I belong to three boaters' groups on Facebook, and have been astounded by the number people in the USA who are members. Many of them just love our canals and boats from afar. They've read books by UK boaters - lots have read mine - or they watch one or more of the very many vlogs on YouTube. Many have been over to the UK for a boating holiday, and loved it, of course!
One such American gentleman promoted his own vlog on one of the forums, and I went to have a look. I had a particular interest in this post because he talks about the history of the Erie Canal in the US, something I'd learned a bit about when I did some googling for a woman in the States who asked in a FB group if she could travel on the canal in a narrowboat.
It turns out that the answer is "yes". More than that, an American couple came to the UK some decades ago to experience our canals. They hired a boat and had a wonderful time. So much so that they went back to the States and started a business building and renting narrowboats similar to those we have here (except that theirs are all 43 foot long). Another similar company has started since.
A further link the Erie has with the UK is that it was designed here; engineers met with our famous canal-makers and learned the art from them.
I do recommend you watch the vlog. You'll find that YouTube has a lot of videos about the Erie https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=erie+canal
but this one's a good place to start. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV9BK0-gX9o
I've bookmarked them to watch later, Roger. Thank you!
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