Race and War

I'm never going to get around to editing these photos that have been waiting patiently for weeks, so I'm going to forget about waiting to post till I've prettied up my pics.

A couple weeks ago, Neil and I went to the International Gold Cup steeplechase races and the next day we went to a Civil War re-enactment. You know how I love horsies, so it was a dream come true.

The race was sponsored by Porsche. I'm all for discretion, but I wanted a glamorous picture posing among the cars on display and Neil would have none of it. Come on! I guess it would've been a bit tacky. It was also fun to see all the people on display.

The winner of the $50,000 prize in the main race (there were seven or so races total) was a horse named Bubble Economy, sort of in the middle in the next two pictures below, ridden by the jockey in white and light gray. This was right after they passed the finish line.

The last race of the day.
Neil and I went to a Civil War re-enactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek, 144 years to the day after the actual battle took place. Neil has wanted to go to a re-enactment all summer, so he finally got to live his dream.

Being a native Virginian, I was a little leery about what the whole re-enactment thing was going to be about, but now I would highly recommend attending. The Cedar Creek re-enactment was really awesome -- full uniforms, cavalry, rifles, casualties, etc. It didn't hurt that the battle was a huge Union victory and a major turning point in the war.

As soon as we got there, we heard and felt the reverberations of real cannons going off -- they are incredibly loud, and from 1/2 mile away, you could still feel them shaking your bones. I'm not sure how many people were out on the field, but there could easily have been 1,000. I was really impressed. See for yourself: