Americas Great Loop
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850-1894
This is our new adventure. For some years, my husband Dick and I have planned to buy a boat that will be suitable for living aboard for months at a time and travel around America’s Great Loop.
The Great Loop includes the Intracoastal Waterway on the east coast of America, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Intracoastal Waterway from New Orleans to the Gulf side of Florida and around the Florida Keys to rejoin the ICW northbound.
There are variations in the route in a number of locations, and one can do this in any direction and in increments, or one long journey. It is our intention to travel anti-clockwise, and to do the route in increments.
We began in St Petersburg, Florida, when we bought our Endeavour trawler catamaran. We spent a few weeks early in 2017 bringing Nine Lives from the west coast of Florida through the Okeechobee Waterway to the Atlantic, and then up the ICW to our home in South Carolina. In summer of 2017 we travelled north as far as Oswego, New York, and then returned to Hilton Head.
I include images in this section of places that we see from the boat, and also places that one may visit as part of the journey.
Click on an image to see a larger version and read a little about the subject. You will have the option to buy or license the image on each page.
- https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Winona-sunrise-2-375x290.jpg

Stunning red sky at dawn on the Upper Mississippi River
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tennessee-River0182-375x290.jpg

Sunrise on the Tennessee River at Swallow Bluff Island
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tennessee-River0179-375x290.jpg

Autumn on the Tennessee River
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tennessee-River0178-375x290.jpg

Bald Cypress on the Tennessee River
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tennessee-River0172-375x290.jpg

Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Tennessee River, Kentucky
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tennessee-River0171-375x290.jpg

Pine Bluff, Tennessee River
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/St-Louis-375x290.jpg

Gateway Arch, St Louis
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Pittsburgh0185-375x290.jpg

Pittsburgh skyline and the Andy Warhol Bridge from the Allegheny River, Pennsylvania
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Morning-mist0014-375x290.jpg

Morning mist on the Upper Mississippi RIver
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Hudson-balloon-2-375x290.jpg

Hot Air Balloon
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Hilton-Head-beach0048-375x290.jpg

Shrimp Trawler fishing
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Fort-Donelson0150-375x290.jpg

Fort Donelson, Dover, Tennessee
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Fishing-on-Kentucky-Lake0019-375x290.jpg

Fishing on Kentucky Lake
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Cumberland-River0170-375x290.jpg

Pelicans on the Cumberland River in Autumn
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Cinncinati-docktails-nibbles-375x290.jpg

All ready for docktails
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Cincinnati0196-375x290.jpg

Cincinnati from the Ohio River, Ohio
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Birdsong-Creek0018-375x290.jpg

Great egret fishing in Birdsong Creek, Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/wildflowers0541-375x290.jpg

Wildflowers in late summer
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Waterford2915-375x290.jpg

Waterford, New York
Americas Great Loop - https://lensandbrushes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/St-Louis1150-375x290.jpg

St Louis from the Mississippi River
Americas Great Loop