On a whim the other day I stumbled upon the Adafruit page for the MCP9601. In there they mentioned trying to change the frequency of the I2C to 20k if not using SAMD. So I did and I was able to get the thermometer to work. Then I was baffled for a while on why I couldn't get the temperature to work if I put the motor board on. Turns out there was an I2C address conflict. I added a drop of solder to fix that and, viola! It would all work! I might publish a video some time in the future. 

Now that this is working, I can FINALLY start to make this work for me. 

Initial next steps:

1. Get Wifi connecting
2. Send temperature via MQTT
3. Send Motor status via MQTT
4. Figure out how to attach the fan to the smoker
5. Develop a fan-speed to temperature algorithm
6. Test algorithm without food
7. Test algorithm with food

So excited!