Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m missing everyone a lot! It’s hard to get in the holiday spirit when it’s 90 and sunny. The fact that T-day is an American holiday makes it a nonevent in Alice, even with the big American population. Turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes isn’t that appealing in the middle of the summer but I miss the chance to spend a leisurely day for friends or family just enjoying the company and grazing on scrumptious food.

The base hosted a traditional turkey dinner for everyone that had to work. Since Dave was working, I volunteered to make a chocolate chip cheesecake when they ask for dessert donations. Reports are that the cheesecake was one of the top picks on the buffet. One of Dave’s crew members was too slow and missed out on my cheesecake. They are such and loving, caring bunch – they sent a message home via Dave that I should whip up another cheesecake so that Justin could have his piece and the team would ensure the rest didn’t go to waste. He works with such nice people!

Tomorrow Dave and I head out on our next Aussie adventure – a drive to Adelaide. We’ll spend a couple of nights in the Barossa Valley wine region and then explore Kangaroo Island before hitting Adelaide. This will be our first long car trip together and I’m sure it will be a marriage enrichment experience. In honor on the first day’s 14 hour drive, I have finally learned how to load my IPod, and created an outback bingo game. Two years ago when the IPod was purchased, I bribed a couple of teenagers to load it with music. They did a great job so I hadn’t bothered to master anything past the play and stop buttons. But I was ready for some new tunes, so I mastered loading CD from our collection and I discovered the ITunes Store. I can now better understand the addictive habits some of you have developed. However, the bingo game is MUCH cooler than my newly acquired techno skills. It’s a basic bingo card but instead of numbers in the squares there objects you might see while driving through the outback. Stuff like – road kill, dog in truck, road train, satellite dish, salt flat, cattle grate, horse, camel and kangaroo. I wanted to have all the various types of road kill – kangaroos, lizards, dingo, cattle, camel, and burro. Dave drew the line at that, he was afraid I’d make him stop and inspect the dead critters for an id. City boys just don’t understand that dead animals can generally be identified at high rates of speed and that dead stuff can’t hurt you. (I suspect that dead stuff makes him queasy). It was a small point to concede so I went with one non-specific road kill box. Thank goodness he is so laid back and tolerant and loves me despite of my twisted mind!

I have a long “to do” list today, so I had better get to it. I hope everyone has a happy food filled Thanksgiving. I’ll update you on the trip when we get back on December 5th.