Canal Boat: Leaving Stroudwater
Leaving Stroudwater
Admiral Biscuit
I don’t know why it particularly caught my attention, but while Mersey had only chosen oats for her dinner, she’d occasionally lean over and eat some greens off Swanky Brook’s plate. He didn’t try to stop her or ask her why she hadn’t gotten greens of her own.
It wasn’t my place to question their eating habits, so I didn’t.
“So what are your plans, Joe? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“I was going to hike out in the countryside tomorrow,” I said, “and then take the train back to Manehattan. Just kind of explore the scenery some. Get a feel for what’s out here, and maybe plan for a longer trip later. It’s not as easy to plan a trip as it was back on Earth; you don’t have internet.”
“I’ve heard of that,” she said. “Somehuman was showing it off in a documentary movie I watched. I don’t think I’d like it, it all seems really complicated.”
“It can be,” I admitted. “But there’s a lot of convenience to it, as well.”
“You need a computer and a wifi and a internet subscription, they said. Books are better; you can borrow them for free from the library.”
“I can’t disagree with that. It can get expensive. Most Earth libraries have computers and wifi you can use for free, so if you don’t want to invest . . . maybe one day you’ll be able to get loads for your boat on the ponynet.”
“I don’t think it would be worth the trouble. I can get plenty of loads by just asking my regulars if they’ve got anything for me. Plus, I have a bunch of contracts, easily enough to get by if I wasn’t paying a mortgage on my building in Manehattan. Still, it’s worth it; if I can grow the business a little more, I can buy a second boat and hire a crew for it.”
“You’ve got a good way of thinking.” I raised my glass and clinked it against hers, only remembering after I’d done it that maybe that wasn’t a thing that ponies did. Fortunately, it was.
•••
We’d just finished our dinner when Flash Lock asked me if I’d gotten a bed for the night.
“I—well, I was expecting individual rooms,” I said. “Not a bunkhouse arrangement.”
“You don’t like sleeping with strangers?”
I almost choked on the last of my beer when she said that. I didn’t think that there was any innuendo in her statement, but it was hard to be sure. “Not really. It’s a human thing. I really ought to just get a bed and not be a wimp about it.”
“If you want, you can sleep in the cabin on the barge,” Flash Lock offered. “Long as you don’t mind that we’ll start loading it early.”
“Well, I suppose that would motivate me to get off to an early start. But I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“It’s no inconvenience. As far as I’m concerned, your ticket stays good until our next voyage starts.”
“Well. . . .”
“That’s not an offer she’d make just anypony,” Swanky Brook said.
Flash Lock nodded her head. “I had to kick a stallion off at Oakton once. He was a jerk. I told him he’d have to come to the company offices to request a refund, but he never did. Probably afraid Mersey would be there.”
It wasn’t my business, but I had to know.
“What did she do?”
“She bit him.”
I looked over at Mersey, who was still placidly chewing her oats.
•••
It would be easy to complain about the cabin. The bed wasn’t really long enough for me. Admittedly, the ones at the inn probably wouldn’t have been, either, but then they wouldn’t have had walls at either end.
If it had been slightly wider, I could have slept crosswise in it.
On the plus side, there was a gentle breeze through the cabin, and the boat rocked ever so gently on the water. There was hardly any current in the canal, but it was just enough to stretch the lines that held it to the dock, then they’d recoil slightly, and the motion repeated like clockwork. To add to that was the gentle creak of various fittings on the boat, the soft slap of wavelets against the hull, and the occasional splash of an aquatic denizen.
I got woken up in the middle of the night as a barge passed close by. The two ponies hauling it were singing, too loudly for the middle of the night. They both had really good voices, though, and I was honestly sorry when they finally moved out of earshot.
•••
Flash Lock wasn’t lying when she said that they’d be loading the barge early. The sun was up, but only just. Hoofsteps on the decks and more considerable rocking as they rolled in barrels were more than sufficient to serve as an alarm clock.
