The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves...: Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

In preparation for the upcoming Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, we spent a quiet Easter weekend at home, pausing the art prep just long enough to scarf down some turkey.

Given the distance and the very early start time, we opted to head up Friday night and get a motel in nearby Elora. We took the van, fully laden with artwork and booth setup, and elected for a nice backroad meander to the north and east. In spite of some April snow, we explored the beautiful town, and the one of us not on crutches also did a quick tour around the stunning Elora Gorge.

For dinner, we chose the Elora Brewing Company and were not disappointed - great food, beer and ambiance! After a wonderful experience, we back-tracked up the hill to the motel for an early bedtime and a 345am date with the alarm clock.

Much to our chagrin, the Elora Timmy's didn't open until 7am.....so we made the drive to Elmira in sleepy silence.We arrived at 445am, in the dark, just trying to find our way to the main street. All side roads had been blocked off, and there didn't seem to be anybody coordinating anything.

Eventually with the help of fellow vendors we found our designated booth (32 East, right in the middle of the Main Street) and started to set up - no easy task in the dark and cold (-7 C) with one person on crutches! Some coffee from a nearby Circle K made the task a little more bearable.

The crowds were huge, even on a chilly day. We huddled in the back of the booth, literally under blankets, and Jane even scored some footwarmers from a fellow vendor. The day was brisk but so were the sales, and our only chance to get a break was to lumber (or crutch) stiffly over to a nearby Mennonite church for hot coffee, warm toes and to use a real washroom. We never did get to check out other vendors. All in all, a very long and cold but successful day!

We opted to ferry everything out in a series of trips, rather than bring the van back into the chaos of the mass departure. Teardown was complete about 445pm, and we hit the road, rather than our vehicle being trapped on Main Street by all the other trucks and vans. Tired and hungry, we were luckily only going as far as the London area, to spend a fun night at John and Julie's. We also worked in a late Easter lunch the next day at Dolcetto with all the Coxeses, before finally heading for home.