Just Like Lewis and Clark
I sojourned down the mighty Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn with some
acquaintances this past Saturday. For those of you who do not live in NYC I
apologize for not having photographs of our adventure, but I didn't bring a
camera; I feared that it might get wet. Little did I know water would be the
least of my concerns. Let's put this way, the Gowanus Canal has yet to be
gentrified. Let me put it this way if 40 is the new 30 and Brooklyn is the new
Manhattan then the Gowanus Canal is the new whatever body of water runs through
Chernobyl.
As we paddled our canoes south toward the New York Bay we passed the historic sites of many a burnt-out, abandoned factory. We saw the underside of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It was all very romantic. I know I'm not the only one to think so as I saw a number of used condoms floating alongside me. I could just imagine a young gentleman escorting his amore down to the banks of the Gowanus, so they could make love under the headlights of the non-stop, outerborough traffic. I think my boyfriend Jack is waiting for our tenth anniversary before he takes me there on a date. The Gowanus should be saved for a special occasion.
I've rafted a number of rivers in the United States: The Deshutes, the Delaware, The Black River, the Colorado River, and a couple of others, but only the Gowanus has its own recognizable smell. The others uniformly smell like rivers. The Gowanus has its own special scent that I'm sure I'd be able to identify blindfolded. However, I don't know that you'd be able to find a container durable enough to hold the water for our scent test.
The Gowanus lacks rapids but not excitement. A little bit of water splashed from a paddle and headed straight toward my eye. I only had seconds to bob out of the way before I was forever blinded. My avoidance technique had to be precise to ensure my bobbing and weaving did not tip the boat sending me and my canoe companion overboard. If we had landed in the water---Instant Cancer!
Yes, it was a crazy trip Saturday. It was fun in some ways and yet utterly disgusting. At least I found it was interesting enough to write about. Now, I can write the trip off my taxes.
As we paddled our canoes south toward the New York Bay we passed the historic sites of many a burnt-out, abandoned factory. We saw the underside of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It was all very romantic. I know I'm not the only one to think so as I saw a number of used condoms floating alongside me. I could just imagine a young gentleman escorting his amore down to the banks of the Gowanus, so they could make love under the headlights of the non-stop, outerborough traffic. I think my boyfriend Jack is waiting for our tenth anniversary before he takes me there on a date. The Gowanus should be saved for a special occasion.
I've rafted a number of rivers in the United States: The Deshutes, the Delaware, The Black River, the Colorado River, and a couple of others, but only the Gowanus has its own recognizable smell. The others uniformly smell like rivers. The Gowanus has its own special scent that I'm sure I'd be able to identify blindfolded. However, I don't know that you'd be able to find a container durable enough to hold the water for our scent test.
The Gowanus lacks rapids but not excitement. A little bit of water splashed from a paddle and headed straight toward my eye. I only had seconds to bob out of the way before I was forever blinded. My avoidance technique had to be precise to ensure my bobbing and weaving did not tip the boat sending me and my canoe companion overboard. If we had landed in the water---Instant Cancer!
Yes, it was a crazy trip Saturday. It was fun in some ways and yet utterly disgusting. At least I found it was interesting enough to write about. Now, I can write the trip off my taxes.
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