No employee working at Tim Hortons would expect to come up to the drive-through window and find two horses, a wagon, and 25 people seated on bales of hay, but on Saturday, June 14, that’s exactly what happened.
Every year, Stettler resident Lori Bennett gathers a “good group of friends” from near and far, bringing together a bunch of people for a weekend of fun and relaxation, something she said she believes is important because “it’s so easy to get weighed down.”
Fun this year included a 170-footlong slip’n’slide and a horse-drawn wagon ride.
“The oldest was my dad, Bert, and the youngest were two-year-old twins,” Bennett said of the wagon riders. She had hired local Jim Long and his two horses and wagon for the weekend, and together the group decided to head through Tim Hortons’ drive-through.
There, the group proved to be a rock-star attraction. While the area was packed with old-fashioned cars due to the nearby car show, they weren’t attracting the photographers.
It was the horse and wagon in the drive-through that was.
“It was hilarious,” Bennett said. “Like we were rock stars. They should have been taking photos of the cars, but they were taking photos of us.”
Bennett wasn’t at the window when the Tim Hortons’ drive-through worker came up, but she said she was told the girl “gasped, didn’t say anything and ran away” to get her friends.
The crews working inside headed to the window to see the horses and wagon, and then help out taking the orders of 25 hungry and thirsty people.
It wasn’t just a treat for the Tim Hortons’ workers or the people taking photos, but for the people on board the wagon, too.
“I had a bunch of city kids with us,” Bennett said, noting that many of the guests came from Calgary, Cochrane and Strathmore and not all had rural experiences with horses and wagons.
“And Jim Long is great,” she said of the wagon driver.