Thanksgiving 2010

We had a cold, wet Thanksgiving here on Turkey Creek in Hollister. The temperature dropped from 68 at midnight to the upper 20s by Thanksgiving noon. On Wednesday afternoon we were under a tornado watch until 4:00 AM Thursday morning. Several tornados were reported just to the west and north of us. The severe storms trained along a path about 45 miles west of us to the north east of us. We were fortunate that the severe weather stayed away. However, about 1:00 AM we had some gusty winds and small hail. Heavy rains followed. Then mid morning on Thursday, rain turned to freezing rain, sleet and then to snow. Friday morning started sunny with highs expected near 50.




We had a Thanksgiving potluck at 2:00 PM with 27 others from the park in the community building here. We timed it perfectly by arriving at 2:05 with everyone else already seated. It always amazes me that potlucks somehow turn out with a wide variety of food. The park provided the turkey and stuffing and everybody else brought their favorites to share. Donna made squash, real cranberry sauce, and a raw cranberry relish. A 2 dollar donation to cover the park's costs was requested. So for 4 dollars, we ate like royalty. There was more than enough food left over to feed another 29 people.

Because of the cold, we needed to disconnect our water hose from the park supply. I had previously added fresh water to our holding tank so that we would have water by using our water pump. We also ran our furnace several times overnight to prevent water line freeze ups in the trailer. This was the first time we ran the furnace since we left Wisconsin. We have been using 2 small ceramic heaters (aka the $15 variety from WalMart) which keeps the trailer very comfortable. However, they do not heat the underbelly of the trailer where the water lines are located. The furnace has air ducts which run along the water lines thereby preventing (hopefully) any freeze up. We also have electric blankets (like large heating pads) on our fresh water and two gray water tanks to prevent them from freezing. No problems. However, we would have had problems if we lost power for a long period of time.

Learned today: always park the truck facing southeast after an ice storm. The sun will melt the accumulation so you don't have to scrape the windows.