Welp, we’ve done it again. We crossed the finish line of another major ride and we had a good time in doing it. Some of us are saying that it’s a favorite ride of ours, and considering the adventures we’ve had over the years, that’s high praise. The Chesapeake and Ohio Trail and the Great Allegheny Passage are world class trails, and the Katy Trail across Missouri is nothing to scoff at, so for us to end this journey as happy as we are speaks volumes. It speaks to the community that rallied behind us, it speaks to the biological beauty that graced us and it speaks to the technological ingenuity that emblemizes just what we can do as a species: we can look at a landscape and say that we want a watercourse across this. That’s ultimately what the Erie Canal is, and that is ultimately what brought us here.
I think that aside from economic and military might, aside from commercial freight and what this canal has meant in dollars and cents, we sense what this canal has meant to the region in terms of human connection, in terms of tying different villages and towns and cities together. I think that this is the biggest strength in the canal, and I think that this is what New Yorkers take pride in, down to rebuilding the bridges true to character. Over the past couple of days, the newest drawbridges have stayed historically accurate, even if it might not make sense in this modern age. What do we have to gain from keeping true to where we have been compared to the paths that we could newly forge? I suppose that it’s important that we do it from the ground up, from contemplating a new trail to travel to the practicality and logistics behind it all.
I’ll take community connection and feeling a culture as we travel through New York over modern conveniences and sheer economics. The Erie Canalway Trail provided us culture, from a woman we’ve never met buying us dinner to a man we don’t know handing us a hundred dollar bill. From a brewery giving us a case of beer and six shirts to people cheering us on from boats and from the canalside. From notable state employees, including the Director of the NYS Canal Corporation to a dedicated woman who is the Disability Advocate of the Year, to kind employees and owners of coffee shops and breweries, we delighted in meeting you all and for your assistance along the way, we are forever grateful.
We found what, I suppose, we were looking for: an adventure, beauty, plants and birds and mammals to marvel at, and most importantly, a community of people who care what it means to travel through this world whether or not (and we emphasize NOT) we have every physical faculty at our means. And each and every one of us, whether we like it or not, are going to reach a point where we can no longer do what we once did.
To the State of New York, you opened my mind. It’s not just the state that hosts New York City and Manhattan and The Bronx and all that craziness, it’s the state where muskrats and chipmunks, snakes and frogs crossed my path as I traveled its breadth. It’s the state where local citizens take pride in what their regions stand behind and name their breweries and bakeries and ice cream shops after. It’s a state that spans wide geographic variability, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and all of their temperaments.
We are tired. We’ve traveled a lot over the last two weeks. This isn’t the final goodbye. But it is a note of appreciation that we will build upon during the coming days. For days and days. Thank you.
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