My Thanksgiving is kind of weird every year. I always go to the Bob’s Donuts Day After Thanksgiving Trackday at Buttonwillow, which is three and a half hours south of my house, so I never get to go to my wife’s family’s house for Thanksgiving, which is three and a half hours north in Redding. It just doesn’t work. Usually I eat with Luke Lonberger’s family and then we head straight to the track, but this year was different. This year, my wife’s family wasn’t having Thanksgiving til Saturday, which meant I could go to Redding with her, and spend actual Thanksgiving with her too. She was invited to her best friend’s in-laws’ for Thanksgiving and that meant I was too.
But first, since Geoff was going to Buttonwillow also, his parents decided to have Thanksgiving a day early, on Wednesday, so he could make the three hour drive up to their house near Nevada City and make it back in time to go to the track. Since we’re Blasterpals, I was invited to that dinner as well. So I was faced with an Epic Thanksgiving. Three dinners, a trackday, 1300 miles, and 18 counties of insane awesomeness offered themselves to me and I gladly accepted the challenge.
Geoff’s parents live way off the paved path, and even a ways off the beaten path. They get lots of snow in the winter but luckily it hadn’t snowed much yet this year.
When we got there, Geoff found his brother Graeme’s Deadmau5 mask. How rad is that? The eyes even light up!
They also have a Guy Fawkes mask, just in case.
Since dinner was still a few hours off, the first activity was shooting. Doesn’t Geoff look just like his dad?
We took a 30-30, Remington 870 12ga, S&W .38 special, and a 410 shotgun out on their property and punished a barrel that wouldn’t give up.
After shooting we went on a four mile downhill bike ride. Geoff’s brother being a pro downhill rider means he has lots of good bikes laying around and knows the spots to go riding. Don’t let the short length fool you, four miles is rough when you’re dodging trees like avoiding people when going the wrong way at Ikea. We also went off some sweet jumps. Sorry, no photos of any of that! But here’s how the turkey looked when we got back.
It wasn’t quite ready yet, so Geoff and I hopped in his old 4×4 Toyota and climbed a mountain to catch the sunset. We were too late and Graeme’s tripod broke anyway, so we came back down.
There was a creek to cross and everything.
Graeme’s friend Lawrence brews his own illegal beer. He brought over some stout that he’d brewed up and I must say it was quite tasty. It was a lot lighter tasting than Guinness but with double the alcohol.
Finally it was dinner time. Bacon-wrapped turkey, Dutch oven roast beef, the best rolls I’ve ever had, mashed potatoes, apple gravy…and I kind of lost track of the awesomeness by then. I wasn’t even coherent enough to get photos of the cheesecake and pumpkin pie! Then it was bed time.
We woke up early on Thanksgiving day and jammed back down to the Bay just in time for my wife and me to head over to her best friend’s in-laws’ house in Fremont. We found Peter and Elway watching the Cowboys-Dolphins game. Yep, the guy on the far end of the couch was named after John Elway.
Peter couldn’t wait to show me his 1940 Plymouth that he got last year. He’s only the third owner! This car has an interesting combination of restoration and modification done to it by the previous owner. It was repainted with genuine Chrysler paint but it has modern black plastic side mirrors. It has a Dodge steering wheel from some ’80s model and the front bench was replaced with buckets. All the upholstery matches though, so it somehow feels all right.
Ahhhhh hot and steamy turkey! I wasn’t sure I was ready for more so soon, but it looked too delicious to leave it alone.
So much splendor.
Danny didn’t care about any of what was going on.
After we finished dinner, Zoe woke up from her nap. She liked the turkey so much she almost had a seizure of joy.
We got up Friday morning at 3am to head down to Buttonwillow, but that’s another story.
After being awake for 22 hours, the last thing I wanted to do was get up at 7am and go drive far away again, but the view of San Francisco from west Oakland that early almost made it worth it.
It was super foggy further inland though. I hope it’s not foggy for the 25 next weekend.
We finally made it to Redding to find Weun and Wil shaving papayas for the papaya salad. If you don’t like fermented crabs, you probably wouldn’t like papaya salad either.
Weun built an addition to the house for all the commercial-grade propane burners and other cooking equipment that they didn’t want inside. That’s dedication to food right there.
Turkey stuffed with noodles sounded amazing but it turned out to just be an elaborate way to ruin noodles.
My in-laws are champions when it comes to spicy food. I’m pretty sure this is a bowl of pepper spray with extra pepper added to it. It’s good on turkey and everything else.
Who has oysters at Thanksgiving? We do. Buckets and buckets of them.
After dinner…wait, we ate the turkey at noon so that was lunch. After lunch we went to the park for volleyball.
Not everyone wanted to play though.
Volleyball on a stomach full of turkey and other goodness can’t be healthy. I was ready for a nap.
Once it was too dark for volleyball, it was time for phở. Maybe that’s what the volleyball was for…to work up another appetite.
Well, that’s my epic Thanksgiving adventure. I’m thankful I had so many friends and family who wanted me around, but I’m also thankful I don’t have to go to anymore Thanksgivings this year. I’m beat!
.:Bohan
|