Spending Thanksgiving & My Birthday In A Boatyard - 5 Weeks In

Well, here we are. Today is the end of our 5th week in the boatyard, and we just celebrated Thanksgiving & my birthday yesterday. What an interesting day, spending a holiday in a boatyard, with people you just met a few weeks ago and a few you just met today.
 
"The Hut" in the boatyard, where we had our Thanksgiving, next to the channel.
 
 
As I mentioned in an earlier post, a lot of people  come down from up north and haul their boat out of storage here to cruise during the winter months. These people are called "snowbirds". I had heard of snowboards coming to vacation homes in the south for winter, but never knew about the group that do the same thing on their boat. A lot of the snowbirds here have been around for 10 years or more. I would call them "Boatyard Ratz" (LOL), at least for the holiday season. I laugh at that because those of you that know Tom & I personally, know our group of friends back home call ourselves the Lake Ratz. We all met in some form or fashion, hanging out at Joe Pool Lake & the Oasis Restaurant, in Grand Prairie TX (the DFW area).  We met these friend over 14 years ago and still have a very strong bond & friendship. I see the same type of friendship with this group of friends. They might not all cruise together, but they meet up here in the boatyard to kick-off their boating season. Just thinking about these type of friendships is really making me a little homesick, and sentimental.
 
You see, yesterday was my birthday, and I'm feeling old. I'm only 54, which is younger than most of my Lake Ratz friends, and younger than the majority of the Boatyard Ratz. But this lifestyle can be rough on the body, especially when you're overweight and not use to this more active lifestyle. I've always battled my weight, and when I use to go to the gym, I have to work extremely hard to get the weight off & keep it off. My sedentary job the last 9 years and lack of gym visits over the last few years have taken a toll on my body. I can see why some boaters go from a sundeck style trawler to a Europa style trawler. Our sundeck trawler have steep, 1 foot tall, multiple steps between each deck of our trawler. You have to be careful, going up and down the steps. And it can be jarring on your hips & knees if you're not slow and careful. And we're also going up and down a 12 foot ladder, to get on and off the boat, multiple times a day.  Both my sisters have had double knee replacements over the last few years. I want to make sure I don't face their same fate. And I can just hear my oldest daughter now (who's a Personal Trainer) say, "I can help you with that.". That's one of the things I want to work on. Getting more active and eating healthier, and getting back on my AdvoCare supplements on a regular basis, so I can live a healthier & pain free life, while we do this new adventure. But, as for now, my body's killing me! I'm achy & feeling old & blah! So the last few weeks have been challenging. Tom's feeling it too, crawling in and out of engine rooms and trying to squeeze into tight spaces, like a contortionist.
 
So as I'm feeling blah, missing my friends & family during this Thanksgiving holiday, our new found friends have come through for us. One of our boatyard neighbors, who have been here a few weeks too, have taken the lead to put a potluck dinner together in the "hut" for Thanksgiving. We're not sure if they have been the ones who plan if every year, but they typed up a nice Sign-Up sheet & put it on the fridge in the hut for everyone to decide what to contribute if you're going to be around the yard. She had it by category: Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetables, Desserts, Appetizers. Misc. And the funny thing was, this couple taking charge is from Canada, who don't celebrate Thanksgiving like the USA does. And they chose to do the turkey! We thought that was really cool! When the wife told us about the sign up sheet and asked if we were going to be around to join in, I told her that we were and that it was my birthday that day.  So Tom decided to do his Stuffed Jalapenos, and I signed up to do a Green Bean Casserole. Nobody had signed up for Mashed Potatoes so I decided to do that too. Tom's jalapenos take us both to prepare, and those that know me know that I don't like to cook. Tom does. I CAN cook, I just don't like to. Over the last few years, we have gone to eat at my Dad's retirement home with him, so we haven't cooked Thanksgiving in years. I was actually looking forward to it.
 
One of the main reasons we want to do this lifestyle is to slow down a bit. My last job was extremely busy over the holiday season (Nov - Jan), and it just wore me out. And before that I spent 16 years in the travel industry, which is also busy this time of year. So I never looked forward to the holidays. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it with our girls, but the whole hoopla of it all is daunting to me. I just want to get away. Not do anything. Not have to be anywhere. Try to recharge this old body of mine and recharge from this past hectic year.
 
 
So even though we signed up to join the potluck, there was no expectations from anyone. We went to our storage unit the day before to get our Ninja 3 in 1 cooker (great, by the way, for trawlers & other liveaboards), and went to the "hut" around 10am. Dinner was scheduled for 2pm, so Tom & I prepped the jalapenos, and started the potatoes and casserole. Others were starting their dishes, and chatting, enjoying the day. It rained most the morning, until about 1pm, so Tom did grill the jalapenos in the rain (with an umbrella, of course). And the turkeys were taking a little longer than expected in the electric roaster. But even though we were 1.5 hours late eating, and with 20 people waiting for everything to all be ready to eat, we were enjoying each other's company and having a few cocktails. One of the ladies, that I just met, said "Nan, a little birdy told me it was your birthday:" I said Yes, and they all chimed in, singing me happy birthday, and gave me a card with everybody's signature on it. Out of the 20 people there, we had met at least 15 of them over the weeks. The Canadian couple was the one who got the card, and when she handed it to me, I just though it was from them. I was surprised that everyone had signed it. That just seems to be how these people are. They are all boaters, have something in common staying in the boatyard, have all different type of lives, and have become their own little family here. That's how I feel about our Lake Ratz friends. We started our friendships around the lake, have all different type of lives, and have become our own little family. Some of us go our own separate ways in our journey, but we always meet back up again, and pick up right where we last left off. And that, my friend, are true friends.
 
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving & Christmas season! Relax when you can.
 
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