Adventures with EliJoin Eli (along with Susan & Dave) on his adventures and travels!

It sure didn’t feel like Thanksgiving this morning, as we packed up our rig and moved on from New Orleans.  It was mid 70’s and green outside – that’s not Thanksgiving weather where we come from.  But we had our PB&J for lunch as we made our way west on I-10 across Louisiana, and by the time we crossed the border into Texas and found our spot at Hidden Lake RV Resort in Beaumont, I had a plan to make this feel more like Thanksgiving.

We got settled into our spot and discovered the bumpy road had claimed some of our Correll dishes – we had a couple that hit the counter (or floor) and shattered everywhere.  So Susan stayed behind to clean up the dangerous shards while Eli & I hightailed it to a nearby Kroger grocery store to pick up Thanksgiving dinner.  We got there at 3:30 and they closed at 4pm, so we quickly ran around picked up the essentials: turkey breast tenderloins, potatoes, brown gravy mix, cranberries, butter. And on top of that, I managed to snag the last half-pecan, half-pumpkin pie – score!  We ended up having a simple but tasty Thanksgiving dinner, made right here in our RV.

It wasn’t quite perfect – I had purchased heavy whipping cream, but not whipped cream.  I figured we’d just whip it ourselves, but that real only works well if you have a stand mixer.  Our attempts to do it with a variety of hand & motorized tools succeeded in getting cream everywhere in the kitchen (except in a nicely formed dollop on top of our pie).

Despite the whipped cream failure, we still have a lot to be thankful for today.  I’m very thankful we had the circumstances that allowed us to make this trip a reality, and that we had the guts to do it.  I’m also very thankful that we’ve had a pretty smooth trip so far.  No major hiccups, no major malfunctions, and no major breakdowns (automotive, physical, nor emotional).

We’re also thankful about how this trip has brought us closer together, and forced us to confront some of the challenges in our relationship that we just couldn’t tackle back in Madison. Being out on the road with just ourselves, Susan and I are working through different issues that we each have struggled with for a long time.  We really are a good pair for each other; we can bring out each other’s best, but also each other’s worst – and our challenge is in figuring out how to focus on the good stuff and not get hung up fighting about the not-so-good stuff.

And of course, we’re so thankful to have Eli, and for him to be such a very accommodating traveler!  He’s such a great little boy – and really, he is officially a little boy at this point; it’s crazy to look back at pictures & videos from the last year and see just how much his body & facial features have developed.  I can’t even believe it.

We’re also so thankful to have such wonderful loving families – and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone around Christmas!  Getting together for the holidays is certainly going to have a special meaning for us this year since we’ve been on the road and farther away from our families.  But until then, we’re thankful to have FaceTime, Skype, and Facebook to keep in touch.

I also feel so thankful that we live in a time and place in which this kind of opportunity is even possible. There are so many places in the world where this kind of trip wouldn’t be feasible, or wouldn’t be safe, or wouldn’t be even be allowed.  Our country certainly isn’t perfect; there’s a lot of room for more inclusion, equality, and fairness.  But this country has come a long way, and it’s a land of wonderful opportunity.

In an interesting way, I’m also thankful today for the fuzzy road ahead.  Not that long-term planning has ever been a particularly strong suit for me, but it’s especially true now that we’re just planning out a couple weeks ahead of time, at most.  For some people, Thanksgiving 2016 is going to find them in a very similar place as Thanksgiving 2015 and Thanksgiving 2014.

But for us… if someone had told me last year Thanksgiving 2015 would find us:

• in cruising across Louisiana to Texas
• in a big ol’ diesel truck
• towing a big fifth wheel camper
• fixin’ something resembling a traditional Thanksgiving dinner
• after a last-minute run to the grocery
• watching Aaron Rodgers & the Packers lose to the Bears at Lambeau Field

I’d have said they were crazy – there’s no way the Packers would lose to da Bears at Lambeau. That’s just unbelievable. 🙂