Gondolier finishes Erie Canal trip that raised money to fight Lou Gehrig's disease
By Scott Rapp / The Post-Standard
October 06, 2009, 6:05PM
Gondolier Joe Deverell called on improvisation and his mother’s memory to finish what he set out to do last month.
On Tuesday, Deverell, of Cross Lake, rowed the final leg of his 150-mile journey that started on the Erie Canal outside Buffalo and ended at Lock 24 in Baldwinsville. “It feels really good to be done,” Deverell said Tuesday.
He took the trip in memory of his late mother and to raise awareness and research money for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. His mother died of the disease, which many people know as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in February 2004.
Deverell, 43, left Buffalo on Sept. 27, which would have been his mother’s 72nd birthday. He had hoped to row his 36-foot Venetian gondola the full distance but potentially dangerous weather – high winds, rain and cold — forced him out of the water last Thursday. “It was brutal,” he said.
On Friday in Brockport, he hopped on a bicycle he had packed on the trip and started pedaling for home. He cruised into Cross Lake on Sunday and on Tuesday rowed the final eight to 10 miles from his home to Baldwinsville. He arrived at about 2 p.m.
“I’m very determined and I knew that I wasn’t going to just stop,” Deverell said. “This wasn’t what I intended but this is what I got. I’m not as disappointed as I was at first.”
It’s not the first time that Deverell, a Weedsport native, has taken a lengthy trip on his gondola, and he said it won’t be his last. He’s planning another canal trek next year but he plans to leave in the summer when the weather will likely be more cooperative.
“I definitely want to do it again,” he said.
Scott Rapp can be reached at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839. © 2009 syracuse.com. All rights reserved.
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