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Dr. David Scott, a local radiologist, is traveling America's Great Loop, a network of rivers and lakes in eastern North America Date published: 8/21/2010
BY JIM HALL Dr. David Scott will dock at a marina in Alabama next week, lock up Traveller, his boat, and head for home in Fredericksburg. Scott is more than halfway through America's Great Loop, the 6,000-mile circuit of the waterways of eastern North America. Behind him are the Hudson, the St. Lawrence, the Straits of Mackinac, the Mississippi and the Tennessee. Still to come are the Tombigbee, the Black Warrior, Lake Okeechobee and the Intracoastal Waterway. Life as a "looper" suits him, Scott said, but for now it's time to go back to work. He's due back in September at Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg, where he's worked as a radiologist for 36 years. But he's "partly retired" from the medical practice, so come October, he'll return to Joe Wheeler State Park, where's he has tied up Traveller, and resume the adventure that began last year. Scott departed Port Kinsale in Westmoreland County in May 2009 and headed north to Canada. His boat, named for Robert E. Lee's horse, is a 40-footer Express by Cruisers Yachts, with dual 370-horsepower Volvo Penta engines. With a little luck and only a few mechanical problems, he completed the first leg of the journey in four months, stopping at North Shore Marina in Spring Lake Michigan. There he stored Traveller for the winter at a heated indoor facility. He returned to the boat this summer for the second leg of his trip. Since July, he has explored the waters of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. He's learned what countless "loopers" before him have learned, that if you have the time and money, you can travel this country through an interconnected network of rivers and lakes and return home months later without ever having taken your boat out of the water. RAISED ON THE RIVER In a sense, Scott, 68, was born to travel the blue highways. When he was growing up, his family had a cottage on Aquia Creek in Stafford County. His father, Dr. David Scott Jr., a Fredericksburg internist, built a rowboat, with a 3.2-horsepower engine, and let David and his younger brother, Paul Scott, explore the nearby waters.
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