November 27, 2010

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving. Our RV park in Hemet, CA, had an official dinner, where they provided the turkey and people signed up to join tables of 16 (maybe two tables of 8 each?) to bring the sides and share. When I saw that they had 27 or 28 tables of 16 people each signed up, I rejected that idea. Too many people – even 16 is too many people for me. I like small, intimate dinner gatherings with about 6 people so all can share in the conversation.

Anyway, we decided to skip the official dinner and make our own. But our three burner stove and tiny oven did not allow for an elaborate meal, even with the microwave. We went to Win-Co and bought an already-cooked turkey breast that we could heat up on the Weber grill (using it as though it were an oven for part of the heating process). Then we picked up some ready-mix cornbread dressing, canned yams, canned cranberries, gravy mix, and pre-baked pumpkin pie to round out our dinner-for-two (maybe two-and-a-half, as Paddy gave Shadow some tastes of Turkey). It turned out fine. Not as good as my normal made-from-scratch Thanksgivings, but not that bad given the kitchen limitations.


On Friday, we drove up into the mountains to Idyllwild, CA (there was snow), to visit our friends Jon and Lisa, who moved away from Olympia some years ago headed for Costa Rica. Several moves later, they are now in Idyllwild, which is a fun, artist community, with lots of shops and restaurants up in the mountains. Lisa is an artist who works mostly with ceramics. Her work has always been interesting, and is currently geared toward colorful women. Unique and fascinating. She had an exhibit in a local art show while we were there, so we got to see a number of her pieces all in one place.

While in Idyllwild, we visited Jon and Lisa’s home, a lovely cabin on a stream, and several other local places, including Jon’s Naturopathic office. They seem to have found their perfect spot, at least for now.

Today (Saturday), we drove to Ehrenberg, AZ, which is across the river from Blythe, CA. After checking into our RV park (the same place we stayed all of December last year), we headed back across the Colorado River to Popeye’s in Blythe to pick up our dinner, also some cheaply priced Columbia Crest Washington wine at the local Albertson’s. Booze is so much cheaper in both California and Arizona than in Olympia (too bad Initiatives 1100 and 1105 didn’t pass).

Tomorrow we will head to Country Roads RV Resort in Yuma, where we will stay for a month. Stay tuned.