Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

 Our island life continued. We spent Thanksgiving Eve and Day on Little Talbot Island State Park in Northeast Florida. Florida's State Parks' slogan is "The Real Florida" which seems quite fitting because the sites are on dirt roads surrounded by tide marshes and beaches not condos and Humvees.

Thanks to the help of our incredible and enthusiastic Park Ranger pal we were able to find campsites for both nights at the park on this holiday weekend. Apparently it is a popular time for camping here in Florida, which makes sense to us now, but we have been so used to being nearly the only campers at most campgrounds that we didn't think of making a reservation earlier.

 On Thanksgiving day we woke up, had breakfast, and watched Hank hog-tie himself before embarking on an adventure. And I mean adventure - we took the bikes down and put Hank in my backpack and headed towards Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. What we thought was a couple mile ride, ended up being a 10 mile push which Hank did surprisingly well minus some nervousness over a huge bridge with open water on both sides. After finally making it to the Beach with our angry dog was allowed to run around, play fetch, and meet other dogs. We think he has forgiven us for making him go through the bike ride. Afterwards we headed to the grocery store to get some last minute Thanksgiving meal ingredients: Tofurky Brats, S'mores, Chips n Salsa, and beer. To say that Hank was tuckered out was understatement, he could barely move for the rest of the night.

Before we started our dinner prep we wandered the campground and met some of our neighbors. As has been the custom in the south so far, everyone was more than nice inviting us to some of their food, beer, and chairs next to their campfires. We met a couple from Jacksonville who had the cutest Mini-Doberman (it was about 5 lbs and looked like a Doberman Pinscher) and were enjoying the Turkey Day football games on a 30 inch Flat screen(and we thought we were living the high life camping with our laptops). I was excited to hear that the Pack is still dominating every team they come across. We also met, John and Abbie, a couple from Idaho who had six years prior quit their jobs, sold their house, and headed off onto the road in an old plumber's van converted to an amazing mini RV with a pop-up top.

After our tour of the campground we got down to preparing dinner. With fire started and Port in hand we put together great picnic fair for Thanksgiving dinner: Tofurkey Brats w/spicy kraut and cheddar cheese, baked beans, and S'mores for dessert. After dinner was a little hazy for me(too much Port) and we retired shortly.

 On a sappy note: We we're thinking of all of our friends and family all day, missing being with them on the holidays but being thankful that they are with us via blog-reading or telepathic communications. Yes, we are very thankful to have all you wonderful people in our lives and we wish you the best!