Nov 26-27 - Turkey Day

On Wednesday we explored the northern end of Canaveral National Seashore -- the park south of us. We checked out the Eldora State House (Eldora was a town of 100 people at one point, almost as large as Loring !). We explored the turtle mound and the end of the drivable road. Other than that, it was a quiet day. We were all recovering from the day at Epcot.

Today, Turkey Day, Bill and I went for a 25 mile ride, retracing our steps as it were to the end of the park and back. After lunch we took Abby to the dog park. Sandy and Collette stayed in all day preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.

With temperatures in the high 60's and constant sun it has been beautiful weather. Cool in the morning, once the sun is out it's great weather. It's supposed to warm up even more tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday.

Oh -- yesterday Bill and I went over to the rental place where Collette's char was awaiting us. They'll get it fixed back home. In the meantime Collette is using the rental chair and arrangements have been made to drop it off on Saturday at 10am. They are closed for the entire weekend -- today through Sunday, but someone will meet us at the store on Saturday.

Nothing else springs to mind at this point ... I'll finish this and post it in the morning.

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It's morning again. Turkey dinner was great as usual -- turkey, stuffing, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, turnip, green beans, gravy, cranberries. I'm not a cranberry or gravy fan so I pass on those. I wasn't a turnip fan until I found that by eating turnip everything else tastes better in comparison ... and of course both the turnip and the coleslaw are better with Franks Hot Sauce ...

To finish things off ... naturally ... pumpkin pie. There are really only three types of pie that will pull me in -- Key Lime, Pumpkin and Blueberry -- in that order. Other pies taste good but I can have another helping of dinner and be just as happy. Of course I have another helping of dinner too :)

The "bird" was only 12 pounds, free range -- and perhaps at 12 pounds it could actually walk ! I read about domestic turkeys now hitting 80 pounds -- picture that in the oven ! -- and being unable to walk or "perform" -- so they use artificial insemination. This turkey, like most these days, was mostly breast / white meat. It had very little fat and was NOT falling-off-the-bone cooked. Had it been cooked that way, the white meat would have been dry, but was not. It made for difficult carving of the dark meat though and difficult cleaning, trying to get every last scrap of meat off the bone. Not being able to do that, it's now in the freezer and will be soup soon. There are also two large ziplocs of meat -- white and dark -- that will be used for sandwiches and probably a leftover meal.

Collette was feeling a bit better by the end of the day, she's been suffering from allergies. WE picked up a non-drowsy antihistamine/decongestant/acetaminophen product that seems to be working for her. Hopefully today she'll be ready for some exploring and be ok for their trip tomorrow.

The weather promises to be even better today at 73F so Bill and I might go out for another 25 miler. Tomorrow is supposed to hit 79F and you know where I'll be !!

You've probably guessed that we're not lined up outside of Walmart for the Black Friday sales. Ha. You'd never find me there. Of course I've been online ... but haven't bought anything outside of a second ESATA cable, which I need for up north. I don't normally worry too much about cables but found that these particular cables get reviews from 1 star to 5 stars -- people complaining about the connectors, the throughput, DOA -- not the sorts of reviews that you would expect of cables. Cables just work, right ? Well, it appears that the ESATA cables run in price from $4.99 to $24.99 for a 6 foot cable and the major difference between the two is whether it works. Who'd a thunk ? There are several suppliers, including a couple that make and sell their own cables so there are no reviews on the site. In the end I decided to get the cable that works. Down here the external drive is right beside the computer, at the same level on a different shelf and the 3-foot cable that came with the drive works just fine. Up north, it will be on the next shelf up and I need something longer than 3 feet. 6 feet is the maximum spec for these cables, it seems, and shielded vs unshielded, flat vs round, etc. etc. all have a bearing on performance. I'll have to try out the cable before taking it north.

That's it.