After reluctantly agreeing not to stay in the motel again on our home time to Port Isabel, mainly because I wanted the use of the motel's wifi service, I began to stay on board the Sue. Naturally, I prepared myself with a new internet connection - a wifi card from Cingular (which was later taken over by AT&T). So, now I could be on board and stay in touch with fam and friends through the internet, and do my genealogy research, also, on my home time away from work.
It did not take long to adapt to living on a boat. It was, actually, quite easy. I think the only two major factors in adapting was very minimal space when cooking and using the head. Actually, using the head was almost non-existent. Neither Anchor Marina nor South Point had any type of pump out system. Keith solved the problem by bringing aboard the porta-potty that we used in the truck. If I recall correctly, Anchor Marina had a shower, but when we moved over to South Point and joined the Yacht Club there, we used the Club's showers.
Cooking on the Sue, at first, was also nearly non-existent. Keith had to replace the stove that was in the galley first. I did use the top burners on the original stove, though. I also did a lot of meals in the slow cooker, too. A majority of time, until the new stove went in, we just went to the local fast food joints around town.Once the new stove was in, it became an experiment to cooking meals. The stove was on propane and the oven consisted of a strip of propane flames on the "floor" at the very back of the oven. Essentially, all of the major heat stayed in that area. Cooking times consisted of two-three times longer than average times and a lot of turning the dishes around for even cooking. Prepping was also a lesson in organization and patience what with the small areas in which to work, so I learned to use any space in the cabin that I needed.
Most of the time, I would decide what to fix the day before, what I would need and the area's I would use. Chopping and mixing were done in the mid - to late afternoon on a TV tray.
Why not the table in the salon (like most boats have)? Well, we did have a table, but the support pole for it was not the proper base for the table. The pole that we had caused the table to severely lean from one side to the other. So, the table was kept in the low position and made into a bed for me to sleep on after I discovered how difficult it was for me to get in and out of the v-berth at night when I needed to use the head. We used tv trays for eating meals and the Nav station for computer and other "office" business. The trays and Nav Station also doubled for extra work space for cooking, too.
By the time Thanksgiving rolled around in our second year on board, I was ready to do the first home-cooked holiday dinner we had had in years. While driving team, we would head back to Vegas for Thanksgiving and have our holiday meal at one of the many casino buffet's in town. Of course, there were a couple of times we didn't make it home and ended up at some truck stop restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal. It wasn't too bad a meal either. I've always been thankful and grateful for the truck stops and their attention to making life easier for the driver with the services they provided for us.
So, anyway, back to that first Thanksgiving on board the Sue. My first consideration had to be the turkey. I decided on a 12-13 lb. bird so that I could freeze the leftovers and than take it on the road with us when we got back in the truck. However, I did not trust our oven to thoroughly cook the bird (and it would take a LONG time to do so, anyway), so I started to explore alternative options for our main course. I settled on an electric roaster. It would not take as long as the oven, browning the bird is minimal in a roaster, but it would cook it through and through. Using the roaster itself was not a problem either, as we were hooked up to shore power. I used the slow cooker for the green bean casserole, and everything else was done on the stove top. 
Organization was the key to it all, really. The bird and green bean casserole had to be started first. Of course, I do an ambrosia salad on Thanksgiving every year, too, and it was always prepared the day before. Pies were store-bought at that time. I didn't discover I could bake the pies in the roaster until years later, and we didn't get off the road in time to do them anyway. I barely had enough time to defrost the turkey after getting home off the road. So, once the bird and casserole were cooking, it would be a few hours before everything else had to be done. So, peeling potatoes, and cooking up the gizzards was used for that time frame. So, I would pace myself and organize - turkey, green bean casserole, gizzards, potatoes, Stove Top stuffing (because of time and space limits), and the gravy and rolls last. I would even put out a tray of crackers, cheese and pickle slices for Keith to munch on before the dinner was ready.Since that second year on the Sue, I have done Thanksgiving (and Christmas ham dinners, too) on board every year.No, it wasn't that difficult to adapt to living aboard. I have lived in houses, apartments, cabins with no electricity or running water, motor homes, and trucks with sleepers. Living on a boat was just one more place to add to the list.
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