I couldn’t leave them as abruptly as I almost had the night before, so after I put on clean clothes in the little privacy the cabin offered, I went out on deck and said proper goodbyes to the three of them. Flash Lock hugged me, Swanky Brook gave me a hoofbump, and Mersey nudged my hip with her nose.
On the way through their warehouse, I had to wait for a pair of stallions loading up one of the wagons with the cargo we’d brought yesterday. Apparently all the ponies around the canal were early risers.
I stopped at the inn for breakfast. They’d replaced the soups with oatmeal, and they had both scrambled eggs and an egg casserole as well. In deference to the early hour, they only had one kind of beer, and they also had hot coffee and hot tea.
While I didn’t have GPS, I did have a folding map of the area, and my route seemed simple enough. All I had to do was follow the main road out of Stroudwater.
•••
On the outskirts of town, the road crossed the canal on a wooden drawbridge. I stood in the middle and gazed down the canal. The dock behind Aire and Calder Navigation was empty; when I looked further down the water, I could see the barge, Flash Lock at the helm and Mersey on the towrope.
I waved, even though I knew they wouldn’t see me, and then continued my journey.
We have now reached the end of Joe’s journey on the canals of Equestria.
A blog post will be along in a few days, with lots of facts about canal boats and canal boating. 
--admiral biscuit
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It was certainly a nice adventure. The notes will be a fun read for sure.
10254534
You did more research than I did. Thus, no need to change it in the story. However, it could make a nice 'overheard discussion' between some construction ponies.
Hopefully Joe doesn't get lost in the countryside. Or, if he does, he comes across ponies that have heard of Humans. I don't think Joe cares to experience being chased by a mob of panicky ponies.
....but while Mersey had only chosen oats for her dinner, she’d occasionally lean over and eat some greens off Swanky Brook’s plate.
He ordered the My Girlfriend's Not Hungry plate.
10254599
10254612
That’s actually an amusingly funny idea. A bunch of ponies arguing about some essentially insignificant difference in terms.
Could be played straight, or for laughs.
10254616
I figure that Equestria has fewer confusing roads than the US.
I did a similar wandery trip in the Scottish almost-the-Highlands once. I didn’t come across any torch mobs, although I met some Highland cows that were sketchy as f
k.
Also, an old-timer who taught me the phrase “it’s a braw bricht nicht tonitch.”
10254630
10254523
I got a bike for the thing myself, way before the big ride, or most of the training trips we did. (2 ten miles, 2 25 mile, 1 50 miles)
bought it used from a place hat did tour rides and got it cheap as it was one of five or so models they'd bent sent to try and had rejected.
I think tis a mountain/street hybrid. Aluminum frame, fat mountain tires and double gearshift.
I'm really glad to see you writing this, and just how well it turned out. :) Glad I could have provide some of the early inspiration.
10254673 Hey! I'll have you know I live next to the Kaw river. Admittedly, the town of Manhattan was founded because the paddlewheel steamboat got stuck on a sandbar there and couldn't go any further upstream, and on dry (i.e. normal) months, you can wade all the way across the river without going under (unless you hit a hole), but...
Pity to see the canal trip over, theres all sorts of weird and wonderful tings on them. Depends if he is heading for the railway next? Then again, the argument about the intersecting goat tracks is typical as many routes follow the easiest path and are upgraded time and again over the millenia as long as the enviroment, geography doesnt change too excessively.
I though with the bridges that if its a single span, its a span that bridges an obstruction. From Roman Empire times, if its a bridge that ducts water, or carries aqua via the span, its an Aqueduct, and so for roads and railways because they are not aqua but a way via the bridge, they are a Viaduct?
One must be very careful about letting untrained people operate the locks on a canal...
I quite enjoyed Joe’s latest adventure in Equestria.
I kind of think I should comment on the individual chapters of this particular arc, but I’m just going to say I did thoroughly enjoy it. You could say I live near a deserted canal. As a kid I heard “toe path” not “tow path”. I found mule shoes. So It kind of makes me curious about how it worked and nostalgic for something I never experienced, which makes no sense I guess. The railroad follows it and it disappears in places, but we skated on it when I was a kid so there is a fondness for the subject and I’m rather sorry this leg of his tour is over. As always your narrative is a soothing balm in a world beset by storm. Thanks for the safe harbor.
