When my kids were entirely young, about five and ten years old, it was during Thanksgiving and we were on our way to my mother’s house.
My spouse was driving our station wagon and our kids were singing tunes, gleeful that it was Thanksgiving.
All of a abrupt we swerved off the road, went through a fence and stopped in the middle of the woods. We were so surprised, we were frozen in our seats that it took us awhile until we made the decision to go outside of the car to see what had happened. Turns out that we had a flat tire, which sent our car to the side of the road. There was a sign that said gas station one mile down the road. We went to the gas station and we couldn’t get a mechanic until tomorrow. Across the gas station was a condo and we had to cancel with my Dad and spend Thanksgiving in a outdated cabin. We got the keys to our room and it was particularly hot in there. I went to the thermostat to try to turn the heat down but the thermostat was stuck! There was nothing we could do as the other rooms were not as nice as the one that we had. It turns out that the boiler was an open flame heater. I’ve never dealt with this kind of boiler system although I could see the open flame as I crouched on the ground and looked through a tiny vent. We made the most of it during that Thanksgiving and opened up the windows to stay cool.