...all that and an Albino Turkey!

It all started a few months ago when we got the hare-brained idea of going to Hocking Hills for Thanksgiving. So we packed up the family and hit the road! We should have known we were in for a rip-roaring weekend when we stopped into Psychoville, Ohio, to make pit-stops and buy a bite to eat. This little town made Cleveland seem like paradise. It was just off the freeway, sort of in the country but the gag was on us when it was filled with some of the most wigged-out looking folks we'd ever seen. Must be the water. Anyway, we quickly returned to the car and Purell'ed everyone and drove the last leg to our cottage in the hills. Upon arriving, I thought it would be nice to make some cookies while Cam took the kids to explore the surrounding terrain. I set the oven temp to 375 and put the cookies in and then sat down to read my book. Not 10 minutes later, the smoke alarm was going off and charred, chocolated chunky cookies were coming out of the oven. Conviently, there was a thermometer in the oven which read well over 500 degrees! I reset the oven and retried again, only to meet the same fate. This is when Cam and the kids came in and I broke the horrific news that not only were the cookies burn beyond recognition, but I was cooking our only other food source, Dinty Moore which was on the boil! We did a quick calculation of pantry items and realized it would be a sad Thanksgiving without a turkey if we couldn't get the oven working properly. Throughout the rest of that day and into the evening, Cam fiddled with the oven hoping to unlock its secret. Around 8 pm, he decided it was holding steady at 325, so he put the bird in to cook for 3 1/2 hours. Midnight came and the bird was lukewarm!! So Cam decided to set his watch alarm for 1 hour increments to check the bird. We were not going down without a fight. At 3 am Cam threw the towel in and the turkey was put in the fridge due to its albino-like color and pink interior. The kids also had trouble acclimating to their new surroundings and were up at 5:30 am on Friday. Claire was adamant about staying in her PJ's all day including going on hikes! Whatever. We decided to give the turkey one last hurrah, it was going to be eaten...or burnt trying. We threw it in the oven and left and didn't look back. We hiked around some really cool places and came back to find a delicious, golden brown Thanksgiving turkey. We had a wonderful feast of turkey, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, rolls, corn, cranberry sauce, cherry pie, etc. Don't forget the cherry 7 Up that was spilled about 15 times! Once we cleaned up we explored some more of Hocking Hills and came home and ate again. The kids watched Charlotte's Web and went to bed at 7:00 pm. Cam and I went to bed soon after...serenaded by the crazy fridge that made a recurring sound remenicent of the beginning of "Fur Elise" by Beethoven over, and over, and over again. Fun, Fun! Cam and I both awoke at around 2 am on our hide-a-bed mattress. We lit the gas fire to stay warm and waited for morning to rescue us from the faint wails of Brig occasionally, and the fridge and the furnace coming on and off, etc. Whew! We got up Saturday looking and feeling like we had survived a taffy pulling machine! We packed up and began the journey back to good ol' Cleveland. Home, sweet Home! P.S. It sounded horrible, but it really was an amazing trip. We would highly recommend Hocking Hills to anybody. Just leave your kids at home!