June 16, 2011

It is rare that one can achieve two items from the “Bucket List” in one day. Today has been one of those days. I got an early foggy start to the day, pulling out of Binghamton, NY much earlier than the competitors to get to today’s lunch stop…Cooperstown, NY, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. What an incredible village! I arrived early enough to see both the Field of Dreams Sports Complex, a baseball sports field made up of over 20 baseball fields that hosts some of the largest baseball tournaments in the world, for youth, and the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Village of Cooperstown. What an awesome setting into to which the rally competitors were to arrive. Huge crowds, lots of enthusiasm and the best hot dogs so far on the Great Race!
From Cooperstown, I was back on the road heading towards Saratoga Springs, NY home of one of the finest automobile museums in the world… holding presently some $20,000,000 worth of vehicles! The special display currently is called,  Forza Italia… The Enduring Mystique of Italian Sports and Performance Cars.  I saw cars today that I will never see again. I was reminded that A Zust was third in the New York-to-Paris “Round the World Race” in 1908. That was the world’s first Great Race. The arrival of the cars tonight was just perfect… beautiful cars, great weather, huge crowds in  the midst of the Saratoga Spa State Park. The competiton is still very tense. Today was the first of two days of our Championship Run…culminating tomorrow in Bennington, VT. Who will the champions be?