10254653
You didn’t meet any werewolves on the moors, either... hopefully...
10255112
“I see you are a man of culture.”
I’ve wondered for a while which of the mane 6 would be good at Two Of These People Are Lying.
10255370
Rainbow = Matt
Twilight = Tom
Pinkie = Gary
Rarity = Chris
Dang! Mersey has no mercy!
Oh yeah, that makes more sense as an ending for this part.
I really enjoyed the canal part of this story. I love the relaxed pace of the journey and have been on a few canal "holidays" myself. Congratulations, you've managed to make Equestria even more wonderful!
10258210
Grandma's recipe from the 60's, so Wonderbread was what we got. As a kid I loved 'em. Then I met some perverts who liked peanut butter and banana sandwiches!
Holy carp, how did I miss that? Point me at it, please?
10254677
The one I currently have is a decent model from Amazon, aluminum frame, front and rear suspension, disc brakes, and okay shifters. I already replaced the seat with a better one I had, and I’ve got to put new pedals on it, because one of them broke.
It’s funny, reading the reviews online, it’s like a $300 bike, and a lot of people were expecting $1000 bike quality from it.
10254693
Thank you!
I knew about canals and had sort of toyed with the idea of writing a story about them one of these days, but it wasn’t until you shared that video and I started watching Cruising the Cut videos that I started to think about it more seriously.
The one that really pushed me over the edge was this one:
10254698
I’m totally not making this up, a few years back they salvaged a sunken riverboat in Kansas . . . it was under a cornfield.
10255094
There are, and Joe certainly might want to have another canal trip in the future.
Yeah, he’s planning to take the train back. And you’re right, a lot of significant roadways started off as goat paths or foot paths or whatever along the easiest part of the terrain. Heck, traditionally in the US there were two ways railroads were built--water-level routes that followed rivers, or air-lines which went straight. The river routes were longer, but typically didn’t have to deal with significant elevation changes.
I’m sure somewhere in some bridge designer technical manual, it lists all the different types and what they’re used for, but I would expect that aside from a bridge enthusiast, there’s little difference in what the bridge crosses. Even looking up definitions, though, they’re not consistant; a viaduct consists of multiple spans to cross an obsticle, while a bridge only crosses water (by one definition), so if it’s got multiple spans, an obsticle, and water, is it a bridgeaduct? A viaduct with a bridge in it? :P
Viaducts came from the Roman aquaduct, although it was a portmanteau word coined in the 18th century IIRC.
10255112
Yes, this is true. A lot of things with water have more momentum than one would assume (can say from personal experience, grabbing a pylon to slow a large-ish boat isn’t smart).
Thanks!
10255345
I think it makes total sense. What must it have been like back in the day when there was constant traffic down that canal, strings of barges and teams of mules, and all that comes with that?
Railroads did kill a bunch of canals, and I’m not surprised that some of them followed canals--that was where the traffic was, and if that was a route water could flow along, a train could do it, too. And now railroads are being abandoned and turned into trails, since a lot of their traffic got taken by highways. . . .
Not that I noticed. It was during the day, though.
10255785
She’s willing to make her opinion known, at least when it comes to a stallion who’s a jerk.
10256349
10256706
Thanks! Closest I’ve come is canoe trips on lakes and rivers here and there throughout Michigan, which is sorta the same. Although it lacks ponies.
Interestingly, one thing that we always got as kids was good bread. I don’t know why my mom was such a bread snob, I’ll have to ask her about it sometime. I can’t say that I’ve never had Wonderbread, but my Mom never bought it and as an adult, I never have, either.
While I was having a trundle round Google Maps, Ariel view, following the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Wigan, down the Leigh branch where it joins the Bridgewater Canal end to end, I saw something that looked remarkably similar to the lakes causeway, except without the transition locks? The Leigh branch canal ran between two Flashes, large areas of open water caused by the ground collapsing into the void left by deep seam coal mining. Given there is now a Marina and housing estate built on the site of a removed deep coal mine by the canal at one point, although I would have to ceck the map from ten year back to see if the large circular grounds formation is the main shaft cap, the two were definitely working together, so Im wondering just how much that canal section has had to be built up over the years as the Flashes formed?
