Fall Rendezvous ~ Changes for 2025

FALL RENDEZVOUS

November 2025 in Orange Beach, AL

EXCITING CHANGES COMING!

As many of you know, Joe Wheeler State Park has been the home of our Fall Rendezvous for many years. Many of you also know that we have been steadily outgrowing the facility. The challenge has been that there aren’t many places along the inland rivers that meet our criteria for a Rendezvous event. To lure us away from our beloved Joe Wheeler State Park, the event space needs to hold approximately 300-350 people with sleeping rooms nearby and a marina within walking distance that can offer us 40-50 slips for the week of our event. And all of it at a reasonable price. (That's not asking much, right?) Getting all of those puzzle pieces together has been a challenge.

But the sheer size of the Fall Rendezvous Wait List and the number of members we need to turn away disappointed had us determined to find a solution. With a little bit of out-of-the-box thinking, we decided we could change the date of the event to accommodate spaces either closer to Chicago, or further south on the rivers towards the Gulf, while still hosting the event where in-progress Loopers will be at that time.

The ability to move the event date on the calendar meant we were able to locate another facility that checked all the boxes.

In addition to meeting all of the criteria above, The Wharf is on the Loop route (Joe Wheeler is, technically, a side trip taking Loopers more than 50 miles off the main Loop route). The issues with the Wilson Lock this season made it even more imperative that we found a new space that was on the main route; as we all know, the lock isn’t getting any younger.

You’ve asked for it! We are listening! Another important reason to consider making this change is to give us more flexibility to offer the types of programming you are looking for at our events. At the Spring Rendezvous in Norfolk this past May, we held a line handling workshop on the docks during the afternoon Looper Crawls. Attendees loved it and asked for more! So, at the Fall Rendezvous two weeks ago, we did just that…we added round tables as well as additional hands-on demonstrations and gave attendees the ability to move from one to the other as they wished. But considering the space constraints at Wheeler, some of the sessions needed to be held outside (which is fine unless it rains or it’s uncomfortably cold). A larger facility in a warmer climate means more space (and nicer temps) for these activities.

More information will be available towards mid/late summer, and as always, registration will open approximately 90 days ahead of the event.

We hope you will join us in November 2025 at The Wharf!