My granddaughter Laurie, who lives in North Carolina, knew that I had been invited and was eager to visit Tony and Judy Eastwood. Judy is my wife's niece and Tony is known for his historical knowledge of the city, for he is called upon to accompany tours and explain things as they drive through the city. Saratoga Springs is an amazing place. Driving slowly along as near the right side as he could get, he would point out millionaire after millionaire's palatial homes. And he knew the history of those who lived there. He pointed out one beautiful mansion, he said "that one is occupied one month out of the year." Because the rich and famous keep their homes in such nice shape, the worker places are kept up in beautiful condition too. 

 Tony and Judy own an acre on a real nice street. They have beautified the grounds in front and back to the edge of the woods and then they have cut trails into the forest and made little garden plots on these trails. The only trouble is that the mosquitoes also love this location. So, Tony has constructed a screened in back porch so they have their meals and almost live out there in the summer.

 It seems that during the Revolutionary War, the British General Burgoyne believed that the Hudson River would be the best highway to move his forces from Canada to New York City. After a brutal winter, attacks of diarrhea and other intestinal trouble along with malnutrition and some of the American soldiers had just quit and gone back to their farms. But while the British still stuck to the way they had been taught to march a large solid ranked body of men against the foe while the Americans had adopted the methods of the Indians and the frontier men. That is, they would stay hidden in the trees and pick off the British one man at a time. This was very discouraging for they couldn't see the men they were fighting. The American forces had gathered on a height of land called Bemis Heights. This gave them a position overlooking the narrowest point of the Hudson and also the lowlands on each side. By this time the British had hired some German troops, but because the Americans had had some successful battles and a Polish engineer had joined the Americans, their forces now numbered 17,000 men. When the British finally decided they had to take that hill, they lost their cannon and 1,000 men. They were low on ammunition, for help that had been promised had never arrived. Being out-numbered and out of ammunition, Burgoyne had to surrender. So 4,000 men marched out and laid down their weapons. This was one of the decisive battles of the war.

 Now back to present day Saratoga. My granddaughter Laurie and her little dog Mona make perfect traveling companions. Laurie has visited and worked in Vietnam and some other Asian countries and so is an interesting person, while Mona was part of a pup factory and has spent most of her life shut up in a box. It took a while for her to dare to venture out in the world. A female dog is bred and then when the pups are born and have been with the mother a while she is bred again and the pups are sold. No wonder the female acts afraid of the world.