Once More to the Lake

In the Essay Once More to the Lake, what is te significance of the missing middle track of the road (paragraph 7) and the "nervous sound of the outboard motors" (paragraph 10)?

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The third track represents a path made by horses. They would make this path while pulling the carriages full of people and items. Maybe it is missing because the carriages were replaced by automobiles, or maybe the horses died from old age and the old man who tended to them was not able to carry on with his tradition. Maybe the old man who tended to the horses never had children of his own, and in that, it showed E.B White that he is only allowed this moment of memories because he procreated.