Thanksgiving in Dixie Valley - Part 2 of 2

This is the second part of a two-part series in which I tell you about my Thanksgiving in Dixie Valley, CA. Part 1 is the background and a good little story about Dixie Valley while part 2 will describe the holiday itself.

When the idea of Thanksgiving came up this year, we happened to be at the property in Dixie Valley. In fact, it might have even been the same weekend that we almost died. My mom asked us what we were doing, and as is typical, we didn’t really have a plan. We figured we’d be spending it in Carson City with all of the family that comes into town for that holiday. She said that she and her husband, along with his family, would be spending it at the cabin and we were fine to do it with them. we’d never actually been there that late in the year other than to spend a few hours there cutting down a Christmas tree. It gets a good amount of snow and isn’t always accessible in late November, but we said what the heck, let’s do it.

That meant, of course, that we’d have to come up the day before and would likely not see a few of my family members whose trips include only Thanksgiving Day. I have one cousin who lives in Canada that we didn’t get a chance to see. A few others live closer but only swing over for the day. It was going to be an interesting little experiment, I figured, so we were set to do it.

On the drive up Wednesday afternoon/evening, one thing stood out. On the road from Chilcoot to Frenchman’s, there was snow. Not too much, but it was definitely there. It looked like the snow was confined to the shaded sides of hills and in the deeper canyons along the road. When we turned off on the dirt road toward the property there was more snow. Again, it wasn’t much, but the melting and re-freezing made it a slightly slower drive. By the time we reached the property there was snow blanketing the ground. We parked in snow and saw the tire tracks from the other two vehicles that were already there.

We got there around 5:30 that day and it was already really dark. Having really only visited the place in the Summer months before, and at least before the time is set back, this was odd. Bedtime is generally a little earlier there because of the darkness, but this was insane. We all gathered around in pone of the cabins and drank some wine with the wood stove burning. It was just a few hours of chatting and telling stories that got louder as the night went on. I think we were all in bed by 9:30.

Someone had to be up at 6:00 the next morning. That would be John. John is technically my uncle but I think we’re the same age. He’s married to my mom’s husband’s (I guess that’s my stepdad) sister and owns a company called Aviso Surfboards. They’re based out of Minden and build boards, as the name states. John used to sport a mohawk when he would go to trade shows and such, so he’s always been a surfer to me. His plan for the morning was to use the awesome smoker they have up there to smoke one of the two turkeys we were having for dinner. SO he had to wake up early and start the smoker so it could start cooking. The idea was to smoke it for about seven hours or longer depending on the temperature the bird reached. The other turkey was going to be deep-fried by Chad, my mom’s husband.

Bottles: Bottles of white wine and champagne chill in the snow. Photo by Christy Jerz.As is typical at the cabin, you start the day off with some coffee and breakfast, but quickly move on to champagne. In fact, these guys don’t screw around. There is always plenty of wine or whatever else you’d like to drink. You just have to be careful not to be out of commission early. After making a breakfast of eggs and bacon on the griddle that just sets over the fire pit, I was feeling pretty icky from the night before. I went and took a no for a few hours.

I woke up just about the time they were getting the deep fryer going. There was just one problem. The peanut oil was left in one of the trucks overnight and had basically frozen. So it was slowly trickling into the pot at a rate that would take about an hour and a half to fill to the level needed to fry our turkey. Meanwhile, the smoker was chugging along and the turkey was looking good. We tried everything we could to get the oil out of that container, but it was set on doing its thing. So we just let it keep trickling. Eventually, a little late though, we got the turkey frying. Meanwhile, I was still feeling crappy and was watching the wine bottles dwindle and couldn’t drink anything at all. That was a bummer.

Dinner turned out fantastic. Both turkeys were outstanding. Bedtime came even earlier on Thanksgiving night, as the couple of people that had to get up early were tired. We finished off the evening by playing a few rounds of what we call Polish Poker. The object of the game is not to lose. You are each dealt one card. The first player goes and can either keep their card or trade it with the person to their left. When it gets back to the dealer, the dealer can keep it or choose the top card. The lowest card on the table loses, and you have to put a penny into the middle. Each player starts with three pennies. When you are out of pennies, you are done and play continues until someone loses. Also, kings are the high card and if you’re dealt a king you can immediately turn it over, making the person who might have traded with you stuck with their card. This game is a lot of fun and just about anyone can play.

After my nap and early bedtime, I didn’t really sleep too much that night. It seemed like nobody did out of the four Jerzes. We had a few conversations throughout the night and all drifted in and out of sleep. At about 9:00 I looked up and saw out the little air vent in the trailer that it was snowing. It looked pretty mild, but since we were leaving that day anyway, we decided we should step it up. We all got up and started getting ready. We had breakfast consisting of turkey sandwiches. It’s always better the next day, as most people know. After breakfast the snow was coming down like crazy. We packed everything and loaded up our car. Everyone but us was planning to stay until Saturday morning. They had things to put away so they were going to work on that. The Girl also decided to stay the extra day.

Snowy road: The road out of Dixie Valley was pretty awesome. Photo by Christy Jerz.The three of us finished packing and set out. Now, I’m pretty sure we’ve owned a four-wheel-drive for at least three years. In fact, we got this car because in 2005 the winter was brutal and our car got stuck several times just trying to leave our house. Since then, we may have only used the four-wheel-drive once. Not today. The car is one of those full-time 4WD things where you only have to do something if you want to lock the 4WD in in a serious situation. I did that to get out of the property’s area, but it then turns off after you hit 25 MPH. While totally snowy, the one thing that was a bonus was that the road was smoother than normal. No washboard, no bumps, just smooth sailing.

By the time we got back to the paved road at Frenchman’s it was merely raining. There was plenty of snow on the car, though. The funny part is that by the time we got home, there was nothing left. It had all flown off on the freeway and the car was totally clean. And we were home by 1:00 on Friday afternoon. Heck, I was even able to catch the Wolf Pack game that night. It had turned out to be a pretty awesome Thanksgiving.

To top it off, we were still able to make it to Carson City on Saturday to visit with everyone who was still there. Pretty sweet holiday, if you ask me.