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Love or hate General Grant (I happen to like him), this is where he spent his last days. From what I've read, the state of the cottage is exactly the way it was the day he died (to a history junkie like me, that's freakin' HEROIN!). But, I was denied access.
A bit wilted, but the same friggin' flowers! For history nut me, overwhelming!!!! 
My grandmother was big on taking us to all kinds of historic sites around here and she was friendly with the elderly Japanese lady who was the caretaker of Grant's Cottage. The last time I tried visiting must have been in the '80s, after the prison was there, and the guards with guns nearby were intimidating enough that I just turned around and got out of there!
Having been inside numerous times, it's actually kind of creepy. The clock is stopped at the minute of General Grant's death, his dusty funeral flowers are preserved there as well as his used bandages, believe he died of throat cancer. 
But my grandmother was great at taking us to all kinds of historical places - and there sure are a lot around here - and I'm grateful for it. My grandmother is buried in the same cemetery as Jane McCrea, of Revolutionary War fame. That was the incident that disturbed me greatly as a little kid. There are numerous graphic paintings of her being scalped by American Indians.
Guess that was her way of entertaining us, LOL, but I learned to appreciate the history there. She was the only one in my family who took me out when I was learning to drive, would take me to cemeteries to practice turning... 
Nothing is within walking distance and the only public transportation is taxi service. There are buses in Glens Falls, and a summer trolley service to Lake George, but they don't come anywhere near me.
The first time I flew overseas, went to Ireland when I was a teenager, my mother insisted that my parents take me to the airport. My Dad refused, so my grandmother drove me to my uncle's in New Jersey and he took me to JFK. 
Yes, I went there with my fifth grade class, LOL, would really like to go back sometime!
We have enough issues without bringing more gambling to the area. 
A couple of years ago my cousin, who currently lives in Connecticut, wanted to meet my brother and me at Howe's Caverns, an excuse to get together, but my brother wouldn't go.
I grew up in Saratoga. In the summer, when the track was open, all kinds of undesirables came to town along with the racing set and the beautiful horses.
The ones we get now are bad enough...
Often at the expense of those who can least afford it.
Apparently she spent all her money and had no way home. She has serious addiction problems.
The only time we ever hear about these things is if someone gets in legal trouble.
When I was a kid, my friend's stepfather worked summers at the $50 window at the track. He acquired all kinds of "friends" who'd regularly stop by just to say hello, since nobody knew they weren't actually betting. 
My Dad used to take us to see the horses. We'd sit with the rich people in the mayor's box. 
To run in the Travers.
As you know, I grew up in Saratoga, now it's about 20 minutes south. With the track as their biggest tourist card, I don't think a prohibition on casino gambling stands a chance.
You've been doing a super job! And it now looks like we're on the same MIRT schedule... 
As for the host forum changes, I'm a "wait and see," though I'm kinda bummed since the forums I'm a host for, especially LBN, have long time and experienced hosts who have gotten used to working well together.
When I was first a mod, back in 2007, we all worked with separate forums. I was an LBN mod back then. But when I came back a couple of years later, all the mods worked together on all the forums and it worked well, but I'm not sure how it will work with the hosts. First of all, will all the hosts for all the forums remain as hosts? I'll be cool with it if there's no fighting. When I was a mod, we got along pretty much the same way we do in MIRT.
That may be a good thing, since we've had a couple of them that were disruptive, like the one who objected to locking anything in LBN. Guess we'll see... 
I'm already a host in four of the major forums and have been for quite awhile...
I didn't read anything about current hosts being ineligible unless they had hidden posts.
But I guess many of the others didn't. I would imagine that most of the current hosts fit those qualifications...
From my perspective, I think the most active hosts should be chosen.
Sometimes when we get an alert late at night, I take a look at the list to see who might still be around - and I often notice names I've never seen.
But that was occasionally true with the mods - or on MIRT, as you know. We seem to have good coverage in the morning, have a couple of super LBN mods who always check in, but I'm always looking for who else might be around at night... Last night I must have nuked DTG a half dozen times after midnight.
And I am very poor about cleaning out my inbox... 
But I think it's safe for me to get rid of PMs from previous terms... 
Though it would help a great deal if we had Forum Search.
Sometimes I'm sure we've discussed someone before, but I'm practically cross eyed after going through numerous previous pages... 
And the weather has been just awful here! It started raining last night, lightning and thunder, but when I got up today it was worse, teeming rain with a vengeance, and it's not over yet! 
I can't imagine living without AC these days, and I live right next to the mountains!
And I can remember having a blizzard here in May...
