Jeff's log ~ Thursday, 11/22/07, Thanksgiving in U.S.A.

Seeing as how today is a holiday, I took it easy. I polished a few of the stainless stantions and did the floors inside and then Rukker and I took off to the boatyard again. I ordered some things I need, and then we had lunch at the food court of the shopping mall. It’s pretty cool, Thai fast food. You give the cashier a hundred baht, and she gives a card that all of the food booths are tied to the computer through. You get what you want, and they take it off your card, and then when finished, you get the balance refunded.

I had roasted duck with dumplings and spinach with gravy. The lunch was very tasty, and then I topped it with a capucinno. Downstairs is the coolest grocery store that I have ever seen. It makes the nicest Publix look barren. Right outside the food store was a little dessert place, so I finally got my piece of cheese cake.

We then went to refuel Dave’s boat and proceeded to run aground about 30 feet from the fuel dock on a falling tide. We ended up sitting there and chatting for about 3 hours while we waited for the tide to change and come up a bit. After fueling and putting his boat back in its slip, we went back to Coconuts, and guess what time it was. Tiger!!!!! Some friends of his were there and we all jumped in the truck and went for Thanksgiving dinner. That’s right; we had an American Thanksgiving Dinner in Chalong, Thailand. Turkey, ham, mash, gravy, cranberry sauce (canned) stuffing, various vegetables, and even pumpkin pie ala mode was served buffet style. The cost was 320 baht, which is just about ten dollars US. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and I even snuck back for seconds on the turkey, mash and gravy. The Thai people were happy too. As they even had a turkey curry that they enjoyed. I tried it, but it just wasn’t appealing to me on Thanksgiving. Maybe some other time, although I’m not sure that turkey and curry really belong together at all.

We all rolled our way out and went back to Coconuts for a night cap. I had left my clear glasses on Dave’s boat, so going back to the boat in the dingy was a slow adventure. Pipe Dream seemed to be hiding in the shadows, and when I took sunglasses off, I had no clue where I was, let alone finding the boat. I knew that I was close, naturally, but the boats moored around us continually change, and the trip from the dock was made at a much slower pace than usual, due to the darkness. I found her though, and I do have an extra pair that I switched to before lifting the dink from the water.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!!