Go West . . .

. . .it turns out Horace Greeley might not be the author, and John B. L. Soule, who may have been, had some harsh ideas about people.

I use it as explanation for something new I’m doing.  Today I head over toward the pushpin to the right . . . Narragansett Bay, where I board a small passenger ship that has hired me as onboard lecturer.  By July 12, we expect to be in Chicago via the route indicated.  I am thrilled!  The red dots are overnight stops, and the greenish ones are daytime stops for such tasks as lowering and raising the wheelhouse.

Here was Grande Mariner along the west side of Manhattan back in May 2016,

and here are two shots of her sister vessel farther upstate taken in 2013 and 2014.

The challenge I’m giving myself is to post each day of the westward journey, using photos from that day.  Note that these ships with telescoping wheelhouse are truly Eriemax, designed to carry 100 souls along inland waterways on weeks-long voyages.  My job is to present lectures every other day on topics ranging from wars along these waterways to 19th century canal fever to the storied and obscure cast of characters who lived along the waterways (e.g.., Seeger, Fulton, Rockefeller, Freed, Stanton, Tecumseh, Brock, Hanks) . . .    to –of course–the variety of shipping working there.

In a way, it’s a 21st century version of the D & C route for which there’s the poster below.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, just know I’m hoping to be somewhere along that route.

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