Wednesday before Tday!

[carolb]

Good morning all! So many great stories of Tday's past & plans for Tday present! "Change" is not always f-n, especially the kind over which we have no control. Bt it happens--sonds like we're all making the best of it. That's all we can really do, eh? So glad y'all have been so OPEN to SHARE yore stories! Means the world to me... Hmmm, I like the "dessert only" meal plans! Making more pies today with bro & sis. Added pecans to my pompkin pie yesterday & wish I'd known abot the "zapping" them first! The things I learn on this site!!! Thanks Mitch! More links to totally addle me In case any of yew haven't cawght on, I'm pretty challenged with technology! I'm so looking forward to FL GTG--is anyone else looking at that as a mini "boot camp"?? I'm learning a lot threw this site, bt I'm a "hands on" learner. Hoping to get a few lessons (re rv's & compewters) from some of yew tech people who'll be there! & dawh, I made a "tech" error this morning! Responding to "Sandersmr," I wondered what her name was--do yew think I looked at her "signat-re"??? NOT ...Did get my water heater tank emptied yesterday tho--with help from bro (hands on learning). Well, on with my day--I've been on this site for THREE hrs this morning! Realize I've been remiss at welcoming new members--& of all people, I know how important that is, as I have been so welcomed by y'all! OH Catherine!!! Go for the BIG trip!!! & I'm glad yore getting yore baby owtta storage for the weekend! I'd miss my HB terribly if he weren't sitting in my drive Happy Tday eve to all & have a great day!!!

[grammynmaggie]

Morning....Carol I to am looking forward to FL GTG...i sure
hope to learn alot.....hope no one minds my ??i will have..
I know some about puters and will be glad to help you with
What I know .......cant wait!!!!!!

[cnq50b]

Good morning all...
Getting ready for last day at work this week, while also kitty-proofing the house & getting ready for returning kids - college daughter, boyfriend & 2 grandkitties coming home today, older daughter & 2 granddaughters coming in Friday, 2 Tday dinners - one tomorrow - just a prelim for Saturdays' full feast! Son & DIL still haven't decided if they want tomorrow's meal at their house or mine - argh!!!! I'd just like to know what to plan...

Thanks for filling me in on how long some of your longer trips have been... I used to drive straightthru KC-Houston (14 hours) but I was young & drove a Saab! Driving the van back from FL I realize these vehicles take more concentration & are more stressful so I do want to set reasonable expectations of how far I'll go each day. I'm not a big one for sticking around much once I get somewhere - but I also don't want to arrive exhausted. The van gets great mileage - 20-25 - same as my minivan - it drinks diesel though. I have some time to strategize & see if this is the right time to tackle this venture or if I should just truck out to Cali to see my son & DIL in the spring & fly to WA for the wedding..

Wishing each of you a peaceful Tday eve whether you are preparing meals, pies, traveling, or remembering... Stay safe & warm... So thankful you are all here!

[rvgrammy1953]

Good morning, ladies.... Up at 5:30am CST today....have had coffee and walked Spinner....did my reading online and now that the DH is up and going, I'll get around and get the day's work started....did carpets on Monday....did some sight-seeing yesterday....so today it will be sweep and mop the bathroom and kitchen area....Having company for Turkey day....My nephew, who's a Capt. at Ft. Hood and his sweet, but crazy wife (she's a "roller derby" queen... in Austin) are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us.....along with their fur-baby, Maxy, the white English Bull Dog....so having family for a holiday this year is extra special....They are bring alot of the dinner stuff and the 4 of us will take our offerings to the RV Park's Thanksgiving "Pot Luck". So my other project for today is the baking/roasting of Acorn Squash for tomorrow....so the new convection/toaster oven will get a workout today....

My Turkey day, turkey story has to do with "feeding the masses" in Germany.....Ernie was a platoon Sgt. at the time and had about 25-30 guys in his platoon...and we invited them to our military quarters for the holiday...mostly single guys, but a couple with wives...so I knew I was going to have to feed in 2 shifts...as our apt. wasn't big enough....well, being from a large family, I also knew I would need a good size turkey....bought a 25 pound bird...got that baby stuffed...then noticed that the oven in the "apt. size" stove wasn't going to be large enough to roast that bird with the door closed...so to make a long story short.....put that big guy in the oven at Midnight and took turns "baby sitting" the turkey all night, turning it every 2 hours so it would cook evenly and be done by Noon - 1pm to "feed the masses" that Turkey day... I did all my baking the day before and the mess hall sent over the potatoes, squash, and cranberries....All the guys asked Ernie what they could bring, and he told them "what ever they wanted to drink" knowing I would have coffee....every last one of them brought cases....cases of soda, cases of beer, cases of wine and the only place we had to store them all was our apt. balcony.... Well, needless to say, we had enough drinks for Thanksgiving AND Christmas celebrations.... The dinner went great and the Mess Sgt. thanked us for "lightening his load" cause he had a full house, too....and yes, the 4 wives that were there also baked, so we had lots of pie, too....so, since we always considered the single troops as our "extended family"....hope you enjoyed this "family Turkey day" story....

