Dog is My Co-Pilot

We made it, and in fine shape too! After a slightly spooky night in Erie, PA (I was sort of surprised to see my vehicle still there when Zoe and I went outside in the morning), the Zo-Monster and I glided in to Saratoga Springs about 5:00 yesterday afternoon. We were a little road weary, but not as bad as the night before (I thought, toward the end of Monday night, that I was having an out of body experience; the road is like to hypnotize a guy).



Saratoga Springs is a gorgeous place. I'm sitting downtown now, at the Saratoga Springs Visitor Center, where they gave a guy Internet access for free, so I'm sitting outside at a picnic table with, can you Kentuckians believe it???, a jacket on, of all things.



It's been raining all day and it's cool, especially by a south of the Mason-Dixon line guy's standards.



But, it's quaint here - sort of like an old small town meets Chicago's Miracle Mile - there are upscale shops everywhere and the town is very tidy. And, it's fairly quiet, though there are a lot of people around, going about their days.



But the silence is enchanting at the track. We're at Clare's Court, as our section of the Spa (a nickname for Saratoga) is called. You drive under this one-car wide, low-ceilinged, tunnel to get there and your path is surrounded on all sides by trees. When I got to the barn, the first thing I noticed was the silence. That's great for horses, them not being especially vocal animals.



And our barn at Clare's Court is surrounded by this very narrow training track - I know of at least four tracks here and I'm sure there're more. I thought this track was a horse walking path, sort of like the one's you see at Keeneland, for those of you who've been there. But, no, out of the silence I heard the unmistakeable "thumpity, thumpity, thump" of horses galloping. And, whereas at Churchill Downs you're always several feet from the track, here you could reach out and touch the animals as they thundered by. Quite a thing to see.

You have to love ow dedicated this town is to horses. There are guards who stop traffic on surrounding roadways so horses can cross to get the tracks, or get back to their barns. A place where horses have the right of way! Well, most of the are probably worth more than the stopped cars combined, so it's probably prudent as well as charming!

We spent this morning getting the stalls ready for the horses' Friday arrival - 11 or 12 of them then, but I think Street comes in later, possibly in his own chariot.

I did very glamarous things like this morning rake the shedrow, put screw eyes in the walls so we can hang feed tubs, water buckets, and the like. More fun than that, though, was sweeping cobwebs out of the stalls. The stuff even gets in your eyes! Yipee!!!

Naw, really, that's just part of the job. And, even though the rain poured, I was quite content to get what we could ready for our horses to come in (footnote: Donkey's coming as well - as koo-koo as he was the other day, he's a very sweet and kind horse and it will be fun to have him here. Plus, I didn't let him get the jump on me the day after he exploded - I just kept an eye on him and talked to him and he didn't act out - whether that was just luck or not, I'll never know).

Zoe the Wonder Dog is doing very well. I think she really took to the setting this morning, even with the rain. She even followed me outside, and got her self wet, which is usually a Zoe no-no (she is an urban dog, and does so enjoy shelter - she believes she will dissolve in water, generally speaking) and watched horses galloping around the training track (and didn't even bark at them!).

She didn't come with me here to the Visitor's Center, though. I think she felt she needed a great big ole nap before feed time tonight. She's been a joy to have along. How cool that I can take her to the track with me!

We get to enjoy the next day or so without a whole lot to do. We're not charged with many duties until the horses actually get here. That'll be nice, so I can finish unpacking, get groceries, sleep in (for one day) and generally just relax. That'll be good for the dog too.

It's about time to head back out to where I'm staying, unpack, maybe catch a nap and get around to that doing nothing I've been thinking about for the last hour or so. Fading, fading, too much manual labor, soft lawyer guy's hands are sore. Feel my pain?

Please don't. Feel my joy at being here. What an extraordinary place.