s kids, not ‘little’!