This year Easter was a little different.  Our friends who usually ask us over to Easter dinner couldn’t because of the social distancing.  So I was trying to figure out what to cook for Easter dinner when I received an Email from Mel’s Diner.  They are a restaurant that is located not too far from us.  They serve very good food, big portions at a good price.  They offered free deliver or curb side pick up for Easter dinner which included turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, soup and a salad, all for $40.  I figured I help with the economy and get an Easter meal to boot, so I gave them a call.  It turns out we lived to far away from them for the free delivery but we could do the curb side pick up.  Great!  I gave them our credit card info, the color, the brand and make of our car and she said 2:00 would be a less busy time time to pick up our meal.  Got any pie?  “We can sell you a whole one”  I’ll take it!  Wonderful, Easter dinner all ordered!  Mind you, this order was placed about 1 1/2 weeks before Easter Sunday.

So, Easter finally came.  We got in our car and left home about 1:15, figuring if we got there a little early we could just sit in the parking lot and wait a few minutes before driving up to the door.  This restaurant is located on a road similar to Hwy 36.  There is a little strip mall in the same area as Mel’s so there was a long turn lane to pull into before you pulled into the parking lot.

So we pulled into the turn lane to head into the restaurant at 1:50 for our 2:00 pick up.  There were 4 cars in front of us in the turn lane.  OMG!  The place is packed and there is a que line of cars that snake around the back of the restaurant to the front door.  Hopefully the line will move pretty fast.  Once we turned the corner and were actually in the parking lot, this is what the turn lane looked like behind us

Yup, 11+ cars in the turn lane!

There were also cars that were making left turns into the parking lot.  They had to squirrel themselves around and hope someone let them into the que.

After we got into the parking lot, they made all the cars go around behind the restaurant and then around to the front door.

This is where we turned left to start our trek around the restaurant. So close and yet so far 😦

We are almost ready to make our turn…We had to leave a space open so the people leaving could get out

There! We are finally in a line no one can budge into.  But we wait here so long we end up turning off the car while waiting in move forward.

We see other people parking their cars and going up to the door.  Crap!  Oh well, no way am I going into that restaurant.  We’re in the line now, it can’t take that long, can it?

Just turned the corner, I can see the front door.

We are finally on the final turn before we get to the door.  Look!  People are coming up to the car doors and asking them questions.  Oooooo, they are bringing food out in bags.  Good, that will make it easier to carry into the house.

Almost there!

It is now 3:10,  we have been sitting in this stupid line for  1 hour and 40 minutes.  A guy comes out, takes our name, what we ordered and we told him we ordered a pie too.  “A whole pie?”  They wouldn’t just give us a few pieces so I ordered a whole pie.  So I wait outside of the car by all the people that have decided to come up to the door in their masks and get their order.  “What time were you supposed to pick up?”  they ask some old guy, “3:00.” he answers.  She looks over at me, “What time was your pick up?”  I hold up my two fingers…..”OH!”  she says, but I tell her a guy is getting our order.  He finally comes out, empty handed, what’s your name again?  I spell my name for him.  He goes back inside.  A while later he comes out with all our food on a tray.  On a TRAY mind you, no bag for us!  He places everything, which is in tin containers, except the hot gravy and hot soup

Once hot soup, now it is frozen

This is what the soup and gravy looked like.  How the heck is the gravy and soup going to stay in one place while we are driving home….going around corners….stopping/going…..going over bumps….the only way I know how is if I hold these two HOT items in my lap.  Now, mind you, I wasn’t too irradiate through out this whole process, I was even trying to cheer Gary up, but when he didn’t even put our food in bags, well…that was just the straw that broke the Irish girl’s back.  I kind of laid into him, told him how we waited for 1 hour and 20 minutes to pick up the food.  He apologized and said they got slammed, I told him that maybe if they had cut off the orders, they wouldn’t have gotten so slammed.

So I held onto the hot gravy and soup, shifting it around so I didn’t burn my skin until we finally got it home.  We opening everything up and guess what?  No Pie!  We’ll, maybe they didn’t have any, we’ll just wait to see what they charged us.  A few hours later, I get a notification on my phone that they charged us $58.58.  Huh, I bet that included the pie.  Well, I wasn’t going to call them today, I’ll wait for Monday.

I call on Monday and luckily I got the Manager.  I told him my story, he said he would give me a $15 credit by the end of the day.  That day there was a charge from Mel’s for $41.63.  What???? So they couldn’t just credit me the $15.00 they probably had to credit back the full $58.58 and charge me just for the meal plus tax or $41.63.  Ok, I’ll wait to see if I get a credit of $58.58.  The next day there is a credit for $15.00!  Ok you stupid so and so!  Again, I wait a few days to see if a credit comes thru.  Nothing appears so I call again.  This time the Manager is out and he’ll call me back on Friday.  He finally calls me Friday.  I again explain the whole thing.  I could tell by the way he is talking to me that he doesn’t believe me.  He says he will check his statements and let me know.  Now today is Wednesday.  The Manager never gets back to me and there is still no credit on my credit card.  I’ll have to call him again Grrrrrr!  I call him again, give him a refresher course on who I am and what I want.  Oh yes, he remembers me, where is my note, here it is.  Sorry, I got behind, you had a big credit coming didn’t you, lets see.  I ask him if I should just dispute it with my credit card company.  No, no!  Don’t do that!  They have made it real easy to issue credits now.  Hold on, ok, now I found everything.  Let’s see, you’re to get a $41.63 credit?  I will get it done today.

So here it is Saturday, and still nothing.  Guess I’ll be calling them again Monday.  What a bunch of dough heads!

But I hope YOU had a fabulous and Glorious Easter day.