What is the Great Loop?

For those of you that don't know the Great Loop is, I will briefly describe our route.

We will leave Red Wing, travel down the Mississippi to Cairo, IL where we turn left and travel a short distance on the Ohio River.  The Ohio connects to the Tennessee Tombigbee(TenTom) in the Kentucky Lakes.  We travel the TenTom to Mobile Bay.

We then travel across the gulf or the armpit of the FL panhandle(depending on weather and courage of the Captain and the Admiral) to reach our destination for January in Sarasota, FL.  Once we leave Sarasota we will travel through FL on the Okachobee Waterway.  We hope to take a side trip to the Bahamas in February/March weather permitting.  In March/April then we head up the east coast via the intercoastal waterways, through the Chesapeake Bay and into New York harbor ~ June.  We then go up the Hudson River, into Lake Champlain, through the St. Lawrence river, into Montreal, through the Trent Severn Waterway, into Georgian Bay and the north channel down into Lake Michigan through downtown Chicago, down the IL river to the Mississippi where we turn right and return to Red Wing.  Figuring 7,500 - 8,000 miles depending on how many side trips we take.