Catch up.  Sorry for no posts – no time.  Horse racing is like a job.  Up early (5:00 am) to start handicapping process.  At 7:00 off to the track to reserve my spot in the back yard.  Breakfast at 7:30.  More handicapping, make my salad, read the paper.  Maybe a 30 minute nap.  Off to King’s Tavern at 10:30 to check in.  Back to the track at 11:00 to get scratches and eat my salad.  Races start at 1:00.  Out of the track at about 6:45.  Off to dinner somewhere with someone (or getting take out for myself).  Time for bed.

Thursday:  Did OK on day two with two winners.  Small crowd (relatively) and nice and relaxed at the track.  Weather was hot but not unpleasantly so.  For dinner I had fried chicken from Hattie’s again.  Bad me – too much fried food.

Friday:  John and Lino from Marshfield arrived as did Michael from New York.  Good weather again. Tough day betting wise but I bailed out with a $21 winner in the last race.  Dinner was at the Brook Tavern (owned by the Wishing Well) with John and Linda.  The Wishing Well owner was there and he sent over complementary deep fried pickles.  I had six Duxbury (MA) oysters – small but scrumptious; delicious veal chop with mashed sweet potato; vanilla ice cream.  For dessert Lino had a wonderful flourless chocolate cake that was to die for.

Saturday:  Weather holding well.  Huge crowd, long lines.  Hit the first race and then got shut out the rest of the way.  First losing day.  The oddity of the day was a maiden (non-winner) winning the featured Jim Dandy handicap.  Saw some friends from Baltimore.  For dinner I cooked up my own pasta (ziti with lines) and Newman’s Sockerooni sauce.  Tasty.  Early to bed.

Sunday:  It’s 6 am and raining steadily.  The rain is supposed to continue for two days.  Not good.  No fun in Saratoga when it’s raining, but we will soldier on.  My friend Bob arrives today.  I called him and gave him the option to cancel and maybe come next weekend, but he is coming anyway.  Pizza is the plan for tonight.  Genarro’s.

Click Pictures to Enlarge

Tuesday

To catch up, the train from Chicago to Albany was two hours late arriving in Albany.  Then I had to take a cab to the airport to get my Alamo rental as that was by far the best deal – $435 for two weeks for an SUV.  Well, cabs from the railway station are shared, and I rode with a woman going to Troy for a conference.  Infuriatingly, the driver decided it was best to take her to Troy first.  I know the area well enough to know that makes no sense whatsoever.  And there was rush hour traffic.  And she didn’t have the right address for her destination at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy.  After the driver finally got her where she needed to go, he took me to the airport.  He got a very small tip.  Now way late and with a dinner date in Saratoga to make, naturally there is a line of about six people at the Alamo counter.  They have a kiosk check-in machine, so I decided to try it despite someone else just giving up on it as not working.  Lo and behold, it worked for me!  So I got my printout and headed for the garage.  My car is a black Jeep Compass SUV (I have named him Gene) – oddly that’s the same car I got from Budget for my ride from Scottsdale to Flagstaff.  I drove to my hotel (only 25 minutes), took a quick shower, and went to pick up my friend Patty for dinner.

Dinner was at the Wishing Well, my favorite Saratoga restaurant.  I had gimlets, a nice shrimp cocktail, and double cut lamb chops, all delicious.  I dropped Patty off and headed home to the Marriott for bed.

Wednesday

After setting up my office at the track, I went to Hannaford’s for shopping to stock the room with supplies:  beer, water, diet Coke, makings for salads, snacks, and other various and sundry things.  Back to the room to make my salad – I bring my own salad to the track everyday for lunch.  Simple salad: romaine, cucumbers, red onion, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, croutons, and blue cheese crumbles with Newman’s lite Caesar dressing in a separate container.  Love it.

The weather was hot but not oppressive.  No rain.  I stopped in at King’s Tavern to say hello and had a nice chat with Adam, one of the owners.  Ed, my pharmacist friend from CT came in – he had the day off and came up for the day, so we sat together at our usual spot in the track back yard.  The day at the track went very well.  I didn’t bet the first race, a steeplechase.  My first bet on the second race got me off to a flying start – $26.60 winner!  (Winner, winner, chicken dinner – later I would get fried chicken from Hattie’s to take home my dinner).  Then in race five I hit the $34.60 winner.  Two winners for the day, but at prices like that it made for a very successful day.  I had several other horses run extremely well but not well enough to win.

I already told you about dinner.  I woke early after a good night’s sleep, and here I am posting early Thursday morning.

