Wednesday, the day before the American Thanksgiving celebration, now Thanksgiving is a celebration that our US neighbors take real serious, any time you schedule a holiday on a Thursday, has to be done with the intention of creating the long weekend celebration a real big deal. On the commercial side one of the biggest shopping days in the States is Black Friday, living as close to the border as we did for a number of years, it was not uncommon for car loads of Canadians to cross the border to partake in the big sales. Now our Canadian retailers have jumped on the Black Friday band wagon, and not to be outdone our Canadian Tire stores (which are a large chain of stores all across Canada) are now having a Red Thursday sale before the Black Friday sale. Now as Canadians who have our thanksgiving celebration on the second weekend of October, we have always seen the November celebration more as a sales opportunity, we have seen the news broadcast that shows total bedlam at shopping centres with people punching each other, just to get an inexpensive television…just a wee bit crazy. Don’t get me wrong, being Scottish I love a good deal but I would never get into a fist fight to get a deal.

We love our America friends, but you have to admit, there is a lot of commercialization of most American holidays, as if old President Abe Lincoln really cared about what flooring you purchase or what car you drive, commercially there are endless opportunities, but in some cases I do think they do cross the line. The world loves a deal, but it’s just like any holiday, family is what it’s all about, be it your related family or your chosen RV family. We feel honoured to be part of the Thanksgiving celebrations of Ray and Karen this year, they have chosen the life of nomadic exploration of this vast beautiful country, as opposed to the confines of sticks and bricks that so many consider normal. Like seriously what your expected to do is not always what is right or best for you as an individual, and having the strength and foresight to break from tradition and take the path less travelled is great, but it is at the family designed celebrations (Christmas and Thanksgiving) it becomes a little more difficult.

Today there will be a ten o’clock gathering for pickle ball, and I have to mention Miss Laurie in back to her old habit of sneaking up too quick, if your reading this Butch, she needs a little reminder…just saying. Around noon Bob and I are going to play eighteen on the resort course, and I suspect there could be a little hot tub time this afternoon for some of the crew. Miss Karen and I checked it out yesterday and it got our approval, the heater is down on the swimming pool so that was not an option, and it is early enough in the snowbird season so nothing seams too busy yet, except me trying to take in as many things as possible and spend as much time as possible with everyone, in our short time here as a group, before we each head off in our different directions for the winter. Bob and Miss Shari are heading west to the Colorado river, Ray and Miss Karen are heading east to their resort, and Miss Laurie and I are heading south to Why.

Day 784

Well it’s early Tuesday morning, our overnight temperature was 44 or 6 degrees, while it isn’t warm, it is well above freezing our expected high for the day is only mid sixties or mid teens it will be great for our 10 o’clock pickle ball outing. There was talk about a trip to the sauna after dinner last night but I’m not thinking it happened, I know after our little water issue we just watch the voice on television and headed to bed, I fell asleep quickly even though the fighter jet (F-35) were still buzzing overhead.

This morning has me mentally beating myself up for not having caught that plastic connector that let go last night, but other than changing it just because it was plastic it had been no issue for over two years. One of the neat features of our coach is that there are not suppose to be any connectors, but at some point before we purchased the coach someone had changed the commode, and the previous one must of connected differently, and for some reason they added the connector that failed. I have replaced it with a brass fitting but the damage has already been done, we have the heater / fan running to dry everything but it will take a day or two. There was enough water that it ran onto the road in front of the coach, again thank goodness some one noticed it and shut off the water supply, $8.50 for the repair if I had just thought to do it before. Oh well enough beating myself up, that’s what I have friends for…speaking of beating up…I’m not even feeling too bad after pickle ball yesterday.

Miss Laurie is preparing dinner for everyone tomorrow, I think lasagna is on the menu, one of the advantages of full hookups, being able to operate the convection oven, I’m looking forward to dinner already. I’m not sure what the plans are for after pickle ball today, I think mine will be finding a grocery store, and I’m thinking a couple bottles of nice wine could be in order. Booking a tee time to work around a couple days of rain will be another task, and finding a nice restaurant to enjoy a thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, with the gang, and we have to work happy hour in there some how…just saying.

These are the signs that need to have the correct punctuation is it slow, seniors at play or is it slow seniors, at play… just saying. Here is a couple photos of some of some of our seniors at play

Day 783