Camp Joan - Day 7 - Bets, battlefields, and batters

The day started off with Uncle Len taking me to Saratoga at around 11:00. After going into the visitors center, we took a car tour of the battlefield. Turns out most of the battle took place in this one stop - Freeman's Farm. The irony of it is that Freeman was loyal to the British! Anyway, we saw the mighy Hudson at one stop. There was also some posts with red or blue tape to represent the defenses. The defenses weren't all that big. Just imagine stacking two ten-foot long and 5-foot high Lincoln Logs on top of oneanother and there you have the defenses.

After that, we headed to Stewart's off of a highway. I met up with Marybeth, Molly, Sara, and Miles. After a quick lunch, we drove down to the Saratoga race track. After placing our bets (the most money put in was two dollars), we watched a few races. Molly won a whopping four dollars in one race. Me, I always bet on the longshot. Sara won 53 bucks at one point! Miles only bet once, and his was number 8, Chocolate Drop.

This horse was very fiesty. (S)he threw off the jockey at one point! (S)he also couldn't walk in a straight line - you know, now that I think about it, Miles and the horse are a lot a like. Huh. Anyway, the horses were in the gates when one of them (Number 5) dropped. Literally, it fell down and seemed hurt. I hope it's not a twisted ankle, because then it would have to be put to sleep. That would stink.


The race was delayed 3 minutes because of the injury, but soon they were off. Chocolate Drop shot out of the gate like a bullet, and galloped at least 10 yards in front of the other horses. Unfortunetly for Miles and everyone else who bet on that horse, it must've burnt off too much energy in the beginning, because it gradually slowed down and fell into fourth place. Bummer.

After we got back, all of us siblings decided to tussle - I have absolutely no idea why, but we did. I took on Molly and Theo at the same time at one point, though. Well, not so much Molly - she kept on getting pushed back.

After a small dinner (for me, at least) Uncle Len took all of us (Except for the camp director) to a baseball game. Nothing very eventful occured there, except for the fact we got some free t-shirts. Ah, well. Small victories.

Quote of the day:
"C'mon, ya big stupid! Run! Ruuuun! Go go go go go go go! No, don't slow down! NOOOOOOOOOO! Yeah, that's it, catch up-GAH! NO! KEEP GOING! FASTER! GO FASTER YOU SON OF A GUN! GO! GOOOOOOOO!" - Dan, as he watches his horse's victory slipping away.