This was my first time in Aiken, and I can’t wait
to go back. I was able to be working student, help the vet; I got to
see some really cool things, Giving injection and drawing
blood.
As
most of you have heard, or seen we flew into and snow storm in NC, and drove to
an Ice storm in Aiken. For
a couple of days at the farm we lost
electricity. This meant that chores
that we as easy as giving 20 gallons of water to one horse were chores. Some
days we would drive to the farm down the street with the 100 gallon gray tub,
fill it with water and then hand bucket it out to the horses. (Otherwise we
could never get it out of Erin’s truck). We would also fill large muck bucket
style tubs just to get the horse clean afternoon or AM water... Then as the ice melted from the roof I had a good
idea, we used melting ice from
the roof, we did not have to luge the water back and forth for one afternoon. The weather in Aiken was very
unpredictable, Am the horses all had their nice medium weight blankets on,
mid-morning, they may need there light weights, then in afternoon the sun would
be shining, and they would have nothing on. There was a lot of blanket changing
going on. Who would have been so happy to have electricity, it would not have
been bad, if there was working water. But we made great use of Erin’s headlamp
flashlight.
At
home, the house Erin stayed at, it was freezing. There were no hotel left in
town, the closest was Augusta Ga. (we were not that desperate yet) Mike was, he
didn’t come home that night. But we had fun. Erin an Mom drag a mattress from
upstairs, (Erin was the lucky one who go to mattress surf down the stairs) and
we all slept in the living room, the neighbor brought us a propane heater that
we could warm up the room, and stay warm.
One morning, I skipped out
on AM chores at the barn, and went to see the race horse’s breeze. It
was very cool. I
think my mom parked in the wrong spot because we got to stand right next to the
track. After a little while of watching
we went to The Track Kitchen.
This is a very small place that you walk right in the kitchen, get coffee, and
tell them what you want for breakfast. The history of the track kitchen is all
over the walls, in newspaper articles, pictures etc. There are some great old
pictures of the local are race horses, driving horses, and family pictures that
made Aiken what it is today. One funning thing I learned is that there really is
no racing in Aiken, there’s the Steeple Chase and the Triple Crown, but really
horse racing, Aiken is more about training races horses. When you sit down in
this little restaurant no one seats you, it was sit where ever you want. So we
joined a table with some local people. It was really good;
I meet a local equine surgical vet (who knows when you will need one of these), a local
photographer who also owed a few race horses, and an older man. This older gentlemen was a grandfather,
who’s picture were on the wall of him and his wife driving their horses. The
photographer Barry Bornstein had taken. , this man drove horse, he still owned a
few. He asked if “he could take me home to go
for a ride. The one thing I didn’t get to see is Hitchcock gardens. Big Marissa
says this is why she fell in love with Aiken; unfortunately due to the weather
it was too dangerous. (Shhh don’t tell my dad but looks like we will have to
plan another trip)
The next day we went to a
museum in Aiken, it was pretty cool. There were stories about the hope diamond
and how the Evenly Mclean, would summer in Aiken in the summers. Evelyn would
wear the diamond while looking for art, digging in the garden. Evalyn would
frequently misplace her diamond. Evalyn said that she was
always misplacing it, only to recruit the help of friends and family into a
“game” of finding it again. Even at times she wound
adore it as a collar for her dogs. Evalyn eventually sold it to Harry Winston
who donated it to the Smithsonian.
The best thing was taking a
ride down one of the oldest streets in Aiken; Erin told us how this banker
planted the trees so that he would have a beautiful ride to work each day. This
was one of my favorite streets. I think even with the ice storm it was
beautiful.
When it was time
for dinner I did not no what kind of food they had,
Erin took me to a restaurant called Maria’s.
Erin loved there cheese dip, .and so
did we. We loved this place so much we ate it 3 times
while I was there. Oh but there was a ton of restaurants on whiskey road.
Thank you Erin for all the fun like mattress
surfing, hacking
on the track, explaining concentric circles, helping me buy my new saddles, and
walking Paradise. The list of things I learned out there would continue for
days. I had a blast thank u again.
Oh I can’t forget to
mention hanging out with your friends Teresa and Gina. They were very
nice.
They both had their own horses and customers horses , but nothing compared to
what Erin had. I have to say, I never minded going to bed at night. It was a
long day. I can’t believe how much Erin does, and how lucky big Marissa is to be
out there with her.
While Erin was preparing
for paradise, Big Marissa kept me busy but helping her get the horses ready, and
showing me who all the name riders were. IT was super
cool.
Little Marissa