Have a great day, all....Now off to get busy.....

[Nasoosie]

GOOD MORNING TO ALL!

I am now using my second plan on this new Verizon MiFi gadget----my first 250 megabytes for 15 bucks was used up by yesterday afternoon! Guess that is not the way to go. I had no idea just how many bytes I use on this laptop each day----that 250 megs was good for a week, and lasted less than two days! So now I bought another 3 gigs this time, for 60 bucks. hence, it's cost me 75 dollars so far this week. Something tells me I will apreciate unlimited internet time much more now!

The day has dawned sunny and warmer, and I hope to spend more time outside today. I will try to go to Publix and get me a turkey to cook with all the fixins on Saturday, however, when the kids will be back from Washington DC.

Last year I went swimming in this pond outside my trailer at Goog's place, but it's been rather cooler at nights and even days this year. I might have to forgo the swim this time around! I need to start taking some good pics and try to post them on here with some program or another, as they have changed both my Webshots site and the Photobucket site.

I might be going out to dinner with Linda (Linann) tonight, if we can manage to set up a time and a place to meet. She has to work today, so I will just wait for a call to see what we can do. Donna and I will get together after Thanksgiving, as she is taking care of her father who fell and broke his collar bone, I believe. I guess I should turn on my water heater and prepare to take a shower (I hate showers) in this trailer for the first time ever, now that we have set up a sewer system for here. I could go inside the kids' house and take a bath, but I am curious to try this shower. Shudder-----showers always make me so cold!

Lori----your story about 'feeding the masses' is great! You posted it just as I tried to post this.

I, too, am really looking forward to the FL GTG in January!

Hope you all have a fun pre-turkey day and are meeting with family or friends to share some fun.

[Redetotry]

It is really foggy here this morning! Glad I don't have to be on the roads. DH has a terrible cold and will miss going to the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I feel so bad as he enjoys them a lot more than I do. If he is better I will go and hopefully they will offer to send him a take home plate! I've never seen him so sick,and it hit him so fast! He said his throat was a little sore Sunday evening and by noon Monday he was on the couch where he has pretty much been since.

I realized reading all the Thanksgiving stories that I don't remember any from my home growing up. When I was a senior in high school I started going to one of my friends for holiday meals. Her mom was Italian and they served wine and made the dressing with salami or sausage. Oh, and had what we called Fish Food Cookies among the desserts. I loved it all!! Zeee, I'll be waiting to see if you know what fish food cookies are!! They were layered top and bottom with something that looked like the white wafer fish food.

Lori loved your story about feeding the troops from your tiny oven!

[chalet05]

Good Morning,

I am enjoying all the Thanksgiving stories. The day has really snuck up on me and yesterday I realized I didn't send cards to grandkids or a special aunt and uncle - oops.

When our older daughter was 1 1/2 and I was pregnant with the next one, we weren't with family for some reason on Thanksgiving. We went to a new, fancy hotel in Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner. I loved it! Nikki was so good. Another favorite was going to friends' house and having lasagna! I suppose those were years we got together with Mother, my brother and sister on the weekend due to someone's work schedule. My Mother's last Thanksgiving we went to a Seattle waterfront restaurant. Obviously, I prefer the going out! We still always had our own turkey dinner at some point because UPS gave their employees a turkey at Christmas every year.

I have something extra to be thankful for this year - I sold the 5th wheel and the hitch last evening. They will come to pick it up this evening! So at the end of March, I will truly feel like a full-timer again and will be on the road instead of sitting in one place next winter! After the last month of sorting, cleaning, etc., I am ready for a break - tho there is still much to be done because some things I just tossed in storage to deal with later.

So today will be errands - the veggie stand is open, I am mailing Christmas quilts to a daughter and granddaughters, have to go get the 5er hitch from storage (we just took it there last week), etc. and then close the 5er up so they can just hook up and go.

A high school friend and her hubby arrived here last evening to see other friends so Linda and I will have to catch up at some point.

Carolb, you have much more patience than I and you are very creative without the 'yew'. I will confess there have been a couple mornings I started to read your post and thought there sure were a lot of typos before the light dawned!

