Boating while wearing sandals & shorts is our ideal, but here in Idaho our sandals & shorts season is only a few weeks long. September is the nicest boating month of the year but it’s not always sandals & shorts weather. Lake Powell in September with its 90 degree days is great sandals & shorts boating weather, but by October it begins to cool down there also. To extend our warm weather boating season requires movement by trailer. For 2014 we are planning to extend our summer and wonder if there are other C-brats that would also like to extend their warm weather boating season.
The Five “W”s for a C-Brat Grand Fall Tour
WHAT: A C-brats fall of the year two-month “boater-homing” cruise.
WHEN: Mid September to mid-November.
WHERE: Warm central southern states. We start at the Lake Powell Gathering in mid September, in October head east on I-40 and launch on the Tennessee River near Knoxville, TN. It is 371 miles downriver past Chattanooga through five dams and locks to Joe Wheeler State Park near Rogersville, Alabama which should take about two weeks. We then trailer I-65 south to Mobile Bay where we again launch and head east on the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to the Gulf C-brat gathering in Apalachicola, Florida. Enjoy the Gulf Gathering, eat some great oysters and spend some time in the warm waters of the Gulf Coast in Apalachicola Bay or St Joe Bay. About mid-November submit to the inevitable, unpack the real shoes and long pants and head home for Thanksgiving.
WHY: 1) To be warm and extend our boating season; 2) to help one another find our way around new parts of our very big country and to experience a different boating world; 3) to share information to help us all on the daily decisions that occur in a tour like this; 4) to share with rig shuttles, and most important: 5) to have fun.
WHO: Any C-Brat who can find the time. I expect boats will be joining and leaving at many points during our journey.
DISCUSSION:
Two Bears did parts of this tour in 2011 and visited parts of the East and Gulf Coasts in fall of 2012, but in 2013 mostly remained at home. As the weather in Idaho cooled this fall we realized we were missing the extended sandals & shorts boating season. When Idaho daily high temperatures were in the mid 40s our weather map told us Nashville and Chattanooga were still in the 80s. A need has become apparent: extend our summer! We suspect there are other northern C-brats who would like to extend their summer and perhaps some southern C-brats would join us and share local information about places to launch, places to visit, to anchor, marinas to visit or to avoid, where to leave rigs, help shuttle rigs & etc. I expect that only a few boats would be able to do the whole trip, but others might join us for parts of it. If we get as many as 10 boats the logistics of traveling together becomes a nightmare, so if that many did show I’d expect that we’d break into smaller groups of two or three boats. I don’t see myself or anyone else acting as “Wagon Boss,” giving daily marching orders, but instead some lively discussions of alternatives and each of us making his/her own determination on where and when and how fast they will travel. For example, the Two Bears Admiral has informed the Captain that there will be a diversion off I-40 in Amarillo, Texas to visit a quilt shop. On our boating route there are some great attractions such as the Aquarium in Chattanooga, which with other attractions calls for a delay in our downriver travel. I expect most boats will do those kinds of diversions and also will have need for some private times. I think we should set some key dates/ locations where we can touch base and compare notes. My hope is that several of us can join forces and have more fun together than we would going it alone.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? At this point we have lots of options. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. Send me a PM with your home email address and I’ll send you a multi page discussion of my thoughts of the proposed route, times, locations, books and other resources I’ve found and some of the alternatives we should consider and the unknowns that we need to resolve before starting next fall. Depending on how many boats respond will determine how involved our planning needs to be. Once we have a set of times and locations we can post the overall plan on this site so that other C-brats might join us, if only for a few days.
Chuck
The Five “W”s for a C-Brat Grand Fall Tour
WHAT: A C-brats fall of the year two-month “boater-homing” cruise.
WHEN: Mid September to mid-November.
WHERE: Warm central southern states. We start at the Lake Powell Gathering in mid September, in October head east on I-40 and launch on the Tennessee River near Knoxville, TN. It is 371 miles downriver past Chattanooga through five dams and locks to Joe Wheeler State Park near Rogersville, Alabama which should take about two weeks. We then trailer I-65 south to Mobile Bay where we again launch and head east on the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to the Gulf C-brat gathering in Apalachicola, Florida. Enjoy the Gulf Gathering, eat some great oysters and spend some time in the warm waters of the Gulf Coast in Apalachicola Bay or St Joe Bay. About mid-November submit to the inevitable, unpack the real shoes and long pants and head home for Thanksgiving.
WHY: 1) To be warm and extend our boating season; 2) to help one another find our way around new parts of our very big country and to experience a different boating world; 3) to share information to help us all on the daily decisions that occur in a tour like this; 4) to share with rig shuttles, and most important: 5) to have fun.
WHO: Any C-Brat who can find the time. I expect boats will be joining and leaving at many points during our journey.
DISCUSSION:
Two Bears did parts of this tour in 2011 and visited parts of the East and Gulf Coasts in fall of 2012, but in 2013 mostly remained at home. As the weather in Idaho cooled this fall we realized we were missing the extended sandals & shorts boating season. When Idaho daily high temperatures were in the mid 40s our weather map told us Nashville and Chattanooga were still in the 80s. A need has become apparent: extend our summer! We suspect there are other northern C-brats who would like to extend their summer and perhaps some southern C-brats would join us and share local information about places to launch, places to visit, to anchor, marinas to visit or to avoid, where to leave rigs, help shuttle rigs & etc. I expect that only a few boats would be able to do the whole trip, but others might join us for parts of it. If we get as many as 10 boats the logistics of traveling together becomes a nightmare, so if that many did show I’d expect that we’d break into smaller groups of two or three boats. I don’t see myself or anyone else acting as “Wagon Boss,” giving daily marching orders, but instead some lively discussions of alternatives and each of us making his/her own determination on where and when and how fast they will travel. For example, the Two Bears Admiral has informed the Captain that there will be a diversion off I-40 in Amarillo, Texas to visit a quilt shop. On our boating route there are some great attractions such as the Aquarium in Chattanooga, which with other attractions calls for a delay in our downriver travel. I expect most boats will do those kinds of diversions and also will have need for some private times. I think we should set some key dates/ locations where we can touch base and compare notes. My hope is that several of us can join forces and have more fun together than we would going it alone.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? At this point we have lots of options. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. Send me a PM with your home email address and I’ll send you a multi page discussion of my thoughts of the proposed route, times, locations, books and other resources I’ve found and some of the alternatives we should consider and the unknowns that we need to resolve before starting next fall. Depending on how many boats respond will determine how involved our planning needs to be. Once we have a set of times and locations we can post the overall plan on this site so that other C-brats might join us, if only for a few days.
Chuck
