Monte and I, like most of us, had bought into the story of Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78 as being occupied by an anonymous group of soldiers struggling against winter’s fury and clothed in nothing but rags. The reason many Americans picture Valley Forge as the pinnacle of misery is that this early and romanticized version of the encampment story became an important parable to teach us about American perseverance.

In 1777 the British had captured and occupied Philadelphia the patriot capital. To oppose them, General George Washington marched his 12,000-man army from New Jersey and by mid-December he had decided to encamp at Valley Forge where he could keep a close eye on the British.

Eyewitness accounts speak of a skilled and capable force in charge of its own destiny. Rather than wait for deliverance, the army located supplies, built log cabins to stay in, constructed makeshift clothing and gear, and cooked subsistence meals of their own concoction. Provisions, though never abundant in the early months of the encampment, were available.

Shortages of clothing did cause severe hardship for a number of men, but many soldiers had a full uniform, and the well-equipped units patrolled, foraged, and defended the camp. The sound that would have reached your ears on approaching the camp was not that of a forlorn howling wind, but rather that of hammers, axes, saws, and shovels at work.

Under the direction of military engineers, in one month the men built a city of 2,000-odd huts laid out in parallel lines along planned military avenues. The troops also constructed miles of trenches, five earthen forts (redoubts), and a state-of-the-art bridge over the Schuylkill River.

On May 6, 1778, the army joyously celebrated France’s alliance with and formal recognition of the United States as a sovereign power. The expected arrival of the French greatly altered British war plans and triggered their evacuation of Philadelphia in June.

Washington rapidly set troops in motion to bring on a general engagement with the enemy. On June 28, at the Battle of Monmouth, N.J., Washington’s men demonstrated their improved battle prowess when they forced the British from the field.

By summer Washington could claim that the war effort was going well. Valley Forge was not the darkest hour of the Revolutionary War; it is a place where an already accomplished group of professionals stood their ground, honed their craft, and thwarted one of the major British offensives of the war. A long, hard 5 years of fighting lay ahead before the British would admit defeat and sign The Treaty of Paris.

Today the city features 151 highrise buildings, 446 bridges, and two inclined railways.

We were riding around trying to find the off ramp to go to Ft. Pitt (never did locate it) when we happened upon one of the inclined railways – the Duquesne Incline. It’s a pretty good tourist thing to do as it was only $4 for a round trip ticket for Shelley and Monte, being aged, got to ride free. It was completed in 1877, is 800 feet long and 400 feet in height and scales the side of Mt. Washington. The view of Pittsburgh from atop Mt. Washington is spectacular.

After scaling the heights of Mt. Washington we had worked up an appetite (riding those cars really takes it out of you). So – we headed back across the rivers and found ourselves at Bettis’ Grille 36. Bettis’ is right across the street from Heinz field where the Steelers play and is owned by none other than the great #36, Jerome Bettis – The Bus. The menu has something for everyone including burgers made from Yak, Llama, or Kobe beef. However we opted for something a little less adventurous and a lot more artery clogging. Monte had the “Soon To Be Famous Deep Fried Cheeseburger” which is a burger dipped in tempura batter and deep fried and Shelley had the “Carolina Burger” which was a buger topped with pulled pork and cole slaw. After that meal and a stroll along the river we were done for the day. One final note about Bettis’ – our server was Danny. Danny is from Hawaii, played basketball for the University of Pittsburgh, and is currently employed by Pitt as a researcher doing research on drug resistant tuberculosis. He does the waiter thing because he loves it and it gets him away from his microscope. Apparently he likes it so much that he does not need tips – when I checked my Visa Card statement online, I noticed that his tip was not included in our final bill.

We are putting Pittsburgh on our list of places that we want to return to. There is much more to see and do and probably eat. 

Why, you might ask, is the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio? There are 3 reasons, (1) the NFL, then known as the American Professional Football Association, was founded in Canton in 1920 (2) The now defunct Canton Bulldogs were a successful NFL team based in Canton during the first few years of the league and (3) the community of Canton successfully lobbied the NFL to have the Hall built in their city (although there is no direct connection with the NFL).

The Hall opened in 1963 with 17 charter inductees. To be eligible for the nominating process a player or coach must have been retired for at least 5 years. Team owners or executives can be voted in at any time. Fans may nominate any player, coach or contributor by simply writing to the Hall via letter or email. The Selection Committee then, through 4 votes narrows the list to 15 finalists. The selection committee then meets the day before each Super Bowl game to elect the new class. Between 4 and 7 candidates are elected each year. The selection committee is made up of 44 people – mostly sportswriters. With the 2010 class being enshrined in August, there will be 260 individuals in the Hall.

There is much more to the Hall than just the Hall of Fame Gallery where the inductees are showcased. This is a complete museum dedicated to the history of professional football. There is the Pro Football Adventure Room that examines the many other pro leagues that have challenged the NFL. The Super Bowl Room recaps the 42 Super Bowls played to date and exhibits the Super Bowl Rings (some are really really gaudy). The Teams of The NFL exhibit pays tribute to the current 32 teams. And a bunch of other stuff.