Red, glad to hear you will be coming to AZ! I missed out the Quartzsite GTG last winter so looking forward to January!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[dayspring39]

Good Morning... very dense fog here... but will be warm in the high 50s today...
My son Chuck is coming tonight sometime... we will eat I know not what because he did not want me to cook so will figure out something when the time comes... no turkey... then on Friday we will go over to my daughter Margies for dinner...
Today is the day the lady comes and cleans my kitchen... that will be good as I cannot scrub the floor or do behind things...
Have a great day everyone...
Kathleen

[Redwahine]

Great TDay stories. I have another one. In the 80s we had gtg, but by sailboats. Several people would sail to the small island of Lanai and tie up in the little muddy Menele Harbor. Lanai was still a little sleepy pineapple plantation. Dole poneapple owned thenisland. No hotels. No tourists. The locals would come down to Hulupoe beach (still the most beautiful beach in the world) and dig a big imu ( underground oven) and roast pigs and turkeys. Anyone that wanted to put something in the imu to cook was welcome. The visiting boaters would put in a turkey or pork butt. Everything is in and the pit closed on TDay eve. There were about 10 turkeys, 15 pork butts and tons of lau lau (fish and pork wrapped in Taro leaves) Then the party begins as you watch over the imu cooking all night. All night you would smell the keawe (like mesquite) smoking and the smell of Kailua turkey and pig began to permeate the whole beach. We would sing and party taking dips in the ocean to refresh all night. The next morning they would uncover the imu and we would shred the turkey and pig. The women would bring other dishes and deserts from town and the feast would last till the last person collapsed. They would eat, sing, play ukulele, dance, "talk story", laugh. Old folks watching the little ones stumble in the sand. Such fun on a beach with a few pic nic tables and about 100 people.

One of these TDays my teenage son (around 14) asked to bring a friend with him to our TDay tradition. Sure, bring em. The boys helped the men from town (town was 15 mile up on top of the island) chop the wood, strip the banana leaves, etc then got bored. This island was had lots of scub brush and and kawe trees with big thorns. There were lots of wild turkeys, pigs and deer. The boys came running up to me with their big wrist sling shots and aske if they could go hunting for a turkey? I was distracted helping salt the pig. I also had a 9 mo old baby in a sling on my hip!!! I thought to myself, there is no way those boys would be able to hunt and kill a turkey with a sling shot, so I said, " sure, be careful" and went back to the preparations. Well, you guessed it! A few hous latter they ran to me so excited with their catch. A skinny wild turkey hen. They were so, excited and proud. Whatcha gonna do?? My son knew the rules, kill it? Clean it. Eat it. His friend was more of a city kid and was horrified at the thought he had to do anything with his prize catch. So we went over th the fish cleaning area by the harbor and I showed them but made them clean the turkey. My son was not gonna do all the work. He made his friend help take the guts out. Poor kid lost his stomach several times. It was too late to put the bird in the imu so I put it in one of those foil pans and mad a foil tent like oven. The boys gathered tons of keawe branches and started coals in one of those beach BBQs. The other bored teens came over to check out the BBQ and gathered at their "above ground" imu and helped watch their turkey cook. The teens played guitar and their "Jawaiian" (Jamaican/Hawaiian mix) music on their boom box, and wrestled in the sand, danced and fished while keeping the fire going on low. How was the turkey? Awful. Tough and stringy. But they learned if you kill it, you eat it!! All those teens had the best TDay ever. My son, now 40, still talks about that TDay. I think this was one of my most memorable Thanksgivings ever.

We know that we can not duplicate the experience because Murdock bought the island, got rid of the pineapple plantation, built two 10 star resorts. There is little public access to the island now

[Dawn309]

Love hearing all the Thanksgiving stories. We all have so many great memories. We always had single service men at our holiday celebrations too being in the Army. I remember all those young men fondly. Seemed like they always made sure to bring some kind of candy they thought we kids would like.

Got to make my cornbread today for my dressing. I got rid of my cast iron pan when I thought I was too heavy before we got weighed. The cornbread won't brown like normal, but should still be good. Paul and I are both making part of the dinner. As ususal, I am making the turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy. Still "That Mom" in the kitchen. Some things don't change.

Just got some wonderful news! Nancy (TraveliNana Sp?) is going to caravan with Paul, Mom and I on the way to the FL GTG. She will get to join us for Christmas in MS. This is going to be so much fun!

Everyone have a wonderful day and if you are traveling, stay safe.

[havingfunnow]

Red, I love that Thanksgiving story! What a party!

We always had the "if you kill it, you eat it" rule too. When I was about eight, the big boys (who were probably about 13 to 15) came out of the woods with a porcupine! They did not enjoy dressing out that kill, for sure. The stew was fine, though.

