Thanksforgivingusdinnerat10pm, Canada!

The last time I did something special on a Canadian holiday, I drove to Burlington for a day in Sweden at IKEA and not until we arrived in the parking lot did I notice it was July 1, Canada Day.  Of course stores would be closed, especially import snap-together furniture stores with a second-floor meatball restaurant.  How silly of me.

So this time around, I had more concrete plans for a north-of-the-border celebration.  And none of it even took place in Canada!  How pristine a plan!  It’s like going to Aruba for President’s Day.

My friend Lulu’s family invited some friends and me to their getaway in Ellicottville for their yearly Canadian Thanksgiving celebration.  I think we had thought it would be a few people and some friends.  Wrong!  It was 40 PEOPLE with THREE TURKEYS and MANY DESSERTS.  Everything was delicious, the company was wonderful, the refreshments were plentiful, and we had lots of fun.

That’s...............after we spent four hours getting there.  Let’s backtrack, shall we?

So our carload of four people was heading out, a little later than previously planned but nonetheless with as much enthusiasm, curiosity and hunger.  So we took to the road, thinking we were heading in the right direction, the direction we all knew we had to go in to begin with.  It was, oh maybe, an hour and a half later when we realized we were almost in Pennsylvania—not exactly where Ellicottville is.  Not nearly.  We backtracked, hoping to find a clear enough route to cross over to the 219 with, which wound us up ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE NEAR THE 219!!!$*#$(%#(!)@$#%#$*!()@$#%#!#@$

In hopes of finding our needed route, we took to a few side roads I found on my phone’s map feature.  (A multi-functional phone that, despite its amazing qualities, still couldn’t make a turkey sandwich to save our lives.  Seriously, you can land planes with this contraption.  But our hunger was palpable.  I was ready to start scooping my fingers into the apple crisp I had made.  My phone might have made a better tool.) Have you ever noticed the wide variety of street and town names in Upstate New York?  A few for our momentary delight:  Brown Hill Road, which more than lives up to its name; the roll-off-your-tongue-like-melted-butter Connoisarauley Road; the towns of Bagdad, Ballstown and Brooklyn; and the grand prize winner of the night...PFARMER ROAD.  That’s right, PUH-FAR-MER ROAD.  You heard it here first.  But it was on Trevett Road that our car started to smoke.  I wish we had had a turkey; we could have smoked that.

We eventually got there, but found that there was no on-ramp to the 219.  We were sitting under the highway, exactly where we needed to be but with negative ability to get onto it.  We were on a sinking ship, staring at our lifejackets.  It sucked.  When we finally found our way to the 219, we were in desperate need for a gas station.  As every town we had passed through had not a gas station nor a townsfolk to ask for a gas station, we were delighted to see the lighted pilot sign for the truck stop we encountered at the corner of the 219.  The glow of that sign had emerged from the crust of the hill we were driving over.  It was like a sunrise, only with gasoline and 99-cent Little Debbie snacks instead of the sun and horizon line.

We got to our friend’s house in no time eventually and we had our Canadian Thanksgiving meal.  We didn’t know quite what to expect for our first Canadian Thanksgiving, however we were pretty sure turkey was involved.  And we were right.  We had the leftovers from one of three turkeys, some smashed pumpkin/squash/potato stuff, some delicious cranberry-orange sauce, and some really delicious little tarts called Butter Tarts.  I was told they were Canadian.

I never thought I’d say this, but Canada, thanks for your giving.  We really needed appreciated depended on loved it.  A special thank you to the Robinson family and their wonderful hospitality and food.  We we were so sorry to get there four hours late, but we were really thrilled to have showed up before everyone went to bed.  Your food was delicious, your home was spectacular and your company was so Canadian.  Thanks again!

Photo of Canadian culinary crafts courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 10/13 at 09:54 AM