It Pays To Ask!! The entry fee for the Hall is $20. The price for seniors is $15. I figured that I would ask if they had a discount for retired military members. The answer was not only a yes, and a thank-you for your service but, the entry fee is waived. We got in free. Free is always good!
 
Speaking of cost – check out the price of an NFL franchise.
 

 
And since we saved a few bucks – that night we went to Northfield Park between Akron and Cleveland and blew the savings on the harness races. 

Harness Racing in the USA is governed by the US Trotting Association (USTA). Each year the USTA hosts the “Standardbred Driving School” which we attended this year.

The class had 41 students from 16 states and 1 from Canada. Among the students were 2 veterinarians, a US Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer, a zoo keeper from the Los Angeles Zoo, a retired municipal bonds trader, and Charles – a 16 year old African-American youth from the inner city of Detroit who had attended harness races and decided that this is what he wants to do as a profession and he had the guts to make calls and contact people who have now sponsored him and are ensuring that he get the best entry into the sport possible.

Our goal in attending the school was to learn more about the sport and to have fun. However, most of the attendees had the goal of becoming licensed drivers and trainers. In the 12 years since the inception of the school, school graduates have accumulated more than 2,500 wins as trainers and drivers.

Topics covered care and conditioning, stable management, driving and racing strategy, amateur driving, veterinary care, shoeing, and equipment. All of the classes were taught by true professionals and the top names in the business. The the highlight for many of us – we each were allowed (with a licensed driver) to jog a horse around the famed half-mile oval at the fairgrounds that is home to The Little Brown Jug. The Little Brown Jug is the second leg of the pacing Triple Crown, the premier pacing classic for three-year-old standardbreds and carries a purse in excess of $600,000.

We found out that this is very much a family sport. The majority of owners/drivers/trainers all have family involved in the sport and for many of them the involvement goes back several generations. One of our classmates, Garrett Mosher from Maine, is the son of Gary Mosher and nephew of Yannick Gingras – two of the nation’s top drivers – between the two they have almost 10,000 thousand wins (yes that says ten thousand). And Garrett is just one example of family involvement.

As I said, jogging the horses was supposed to be the highlight of the school, however, for us it got much better than that. The last night of the school we all attended the harness races at Scioto Downs in Columbus. Earlier that day both Monte and Shelley had had our names drawn for getting to ride in the starting gate during the races. Monte rode for races 1&2 and Shelley was in the gate for races 5&6. Words cannot describe how totally amazing the experience was. We agreed that is is in the top 10 fun things we have done in our lifetimes. The sounds of the pounding hooves, the looks on the horses faces which are literally inches from yours, the looks of intense concentration on the faces of the drivers, these are things you just cannot see & hear from the grandstands. I know how over-used the word “awesome” is but this truly was AWESOME! The starting gate is going between 38 & 40 miles per hour when they let the horses go, the average speed of the horse during the race is around 30 mph. These guys are flying! The driver of the car only steers, the speed of the gate is controlled by the starter who is in this little cubical (we were crammed in with him) looking backwards. The starter calls the drivers to the gate, and as speed is picked up he gets to just the right spot, announces a simple “GO” and swings the gate out of the way and they’re off. The race is one mile and about 1 minute and 55 secconds later, it’s all over. The starter was a real interesting guy who used to be a driver and said that he had not only raced against some of the current drivers but their fathers, grandfathers and in one case the current driver’s great-grandfather (the Starter could not have been much older than Shelley).

Click the link below to:
                              Check out the video Shelley took in “View from the Starting Gate”

So, that was our trip to Delaware, Ohio. We hope to come back in September some year to watch the Little Brown Jug.

The tour group consisted of us, a couple from upstate New York and a couple from Connecticut. Our tour guide picked us up at 9:15 at the Horse Park and off we went. The tour guide was great. He is a native of Lexington and has been around the thoroughbred world his entire life. He knew more about the horses than Monte does and that is saying something! Did you know that it costs $18,000 per mile to paint a white horse fence and only $6,000 per mile for black fences? Just one of the many interesting facts imparted to us by Shaun, the tour guide.

Our stops were at WinStar Farm and Shadwell Farm, two of the biggest names in thoroughbred racing. 1,400 acre WinStar is the home of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver. But we were not there to see horses in training, we were there to see the stallions.

The only real money to be made in the Thoroughbred world is through having the best sires standing at stud at your farm. The stud industry allows you to make enough money to be able to afford a stable of horses that are currently in training to race and are racing. The stud horses have a rough rough life. They are retired race horses who now spend their lives having sex. Lots and lots of sex.

Because every thoroughbred, born in the Norther Hemisphere shares the same birthday of January 1, horse owners want their foals born as close to that date as possible (close to but after, if born on Dec 31, you are considered 1 year old the next day.) There is an 11 month gestation period so mares are bred between February and July. To get all the mares bred in this period of time, the sires “cover” (have sex with) 3 mares per day, 7 days per week.