10262142
The secret to a happy life is good bread!
10262238
I followed that canal too, and also found that there is a canal swing bridge, which makes sense but I’d’ve never though of that.
I have to imagine that depending on the terrain, it’d be way more sensible to lock into a lake and back out of it, unless the water levels varied a lot, or if there was no practical way to get the boats across (i.e., no powered tugs, too long for a chain barge or rope system); most likely in those cases, it would be easier to build the canal around the lake rather than across.
However, there is history of building across rather than around, such as the Lucien Cutoff that went through the Great Salt Lake so the railroad didn’t have to go around it, and given some of the other large-scale projects ponies engage in (weather management, for example), a causeway across a lake might not be that weird an idea for them.
I hadn’t thought of the problems of flooding and partially collapsing coal mines--obviously, there’s the dangers of the slag piles (there’s a more specific term for ‘em, but I can’t remember it) and I do know about quarries filling up with toxic water.
Interestingly, last year when they were building a new interchange in my county, they had to reconstruct it, becuase parts of it started to slump into an old coal mine nobody knew was there.
10262115
Im actually thinking of digging my bike out of the garage and using it again, its been a few years since I last used it (family vacation).
10262538
Do eet!
10262352
It is!
Thanks for the canal ride. I don't have much idea where we'll see him next, but I don't doubt it will be interesting.
10270282
All of those, actually, if you count in the trip to Dublin.
10269979
I don’t know, either, but I’ve got some ideas.
10270961
Excellent!
10266774
EEsh. Would explain why so many of the statues in Celelstia's garden were ponies. Though if so I must wonder what that one with the flag did to deserve it.
10272705
It was probably a New Lunar Republic flag.
10275581
You know, I never did read the fics that spawned that whole thing. I heard the music that was inspired by it, first. Then I saw the fan art, and read references people made to it in comments or fics of their own yet I never actually got around to reading it.
I've also never gotten around to reading The Glowmelon Mystery, and that one is from the very first month of me being a member here. I keep meaning to read them, but have yet to.
10276227
I never have, either. I just know it’s a thing in the fandom, and in actuality for years the background on one of my laptops was a NLR background.
If my comments are bothering you, just tell me. I'm not a snowflake and won't melt. I've been told before that 'my need to spit out everything that comes to mind is irritating'. I could restrain myself, I just normally don't think to hence the need to actually be told. Just be aware that if you reply that I don't have to worry about it, that you'll probably get a new comment on this fic with every other chapter at least.
10277859
Feel free to comment all you want.
Oh, no worries. I love comments
Is this supposed to be canon after Onto Pony Planet or is it something else?
10283890
It’s not canon, but it’s not not, either.
Which is a complicated explanation, but hear me out:
A large number of my stories take place with Equestria having approximately the same amount of tech, social structure, etc., so in that sense there’ll be some sameness across not-quite-connected canons. Silver Glow’s Journal, Hannah Hawes, Salmon Rose, Practical Difficulties, FNFE, and probably some others all fall into that category. Silver Glow doesn’t work out on the timeline, since both SGJ and CSI/OPP have some real-world events taking place in them that temporally fixes the human timeline. Ditto for Salmon Rose, unless she’s one of the very very first ichtheologists to make it through the portal. The rest of ‘em, I don’t specify, so they could happen an appropriate amount of time in the future--and FNFE is very much on that list.
From a behind-the-scenes perspective, FNFE is meant to cover some ideas for Equestria that likely would never make it into CSI/OPP for whatever reason, and a reader could probably interpret it as basically canon to the OPP-verse, but in the case of FNFE if an idea strikes me which might conflict with CSI/OPP, I’ll do it anyway and not worry about the conflict.
Hopefully that’s at least somewhat clarifying. . . .
Ohhh this is Intriguing. Kinda a pony Tom Sawyer.
10288839
It kind of is, now that you mention it!