An espressofest to go is what my car is beginning to look like. With 6 gallons of milk, 8lbs of various espresso blends, glassware, tamps, equipment, grinder; I think it boiled down to 19-20 drinks a day I can make throughout our trip. Not to mention clothing for hot or cold, Turkeyday sides and a lunch we’ll be making. I feel like I’m going camping for all intensive purposes.
We’ve started a tradition with the TLC Clan, a clan formed by members of extended families growing larger and larger by the year as all of us cousins marry and expand the families bounderies. The new tradition is every other year we gather for Thanksgiving. It gives all of our alternating families a chance to spend a holiday with but also gives us good loving [hoodlums](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoodlum&r=f) a chance to see each other when we otherwise would not. Since we do gather so infrequently these days, everyone tries their best to come.
We will be staying in the Montreat center inside of Black Mountain, NC. Three homes and 30 some people, this should be fun. Robin’s birthday is this week as well, the 27th. I am not sure what we have decided to do for her birthday but more than likely will venture into Ashville for a nice dinner celebration.
Being the coffee nut that I am, I’d like to visit a few of the [SCAA](http://www.scaa.org) shops in the area to see if anyone over there is doing it right. All in all I’m looking forward to this trip if I can only get everything in the car. Knowing I will have no direct connectivity in the houses I might find a wifi area to sit in one day but I feel, and do not mind, if I am disconnected for a bit. I have much reading to catch up on.
If I miss you, have a good Thanksgiving.
-a