Nothing new under the sun

Or rather lack of sun.
It was a rainy day, so I took a little trip in the kia. about 20 miles later:

From 10-1-2011

This was the home Martin Van Buren bought after he was defeated by William Henry Harrison.
Life is a bowl of Cherries:

The house:

I was thinking about his presidency. He started with the Panic of 1837, which lead the whigs to tag him "Martin Van Ruin". He pointed the the depression wasn't his fault, but his predecessor's. Of Course unlike our current president, Martin was his Predecessors vice president.
and the Campaign of 1840 was the first modern one. Who's up for Tippacanoe and Tyler , too?

Harrison, whose father signed the declaration of Independence, ran as a common man against Van Buren, whose father ran a tavern. That the story. But Harrison's Father lost his fortune, and "Van" had done well for himself, giving champagne parties at the White house. Harrison noted that if he were to be elected, he would serve hard Cider. Van Buren noted that Hard Cider had quite a bitter aftertaste, but Champagne went down smooth.
I closed the day by going to Fort Craillo, where Yankee doodle was composed:


It's now a dutch colonial museum: