I have never really liked Thanksgiving much for many reasons and being British, Ross just doesn’t have it drilled into him like I do. I don’t like Thanksgiving  firstly due to the story itself. The idea of a bunch of Puritans having dinner with a group of American Indians just doesn’t sit right with me. I can only picture a group of fearful religious nuts spreading the word “savage” around a dinner table while a group of Indians, miles away, debate what these new weirdos might want. What they wanted and got was ownership over land they decided belonged to “no one” (the Indians). There’s no way they ate outside in November in the midwest and no way that stuck in their ways puritans just accepted the company of “savages”. Lies, all of it. Secondly, I don’t like a holiday based on the celebratory killing of one specific species and in such large masses. I don’t like when any of them are killed but an actual holiday basically dedicated to the mass killing of one is just overkill, literally. Now that I’ve alienated everyone, I’ll admit that as much as I don’t like the holiday, it’s so ingrained in me (especially with calls and text messages from family the morning of) that I do like to make a pretty good dinner, watch a movie and very willingly take the weekend off.

Thanksgiving with the Nerds

I made corn on the cob, homemade smashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and veggie Italian sausage cooked with onions and garlic – all pretty much smothered in HP Sauce. If you haven’t tried HP sauce you should. It’s like a tangy steak sauce but better and goes great on meats, potatoes, sandwiches and whatever you’re willing to try it on. We bought it at Fred Meyers in Portland but you can get it at World Market also.

As fun as it sounds, we didn’t just eat on Thanksgiving. It was a pretty nice day in Catalina State Park outside Tucson so we decided to take on a list of projects. Ross started with and spent most the day trying to change out the gas tank inlet that has been leaking on us since Portland. I didn’t even know they used rubber for gas tank inlets but apparently they do and as expected, it eventually corroded away. The hose we bought was pretty hardcore with a bit of metal running through it and cost about $50 for 3 feet. Unfortunately it had to be cut, so scuffed hacksaw and pliers later we had the two pieces needed to complete the project. The last people to attempt to fix it ran into the same issue as us, a metal pipe with an oblong mouth – that needs to connect to a round hose. As you can imagine, this didn’t work so well and we still leak if we overfill but at least we’re not smelling gas anymore. We plan to use some “hard as metal” epoxy” to complete the task.

While Ross was tearing his hair out trying to finish that project, I was inside hanging heavier ceiling hooks for the divider curtain, organizing our bins that sit on the bumper shelf (one of which we were able to get rid of) and putting a railing on the top of my closet so things can be put up there and stay up there while we drive.
The day before we had hung a standing oscillating fan on the ceiling above the back shelf, a necessity for circulating heat in this thing, and Ross wired up a 3 way switch so that the front stereo he worked so hard to install could be used with the house batteries, allowing us to use the stereo for movies or music while we’re not driving (so it wont drain the starting battery).We are definitely making progress on the projects, one of the only things left is to patch the manifold, patch the hole in the floor and figure out whats up with the water pump.

The day after Thanksgiving was our last day at Catalina State Park and although it was more than time to move on, I kind of wish we’de stayed long enough to avoid this winter storm that’s taking over New Mexico and Texas.