Initially, stud fees are based on how well a horse did while running races, as time goes on their stud fees are based on how well the horses they sire do at the track. Two of the 8 or 9 studs at WinStar are Distorted Humor and Tiznow.

Distorted Humor is the sire of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Funny Cide. Every time Distorted Humor covers a mare his fee is $150,000. Seriously – $150,000 – 3x per day.

Tiznow is a two time winner of the Breeder’s Cup Classic (considered the premier thoroughbred race of the year). Tiznow gets a measly $75,000 for each mare he covers.

Remember how I said that the breeding season is from February until July? Well, that is only for the Norther Hemisphere. Horses born in the Southern Hemisphere share a birthday of August 1. So after the breeding season here, many of these big name sires ship to Australia where they continue at the 3x per day pace. This goes on from say age 4 until age 20. After 20 they might slow down to 2x per day. There is no Artificial Insemination allowed for thoroughbreds.

Shadwell Farm was an interesting stop in that it is the most amazing, state of the art facility, and is owned by Sheikh Hamdan, the Crown Prince of Dubai. As a member of the Dubai ruling Maktoum family, he is not in this for the money but for the bragging rights. For all of the Sheikh’s money and for all of his success in horse racing in both the US and England, having topped the owners list in Great Britian for 21 of the last 23 years, he has yet to be able to breed or buy a Kentucky Derby winner. The most interesting thing about this farm is how the employees are taken care of. Besides being paid very well apparently, everyone, from managers to grooms, gets full health insurance, and extra $250 per month paid on their mortgages, $200 per month for gas to get to work, and bunches of other perks. Needless to say – those jobs are very very hard to come by – no one quits.

Our last stop was at Keenland Racecourse to get a look at the “back side” where horses in training are stabled. We got to meet trainers, exercise riders, and most importantly a few race horses. All I can say is watch out for Lady McQueen on the turf at Churchill Downs and Weekend Wildcat who will probably run next at Woodbine in Canada. These 2 horses are part of the Larry Demeritte training stable. (don’t go bet the kids’ college funds on these 2).

We are really looking forward to our next stop – the Delaware, Ohio Fairgrounds. Now, if that doesn’t sound exciting I don’t know what does. You will just have to wait and see what is in store.

It is great to be home, the dogs are very happy, most of the yard work has been caught up, got my Dad a new computer up and running, and have in general just settled back in to the old home life.

This was a kind of different trip for us because we spent way more time with family and friends than we normally do – and it was great. We were away from home for 63 days but of those 63 days we were only in campgrounds for half that time, the rest was spent in the driveways and yards of friends and family – which is way more fun than campgrounds. We drove 5.489 miles in the motorhome and a bunch more in the car. We averaged $2.42 per gallon of gas. Compared with our average of last year of $3.91 – this trip was a total bargain.

I want to thank those of you have been faithful blog readers. However, many of you were slackers this year in the reading the blog category. Last year when we traveled for 3 months you visited the blog site 1,198 times. This year in 2 months – 331 visits. So yes, some of you (and you know who you are) have disappointed me but – I’ll take the blame and try to be more entertaining in the future.

Seriously, we hope that each of you had as great a summer as we did.

See you down the road.

As always we parked in Monte’s Mom’s driveway. Monte’s mom has lived in the same house for 67 of her 94 years – moved here when Monte was 2 years old – not that I’m trying to tell his age. Just how many 94 year olds do any of us know that live in their own home by themselves? Sara is pretty darn amazing. Several years ago she had a 30 amp RV electric hookup installed to ensure that we would always use her driveway as our campground. We would camp here anyway but the hookup is nice to have.

We spent from Thursday, July 23 until Wednesday August 5 here. Monte’s sister Nancy was visiting from South Carolina at the same time so that was an added bonus. We spent time just hanging out and going to the casino with brother Gary and his wife Linda, and with brother Jim to the horse track to watch the ponies run. Uncle Norm brought us some delicious grilled chicken one day and Gary and Linda hosted a cookout for all of us and the food was, as always, outstanding. Thank you!! And Sara – your peanut butter pie is totally scrumptious – thanks for sending one home with us (although it did not make it that far).

It was a relaxing, non-stressful visit and hopefully was enjoyed by the rest of the family as much as we enjoyed it.

Unbelievably, we took NO pictures. I have no idea how that happened but it did.

These cousins are the children of the brothers and sisters of Shelley and Deann’s Grandmother. So they are our 2nd cousins or grand cousins or something like that.

Whatever they are – it was great fun. I had not met them before – at least not that I can remember. Deann sees them a few times each year as they have a luncheon each month that is one of their birthdays. Except for this lunch. This lunch was a get together because I was in town and we all wanted to meet each other. It just happened that the day of the lunch happened to fall on the birthday of Aunt Lilac (my great aunt and not to be confused with my Aunt Anna Lilac in Colorado) the mother of Norma (I think).

The cousins are Norma, Echo, Imogene, and Elnora.
I hope to get to do this again next year!