Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Walking on Air

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I've added another item to my bucket list:  Walk across the Hudson River.  I approach the whole bucket list thing differently than the movie tells me I should.  I don't add anything to it until I've actually done it.  So when I look down the list -- win a Nebula . . . marry the most beautiful woman in the world . . .  raise a son . . . visit Finland and China . . . and so on -- I have the satisfaction of knowing that I've done it all.  How many of us can say that?

Yesterday I went onto the Walkway Over the Hudson.  Fabulous thing.  They took a 1.28 mile long railroad bridge and retooled it for exclusively foot traffic, connecting Poughkeepsie and Highland, New York.  So Marianne and I took a leisurely stroll on a perfectly beautiful day high over the river.  For most of human history, this simply wasn't possible.


Above:  The Mid-Hudson Bridge, as seen from mid-river.

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4 comments:

Zvi said...

It's a reverse bucket list. What's the reverse of a bucket? Tekcub?

Ken Houghton said...

Really? You had to go to Poughkeepsie?

You couldn't have just used the GWB walkway one of the many times you were in NYC?? (The North side walkway is longer, but generally has fewer cyclists, since walking up and down piles of steps in cleats is Not A Good Idea. That said, the Southern path is perfectly fine for all.)

mcp said...

It was the most glorious "October's bright blue weather" day, and we were with family.

One thing that's nice is that you aren't next to an entire bridge full of car exhaust.

Marianne

Michael Swanwick said...

But if you're in Poughkeepsie, you're treading the sacred ground where Rachel Pollack set UNQUENCHABLE FIRE and TEMPORARY AGENCY.

(And if there's anybody here who hasn't read either of those essential works of fantasy . . . please consider this an enthusiastic endorsement.)