. . . with Joe & Elaine as they travel the USA and the World.
Sunday gambling turned out OK when I hit the last two races including the double. It’s now Monday morning. Weather looks beautiful for my last day at the track. Tomorrow I check out, drive back to Albany and get the train at 7 PM for the long ride back to Flagstaff. This will be my last post until i get home unless something memorable happens today (like I hit the Pick Six – heh).
Beautiful day at the track. Sunny and not too hot. Gambling wise, meh.
Weather: Continues to be beautiful
Gambling: Blah.
Dinner: Partook of the Marriott Residence Inn happy hour for my dinner.
Who remembers Secretariat? Probably everyone. He was ridden by jockey Ron Turcotte who was later disabled in a riding accident. He’s still around.
Weather: A front was due through but it came in the early AM with some showers, but it was sunny by 9:00 AM. HUGE crowd at the track.
Gambling: OK
Dinner: Last pizza of the trip – Margherita – very nice
Mike Shea (the brother of my late great friend Alice) and his wife Rosemary were in town for the weekend. This week is Mike’s 70th birthday. So his entire family showed up for a surprise celebration: sister Kathy, brother Paul with wife Mary, brother Fred, son Stephen with his oldest son (8 y.o.), Fred’s son Ricky, and maybe one or two I missed. It was great seeing them all again. Many Alice stories were told and retold. Stephen, by the way, is chairman of the Mathematics Department at St Anselm’s College and has written highly regarded books about basketball analytics.
Click photos to enlarge
It is now Sunday morning. Weather looks perfect.
It was raining when I got up, but it stopped about noon. We sat is our usual spot and it didn’t rain again all afternoon, so we stayed dry. Did I mention my friend Bob from Arlington was here? I managed to about break even. For dinner we went to Pennell’s and both had the veal with peppers special.
Here’s an old picture from the Albany Times Union of my dear friend Alice and me at the track many years back in the rain. We were news worthy! (Click to enlarge)
Dark day at the track. Still lots of showers in the area. Bob and I went to the new Bow-Tie Cinema in Saratoga Springs and saw the new Jason Bourne movie with Matt Damon. It was not as good as the older ones, but it held your interest. For lunch we had an ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. Dinner at the Wishing Well was excellent. They have great steaks, and the corn on the cob was delicious.
Ah, sunny day and no humidity. This is how Saratoga is supposed to be. Broke even again, and I remain a few $$ ahead. Bob headed back to Boston after the eighth race. He may or may not return on Sunday for my last two days at the track. Alone for dinner, I ate in. Left over pizza and left over ziti.
It’s 8:00 AM now and the weather is perfect. The forecast is good through Tuesday when I leave save for the possibility of showers Saturday morning. Hope the meteorologist are right for a change. Lots of people coming starting today and going into the weekend: Michael from NY, Jeff from Chicago, Jeff and Gilian from CT, Mut from the Red Sox, Mike and Rosemary, Anthony and Rose, Carole, Ron and Pam, Ed the Pharmacist. The Elks from Marshfield are in town. So a few guys from the Shamrock in South Boston. Busy days, quiet nights. Tonight Patty and her daughter Misty are taking me to dinner. I’ll have to leave the track after the eighth race.
Later!
Sunday: Rained all day. Sat in the Festival Tent in the back yard where my four friends from Baltimore had a table for six and graciously invited us to use the last two seats. Kept us dry. Had three winners but they were all short prices, so I just managed to break even. Beats losing.
Monday: It’s 6:00 AM and pouring. Rain supposed to end mid-day, but we’ll probably sit in the tent again. Monday is usually a low attendance day, but today is a giveaway – a Saratoga duffel bag sponsored by Foxwoods Casino in CT. So there will be a big crowd of people to get the giveaway who will all go home after they get it. There will be no grass racing again. Rain in Saratoga sucks.
Our pizza last night was good. There are leftovers. Pizza for breakfast?
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.
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
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:
Sorry for the blogless day yesterday – Sunday was a day of rest. We did the less than two hour drive from Cambridge to Windsor in the morning, mostly with Vic’s wipers furiously clearing the rain from the windscreen. Miraculously, when we parked in Windsor, too early for check in at the B&B, the rain stopped and we even saw peeks of the sun. Once again we did not get wet as we walked around. Windsor and its castle were strangely quiet, free of the hordes that usually clog the streets. Everyone who was anybody (except us) was in London for Trooping the Colour, the Queen’s official birthday celebration. The monarch’s official birthday is June 12th, thanks to Edward II, who decided that his birthday should be celebrated in nice weather rather the gloom and gray of his November birthday. That tradition has continued since his time. Old Elizabeth II is 90 now, the longest serving British monarch EVER, most likely much to the chagrin of Charles, who will become King on her passing.
We had a quiet day and left the camera in the car. At 3:00 PM we proceeded to 76 Duke Street to check in at the B&B of the same name, owned by Julia, who is now an old friend. I think this was our fourth stay with her. She rents to just one visitor per day. We invited her to dinner with us, as we have in the past, but this time she demurred. Dinner was at Dhinchak, an Indian restaurant, in downtown Windsor. The food was as good as ever, and strangely, it was our first Indian food since arriving at Heathrow over a month ago. In England it seems there is an Indian restaurant, if not two, on every block.
Monday was departure day. After breakfast with Julia we dropped Vic the Volvo near Heathrow. He and Bailey, our SatNav (GPS) navigator, were troopers during our stay and did themselves proud. As if to say, “OK, things will be different and back to normal now that you are leaving”, England finally rained on us as we hustled from the car to Terminal Three at Heathrow. The flight to Boston was smooth as glass. From Boston we will fly early Tuesday morning back home to Scottsdale, and the trip will be in the history books.
I will be back in late July every other day or so with reports from my solo trip to Saratoga. And we will have daily reports in September on our return visit to Depoe Bay, Oregon for ten days. This year instead of three day road trips in each direction, we will be flying to Portland.
Cheers!
It was raining Saturday morning when I got up, but as usual, when it was time to be doing something, the rain stopped. We had a mixture of clouds and sun for the day.
I’ll be brief today and let the pictures do the talking. We walked into town through the park and went immediately to the Fitzwilliam Museum. It is a large and quite fabulous place where you could spend days. And it is all free. It has everything: ancient Chinese porcelain, artifacts from old Egypt, and a fabulous collection of painting spanning a myriad of regions and styles. I always especially enjoy French impressionists, and the Fitzwilliam did not disappoint in that regard.
Pictures from the Fitzwilliam (Click to Enlarge)
Then we visited the University of Cambridge Polar Museum. UC does lots of research on the North and South Poles. It was interesting and we found information on Tom Crean, our “friend” from Dingle who made three Antarctic excursions with Shackleton and Scott.
Lunch was at Pret A Manger. (Yes, we are hooked.). Cambridge is clearly a university city. It is big, vibrant, and very busy. Lots of hen parties in progress. We walked back to the B&B along the River Cam, stopping for a pint at the Fort St George Pub where I chatted with a local in a Red Sox hat. He was just back with his kids from a week in Boston and two weeks in Florida. Then it was nap time. We had cocktails in the garden at the B&B and dinner was a repeat affair at the Old Spring Pub.
