Thankful & grateful for all of you (week 12)

Happy early Thanksgiving, everyone! I debated whether to even put together a blog post for this week. As far as “adventures” go, we certainly haven’t been very adventurous these last seven days; in fact, we’ve hardly strayed outside Beaufort.

Then I started to get a complex. Maybe everyone is sick of reading these posts. Maybe my writing is getting stale. Maybe people are just clicking on my blog to be polite. (For the record, I have no way of knowing or tracking who you are, dear reader, nor would I be offended if I had the technological capabilities to somehow able to find out who’s not reading. Which I don’t.) But you are here, and I am grateful and I appreciate you!

While the main goal of the blog is certainly to keep friends and family up to date with where we are and what we are doing during our #2020lemonadetour, these posts will also serve as a travel journal for our family when we look back on this adventure in years to come. Some of the details about our trip I’m including simply so we don’t forget about them. (Bella’s also keeping a list of our best quotes. They are hysterical.) All that being said, it would feel lazy to skip a week of writing just because we didn’t put a lot of miles on the minivan. Downplaying a quiet week would also feel contradictory to my goal of embracing that quieter, slower pace of life, even as we travel around the country. So lucky you—I decided to write.

Now that I think about it, we didn’t just sit around, twiddling our thumbs. Tony and I had work; the girls had school. We took many walks on the nearby Spanish Moss Trail. At low tide today, he finally snagged a 20-inch red drum — a size we can keep! The sunsets have been just phenomenal, as is the wildlife here. We even saw an 8-point buck one evening. (Which reminds me—good luck to all you deer hunters! Be safe out there!)

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We grilled burgers with Zac and Tammy one night and made apple crisp. The boys golfed; my girls knitted. We had family photos taken and took another ghost tour. Our favorite new afternoon pastime is going to the tennis courts and playing doubles with the girls—they are getting really good! And of course they helped me put together my extensive grocery list for the Southern Thanksgiving food extravaganza that’s happening here on Thursday.

Appointments were made and kept at a hair salon, chiropractor’s office and yoga studio. We took a walk through the Cypress Wetlands at nearby Port Royal to find crazy wildlife—frogs, turtles, birds and several alligators. So cool to see them in the wild! (And safely distanced from our walking path!)

One of my favorite little quirky features of this house is the Nest thermostat, located in the main hallway. It must have some kind of motion detector, because every time I walk by, it lights up and gives me the outdoor temperature. This is pretty much always guaranteed to make me smile, because the weather here has been so lovely. (Our quote: “Looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day!”) I was commenting on this to Tony but wondering whether I would get the same thrill back home, since it’s no fun to have your thermostat tell you that its 22 degrees and sleeting outside. He reminded me that our property manager installed a Nest in our house after we left. I wonder whether it’s the same model. I wonder whether I’ll love it or hate it. I wonder what other new features of “home” we’ll have to get used to, once we finally quit living like nomads. Or maybe we just keep traveling?

That brings me to Spring Break 2021. We will be returning to Florida in mid-March of next year to pick up our van and resume our road trip. If any of you dear friends and family members have plans to visit the South next spring, let’s talk! We don’t have anything officially on the books and would love to encounter some familiar faces along our travels. Our plan at this point is to cover some ground in Florida before heading back toward this area (maybe Hilton Head Island?) for several weeks. Again, nothing set in stone! I imagine we’ll start our journey north in late April or early May; I would like to be back in Wisconsin around Mother’s Day weekend. (OK, I admit it—more like, Cellcom Green Bay Marathon weekend!)

I heard from one Wisconsin friend who said that our travels inspired her to do a weeklong COVID road trip with her family. She said that watching the number of cases climbing at home had her tempted to keep traveling! I don’t blame her one bit! Please be smart and be safe, everyone. We want to reconnect in person sooner rather than later!

Wow, talking about doing nothing has somehow made this a really long post. I need to go over my new recipes one more time to make sure we have enough butter, cornmeal, bacon and buttermilk to pull off our Southern Thanksgiving. While we’ll miss seeing all the faces of friends and loved ones in Wisconsin and the U.P., we are beyond excited and grateful to celebrate this blessed holiday here with Zac and Tammy. Our prayers go out to all those affected by COVID, all our health care workers and teachers and all those who feel isolated or alone during these crazy times. May you and your turkey be stuffed, and may your hearts be as full as your bellies. We love you all!