JORDAN - It rained. And then it rained some more. But Joe Deverell refused to abort his Rochester-to-Syracuse gondola ride down the Erie Canal.

Canceling the trip, or even just holding off a few weeks for more favorable weather conditions, were simply not options for Deverell. He had to be in his gondola, plucked from the narrow canals of Venice, Italy, on Sept. 27, his mother's birthday.

On the day Valerie Angelini Deverell would have turned 70, Joe embarked on the 150-mile trip to raise money for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, an organization that helps people with ALS, the progressive neuodegenerative disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, of which Deverell's mother died from in 2004.

On Tuesday, Joe and his father, Bob Deverell, completed the last leg of the trip - from his home on Cross Lake in Jordan to Lock 24 in Baldwinsville - concluding his tribute to a woman who dedicated her life to supporting her family's ambitions and for whom no one, including modern medicine, could do enough to save.

“There's absolutely nothing that can be done - there's no cure, there's no treatment, really,” said Joe. “You felt helpless.”

ALS affects the voluntary muscle movements for such tasks as speaking, walking and picking up objects. One drug slows its progression, but more research is needed, Joe said, which is why he decided to raise money for the association.

Joe said he was not certain how much money he had raised because the donations went directly to the association. Besides, he has concentrated on the trip. Rain and wind prevented him from riding his gondola the entire 150 miles. He biked from Brockport to Jordan, but Tuesday, Joe was ready to finish the trip as he had started, in his 36-foot, 1,500-pound gondola.

As Joe dug his oar into the mud to push off from his dock on Cross Lake, easing the boat (made from 13 different woods) into the lake, his 83-year-old father began to set up a folding music stand, which was necessary to employ the violin he had brought on board, along with peaches for lunch and a blanket in case of rain. He played old folk tunes nearly the entire four-hour journey, Joe said.

The trip was long and his legs ached afterward, Bob Deverell said, but well worth it.

“She would have thought it was great, commendable,” he said.

Joe agreed his mother would have liked the idea of a 150-mile gondola ride.

“She definitely encouraged me to do unusual things,” said Joe.

Rather than harping responsibility when adventure called her son, Joe said, she joined in his excitement about trips to Venice, Spanish bull fighting rings and countless other places.

“She was a different character for a small town,” Joe said of his mother, a nurse and avid reader. When his mother began tripping on rugs, stumbling often and was diagnosed with ALS, he said he did not know what to do for her, other than spend as much time with her as possible.

Now, he said he feels compelled to raise money for an organization that can help families like his.

“I have this gondola,” Joe said. “I would have flown her to France and had her anointed with oils if I'd known where to take her.”

Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net