Louise

[MrsHomeSweetRoam]

I've been busy; moved le kiddo to his new/first place and left him there all alone. I feel equally horrible and free... He needs to grow up a little though and some kids need a push out of the nest before they fly... I've been sorting through remaining contents of the apartment and trying to list and relist things for sale... 9 more days of the apartment and time to empty it. Lately we've parked the rig in my home city in Riverside but hubby or both of us have been commuting in to Los Angeles... it's rough... and wasn't our initial plan- but this transition phase is just challenging. Stayed at the granddaughter's house ...long enough to get dragged into their struggles... sigh... ended up giving them our refrigerator and then discovered how little and how out of date most their food was.... so husband and I went on a shopping spree for them... then the next day their power/water got shut off.... and they owe way too much for us to help --and thinking they need to learn a lesson (or something) from the experience... it's realllllly hard on us not to hand over our hard earned money... but we've already set ourselves back from our monetary goals a few times... and we can't do it again. Made sure the baby has what she needs and they will have to get by or sell stuff or whatever one does to rectify their situation. It's so hard on me emotionally though. My heart aches for that baby -I would love for her to grow up in such different circumstances. ....anywho!

We are and have been parked at my aunt's place because we needed fresh water... and now our tanks are full. We wanted to stay at our favorite local place but it's full due to the holidays, so in a few minutes we'll leave and just pay to dump and then probably come back to my aunt's property as she wants us to join in on Tday with them, anyway.

I don't know what the girls are doing, especially in their circumstance... but we invited them to come stay in the rig and do Tday with my family- whom she hasn't met yet...and extend connections for the grandbaby... but we'll see how it all turns out.

So today consists of dumping (no cleaning as they dont have fresh water to clean at this station) and then deciding where to sit for the holiday week. Sunday we will head back to the apartment as someone is going to buy and take some of the remaining big stuff... just need to sell the sofa and table set. The rest is random odd small things that just need to go away...

We haven't done a big family gather thing in a few years- just been hubby and the kiddo... so this will be an adventure... and le kiddo decided to go to a friends place...

Not a huge fan of holidays...

[BarbaraRose]

Almost not morning here but thought I would jump in before getting ready for work.

I have had a reputation for accidently cooking turkeys upside down. I really can't tell which side is up without a head or feet to go by! The first time I did that, my brother went to carve it and couldn't find any meat! Then he turned it over and there it was! It wasn't brown but it sure tasted good! Now I find out that some people do that on purpose because the meaty part is sitting in the juices while cooking and doesn't get dried out.

I made goulash last night for our potluck at work today. I am downscaling my food plans for tomorrow since we are only having 6 of us at my brother's now.

Yesterday we had a customer come in who was telling us about all his road trips with his wife and kids. I told him he should get an RV (they just have a car they travel with) and he loved the idea. He thinks he will rent one first to check it out. I told him where to get more info on line about RVing. One thing he asked me tho, that I couldn't answer was if everyone in the RV has to have a seatbelt on while on the road. I told him I think just the two up front, but wasn't sure. I don't think those in back are required to but want to check with you gals to be sure, in case I talk to him again.

There was a PBS special on this week (2 nights) about the Dust Bowl of the 30's. It was very interesting. Anyone else catch that? I had no idea how long (almost 10 years) and horrible that was! The photos and video were amazing!

Hope you all have a great TDay!

[Excel]

Yes....all persons in a rv have to have a seat belt...at least in Calif.

Did watch the Dustbowl .... However Part 2 was a repeat of Part 1 (at least on my TV)
I didn't realize that tragedy lasted 10 yrs either...I had a hard time watching those families
go through such horrible times....Lots of tears shed.....
My Dad was in the CCC's & I wished that they had shown more
of what those fellows did.... a few years ago I visited Hoover Dam & remembered the stories
he told about how that was built & how many deaths there really were.....So much of what really happened
in the building of that dam will never be told to the public.....BTW...he was a 'powder monkey'...in
other words he did the dynamite blasting....He's gone now but I miss him so much....wish I had
asked more questions & listened more carefully....his life story before he met my Mom would
be a 'best seller'.....He was great !!!!

[Redetotry]

I watched the Dust Bowl too and it was so sad. I didn't realize it lasted so long either. Was it Roosevelt who had the amazing photographer take all the pictures of the people trying to survive. He focused on their eyes and it was like you were looking into their souls.
I saw a PBS documentary on building the Hoover Dam and they did expose a lot of how horrible the working conditions were. So many fell into the concrete and there was no way to save them. The death rate was very high among the workers.