Been Here Before

Ever visit a place and feel you are somehow connected to it? The I&M Canal is such a place for me. Upon my first visit I was overcome with emotion, actually choking back tears. Believe what you want about reincarnation, but how else can I explain the feelings I felt? It was as if I was coming home after a long absence. I also cannot get near a mule without becoming emotional, somehow, someway I was connected to this 96 mile ribbon of water. Hence my name "Muledriver", as I feel I was one of the many boys and young men (many orphaned or runaways) employed to guide mules pulling the barges up and down the canal. Since that first visit I have walked and photographed every inch of what is left of this historic canal. I never get tired of seeing it, I treat it as an old friend. The accompanying photo is of the Fox River Aqueduct, a 464 foot long bridge that carried canal boats across the Fox River at Ottawa,IL. The photo mirrors one from about 1920,though at the time I did not know about that photo. I am walking in the footsteps of those who came before me, and I feel honored to do so.