Sunday – Aboard the Southwest Chief

Checked at 11 pm and again at 3 am – the train was running about 50 minutes late.  I showered, packed up, and checked out and then started off on the 10-minute walk, luggage in tow, to the Amtrak Station.  The train was indeed 50 minutes late.  I boarded car #431, and set up shop in roomette #2.  The train consists of two engines, a baggage car, three sleeper cars, a dining car, an observation car, and three cars of coach seats.

I had breakfast at 6:30, sitting with two scout leaders and a scout on their way from LA to Raton, NM for a two week hiking adventure.  One of the leaders was British although now living in LA.  We traded UK/Brexit stories over breakfast. I had a three-egg swiss cheese and veggie omelet, bacon, biscuit, orange juice, and milk.  Then I took a nice nap in my room.

The ride through New Mexico and Colorado is beautiful, through the mountains.  I brought my GPS for the window, but I brought the wrong cord to charge it.  Dumb!  Fortunately I have GPS in my phone and a mapping app, so I am able to follow the route as we go as well as monitor time, speed, and elevation.  90 mph is top speed.  Lunch was a burger, sharing a table with a couple from Ruidoso, NM on their way to a Lionel toy train convention in Kansas City and a gentlemen returning home to Rockford, IL after visiting family in LA.

At 5:00 pm Star, my sleeping couch attendant, brought me a bucket of ice and I enjoyed a nice gimlet (pre-mixed at home and in a thermos jug in my carry-on bag).  Dinner was at the 6:45 sitting with a man from Nevada headed for Chicago and a Rudy Giuliani look-a-like from somewhere or other.  Rudy was self absorbed with himself and rarely shut up.  Dinner was a surprisingly good steak with mashed potatoes and green beans preceded by a dinner salad.  Very nice vanilla ice cream for dessert.  I rarely get wines on Amtrak – the selection is minimal and the quality poor.  Food, by the way, is all included in the fare although alcohol is extra.

After dinner I tucked in.  We were in Lamar, CO when I hit the sack, and I pretty much slept through until we reached Topeka, KS.  There were four stops in between, but I only awoke for one of them.

Some Pictures (Click to Enlarge in a New Tab or Window

Monday – On Amtrak into Chicago

I got up at 5:00 am and was the first one into the shower room on my sleeper car.  Breakfast was, as always, at 6:30 am right when the dining car opens.  I ate with one gentleman with whom I sat previously and with a mother and daughter on their way home to Detroit from a vacation in Santa Fe.  I had the same breakfast as yesterday.  Amtrak doesn’t overwhelm you with choices.

The ride for the remainder of the trip was uneventful.  The highlight was crossing the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa.  Once cross the Mississippi, the landscape changes dramatically to farmland and small towns.  We arrived in Chicago precisely on time.

I will pick up the narrative again when I get a chance, probably when I check in at the Marriott in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday night (or more likely, Wednesday morning.  I have big news about the Chicago to Albany leg of the train trip.  You’ll have to come back to find out!

More Pictures

Saturday – Scottsdale to Flagstaff

Saturday morning Elaine took me to  pick up a Budget rent a car (Jeep Compass SUV) in Scottsdale.  Then it was back home to finish packing and have a farewell lunch with Elaine.  At 1:00 PM I was off for Flagstaff.

Two hours later I checked in to the Flagstaff Drury Inn and Suites, right at the Northern Arizona University (NAU) campus and a short walk from downtown.  After taking the luggage to the room, I headed to Flagstaff Airport to turn in the car.  A short cab ride later and I was back at the Drury Inn in a drenching thunderstorm.  Nice to see rain, actually; we don’t see much in Scottsdale.  Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet, but it’s still very warm – over 80 degrees.  But it will go in the 50’s tonight and should still be in the 50’s when I leave the hotel at 4:00 AM, luggage in tow, to walk the 1/2 mile to the Amtrak station.  The train is due in Flagstaff at 4:31 AM, but it is often late, sometimes hours late.  Amtrak is not noted for its on-time record.  They do have a very good smart phone app where you can check the status.  My train left LA Union Station on-time at 6:10 PM on Saturday, is due to reach Needles, CA at 12:18 AM Sunday, and get to Flagstaff at 4:31 AM.

This will be it for wi-fi for blog updates until I reach in Chicago Monday afternoon.  Hopefully I can do a little update from somewhere around Union Station with wi-fi while waiting for the Lake Shore Express which is scheduled to depart Chicago at about 9:30.

Here’s the route for the Southwest Express: