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Turkey or the lack there of…

So one of the items that are almost impossible to cook in an RV, is one that is most missed at this time of year, a roasted turkey, the ovens are just too small for cooking a whole turkey. Oh yeah you can cook a turkey breast in our convection oven if you don’t mind the noise of the fan for a couple of hours, and then the real problem is there is none of that succulent dark turkey meat associated with a turkey breast. This was one of the things that we do miss from our sticks and bricks, Miss Laurie always made a great roasted turkey, and there was always lots of dark meat for those of us that prefer the much moister dark meat over the drier white meat of a turkey breast.

Mmmmmmmm….

Just one of the many little things that are just not easy when living full time in your RV. A few others are warming or cooking a pizza, most are just too big for our convection oven, cheese and garlic bread done under the broiler almost impossible to duplicate, just to name a couple we have became very adapt at using the barbecue to prepare lots of different items. Miss Laurie has adapted well to our life on the road, and still prepares the majority of our meals, I think that she enjoys the gas stove top more than our old electric range, and has conquered baking in the convection oven, although some adjusting of the size of items was required, there are less cookies per batch, but I can verify the taste is just as good…just saying.

One of the other challenges is fridge space, while our fridge is large for an RV, total space available is much less that we had in the house. So shopping is totally different, now we purchase smaller sizes, of pretty much everything, fresh food storage as well as frozen food are always a challenge, planning a weeks worth of meals now means a shopping list…and Miss Laurie would tell you leaving me at home is an asset. I have a tendency of impulse purchases in the grocery store either because of price or just an urge to have something that strikes my fancy at the time, this is not a good combination with a small fridge. It is also the reason I added a beverage fridge in the basement, as Miss Laurie it’s all about fridge space, or the lack there of…so having the little fridge seemed to ease the pressure a little.

The Holidays

Merry Christmas to everyone!

This will be our third Christmas as full timers away from our family, we will not be alone at Christmas, no there will be lots of people around here, other snowbirds and full timers. Some are part of our extended RV family, and others are friends and acquaintances from the parks and the area, no it’s not the same as family but we will have holiday FaceTime and calls with family and others. Of course we miss our family’s at this time of year, but this is a life choice we have made, and we still have no regrets.

There is just something special about laying back in my antigravity chair, enjoying seventy degrees of soul warming sunshine, and a ice cold cocktail in hand, that is oh so very hard to beat. We lived in an area that would often have snow on the ground for Christmas, but there is a lot more world without snow for Christmas than there is with. There is something about Christmas under a palm tree that is just about as special as Christmas under a snowy pine tree…just saying.

We see lots of snowbirds that head home for the holidays, and while it would be wonderful to see family, it also puts you in the middle of all the Christmas traffic and overcrowded airports, no I can’t see that being very enjoyable on any level. Then there are the snowbirds that don’t head south until after the holidays, leaving in cold winter weather with possible snowy or icy conditions. No none of these options much interest us at all, right now our overnight lows are about the same as the daytime highs back up north.

But what is happening in our lives is something that we never expected, as we set out to be nomads, you know break away from all those traditions that have always been in our lives. This issue really started to show up our first year, but is becoming a much bigger factor. It is this RV family that is becoming a very big portion of our lives, it started in January of 2018 when we met the Bannon’s for cocktails at “Beer Bellies Adult Day Care” in Quartzsite AZ. I had know Bob for a number of years like ten or more, but our wives had never met, now add to that that in the last five years or so we lived about 10 minutes apart, oh yah one more little detail, they had decided to sell their house and take an extended vacation, just a couple of months before we did. Now we are great friends and Laurie and Shari are as they say “RV sisters”, then there was Robert and Susan from Newfoundland, opened there live and let us in and they have become part of the family, and visited us a couple of times over this summer, again they are new full timers. Now last Christmas was spent with Bob and Shari on Sanibel Island in Florida with Bob and I enjoying a Caesar, while the girls scoured the beach for sea shells. And last winter added to the RV family with the addition of Ray and Karen full timers from Tennessee and Butch and Betty snowbirds from northern Ohio.

Now we find ourselves planning our travels and stops to include visits, even if it’s just for an extender four hour lunch, and if our plans appear to be not working out, some one steps in and plans a surprise gathering. Just a note, we have seen most of our RV family in the past three months, and are planning a little Quartzsite rendezvous in January, we are meeting Teresa and Anito for a week in LasVegas in mid February and hope to get together with Butch and Betty in April on our return trip back to Niagara.