On The Water and Ready To Go

Every New Englander knows the iconic image of a weekend ride down Memorial Drive. The tree-lined road teems with historic brownstones, and the Boston cityscape reflects calmly off the face of the Charles River. It loops through Cambridge with a peaceful bliss broken only by runners attacking their mornings on sidewalks and overpasses between both the Memorial side and across the river on Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road.

The centerpiece strokes of a college rowing team's shells are the only altering aspect to the archetypal piece. Easily identified by their distinctive oars, they represent the piece de resistance of the classical, Rockwellian experience. They glide down the river with…