Day 48 - Carmi

Thanksgiving

Today was a great all American day. I spent most of the morning cleaning out my car (it now looks spiffing) and just hanging out.

Levi's family are super friendly and welcoming - his niece Ainsley (9) even invited me to a little tea party!

In the afternoon I wrote postcards and Ainsley helped me put more stickers on my laptop:

In the evening loads of people came round- grandparents, siblings and more nieces and nephews.

Then we had The Dinner: turkey (of course), ham, mash, beans, corn, carrots, stuffing, cauliflower, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls (a bit like scones) and of course cake and pies.

It was Grandpa Harold's birthday today so we put a candle on the turkey cake and sang happy birthday.

After dinner I beat 13 year old Carson at pool. This is remarkable in itself (I'm a terrible pool player) but the best bit about it is that I somehow managed to pull off the coolest shot mankind has ever seen (by mankind I do mean me and no, I've not seen a lot of pool)

Allow me to set the scene: We're in the basement. A proper American basement full of Star Wars toys, kids and a pool table. I'm about to go for my last shot. My fans (Ainsley and Aubrey) are cheering me on. Suddenly, the lights go out and it's pitch black! Everyone gasps (I'm with kids who are probably less scared of the dark than I am but I definitely hear some gasping) I go ahead and take the shot anyway and... plonk!  The satisfying sound of the black ball rolling into the corner pocket is left ringing in our ears as the lights come back on. Tadah! Instant legend. Let me tell you, there were some pretty impressed under 10s in that basement today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the peak of my sporting career.

After all the fun and games I got a bit sad to think that I'll be leaving all these lovely people. I do love my trip but I also really hate goodbyes and these people are so very nice. Tomorrow we're going Black Friday shopping so maybe a spot of retail therapy will make it all better.