We fought here- Vacation Part 2

Our next stop was sort of unplanned in central New York in a town called Rome.It was unplanned because we ended up camping about 5 miles away from it in a state park where we got the last camp site. The place was called Fort Stanwix. It nestles itself between two rivers where one needs to portage, or cross the land, with a boat to get from one to the other (that used to be a big deal).Your history lesson: it was only called Stanwix when the British owned it during the French and Indian War. However since the Patriots took over the fort during the revolution, they decided that calling it after some British guy that they probably didn't like was a poor idea. So they renamed it Fort Schuyler. Go ahead pronounce Schuyler. I bet you didn't say "Sky-lar". Well that is how you pronounce it. Apparently in the English language if you put the letters schu it makes a "skuh" sound. Anyway the fort effectively halted the British forces during the revolution which helped the Patriots win victories at other battlefields like Saratoga (foreshadowing).

No it isn't an out house it is a guard shack. It sits on one of the bastions (that means corner that sticks out)

Our next stop was (did you guess it?) Saratoga! After finally escaping Fort Stanwix and their insanely friendly park ranger we headed to Saratoga. We finally were able to do our first hike here! We did a loop called the Wilkinson Trail. It wound us through many of the prominent areas of the two battles. Your quick history lesson: Saratoga was where the French decided that well, maybe those rebel Patriots really do have a chance of beating up those danged British guys that are really irking us at the moment. Why not help them? Once the French were on our side we had a fighting chance for Independence.Most of the world sees the American Revolution not as a war between Britain and Americans, but rather between Britain and France.
We missed the driving tour at Saratoga because our hike took a while, and we didn't realize the tour road closed at 7pm.

One of the stops on the Wilkinson Trial. The letters corresponded to a guide that told you what was going on

looks like a cannon