The 2013 McChump ??/365 Racing Tour

  • Arlington Park, Arlington Heights, IL, July 5, 2013

Stopped in the day after the big fireworks show.

Guess people musta ran out of money the day before, because they really didn't bother coming out today.

Just one picture.

  • Montana State Fair Grounds, Great Falls, MT, July 20 & 27, 2013

After a hiatus of a couple years after the state wide racing disaster caused by the abrupt departure of Eric Spector with (allegedly) other people's money as well as a lot of the simulcast equipment, and some nonsense at the Montana Board of Horse Racing, a local group finally banded together to bring horse racing back to the Montana State Fair Grounds in Great Falls. The Great Falls Turf Club, they called themselves.

Well, as far as I could tell the meet was a success, and lots of folks besides me were glad the racing was back. Best of luck to the GFTC in the future.

A few pictures.

  • Sonoma County Fair, Santa Rosa, CA, Aug 9-10, 2013

Roxy of KG fame decided he was going to visit the White Pine races in Ely this summer, so me and McChump #2 subsequently formulated a stupendously brilliant plan for a big summer 2013 horse racing outing, especially considering he was thinking about going out to No Cal that summer. So I'd fly down from Missoula and meet him in San Francisco, from where we would proceed in  a northerly direction to the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, then east to Reno, farther east to Ely for the White Pine Races to meet up with Roxy and have more exciting Hotel Nevada adventures, and finally down to Vegas, from where I'd then fly back and he would drive on to ... somewhere. Brilliant. Could not fail.

The most astounding thing was, it went off without a hitch. So what the hell kind of humorous story does that make?

The Sonoma County Fair was a blast. Pictures only.

  • White Pine Raceway, Ely, NV, Aug 17, 2013

After Sonoma came a real exciting few days in the real exciting town of Reno, Nevada, which I'm here to tell ya chump leaves something to be desired, except they do have a pretty nice minor league baseball team within walking distance of the main hotel district, and it has this weird red mascot name Archie, and this disturbing white ballon head thing peeks over the outfield fence from time to time. And a ho hum day in Lake Tahoe - boring casino central. But then finally the drive through the barest of deserts in Nevada to the more eastern part of the state and the mountain town of Ely, Nevada, for the big White Pine Horse Races therein.