Blackwater Writing Project

November 13, 2010

Thankful for blueberry muffins...

Several years ago when I was... 15, I think, my grandparents from Florida decided they wanted to get together with us for Thanksgiving. They didn't want to just meet up at our house or theirs, they wanted to go to Cypress Gardens and look at the plants growing. The *best* part about Cypress Gardens is that it's ridiculously expensive, so my grandparents like to stay in a little town about 50 minutes outside of wherever Cypress Gardens is at a cheap mom and pop kinda place. My parents agreed, and since 15 year olds don't have any rights, they graciously agreed on my behalf.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving day. It's about 5AM and we leave for our long trek to this tiny little town and mom and pop's Pink Flamingo inn, with all the charm of an unkept hotel from the 50s has to offer. We drive for about 9 hours and arrive at the hotel to discover my grandparents, who only had a three hour drive, hadn't shown up yet. Confused, we called their house but no one answered. Figuring they'd arrive at the hotel shortly, we all decide to nap before going out for Thanksgiving dinner. I remember waking in a dim hotel room to the sounds of our dalmatian crying. I rolled out of bed to see him standing by the door wanting to go out. A quick look at the clock shows that we'd slept all afternoon and it was a little past 10 at night. Still no sign of my grandparents. I took Pepper out for a walk while my mom tried calling again. I returned to learn they didn't answer the phone. My mom and I decide it was time to get some food. We left my dad still sleeping, threw the dog in the van, and started looking for anything open at this time of night on a holiday. We found a gas station. For that Thanksgiving dinner, my mom and I had prepackaged blueberry muffins and hand-held milk containers. Pepper got some beef jerky.

The next day, my grandparents finally showed up to tell us that the just didn't *feel* like driving on Thanksgiving day, and oh, sorry they didn't answer the phone, but they were having dinner with friends the first time we called and were sleeping the second.

Anyone else have a memorable Thanksgiving?

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