It’s just the first day of winter and so for the next few months, many people across the country will be taking part in quintessentially Canadian winter pastimes like tending to the backyard rink or grabbing a coffee from Tim Hortons. While doing those things won’t get you all that much attention, combining the two certainly will.
That’s exactly what a 34-year-old manager of a crane business did on Tuesday when he wheeled his Zamboni through the Tim Hortons drive-thru in Stony Plain, Alta.
“I ordered a large hot chocolate and came through the drive-thru – there was about three people sticking their heads out the window, all smiling and telling me this is the best thing they’ve ever seen and no worries about the order (because) the lady in front of me actually picked up my order,” Jesse Myshak said.
“She told the guys that it was the most Canadian thing she’s ever seen so she figured she’d better buy my order for me,” he laughed.
Myshak said he recently bought the Zamboni to use on the backyard rink he built for his kids: an eight-year-old girl and a seven- and four-year-old son. He had been working on the Zamboni at his garage at work and had to get it to his rural home about four kilometres outside of Stony Plain.
READ MORE: Alberta engineers design homemade Zamboni for outdoor rink
“I figured it would be cost-effective and easier to drive it home so I told the boys at the shop I was taking off and going to run the Zamboni to the house and they all kind of made jokes that I should stop by Tim Hortons and grab a coffee… and take it through the drive-thru,” he said. I figured, ‘Might as well grab something warm on the way’ and so I pulled through the drive-thru.”
It was lunchtime and so the coffee and donut chain was busy and Myshak said his drive-thru stunt got alot of people smiling.
“As soon as I pulled up, people came out and were taking pictures… a lot of honks.. it was pretty funny.”
Myshak said a man who had just been at his shop saw him pull up on the ice-resurfacing machine and took some video which Myshak ended up posting on Twitter.
Watch: Surveillance footage provided by Tim Hortons captures a man taking his Zamboni through the drive-thru in Stony Plain.
When asked if he was concerned about how safe driving the machine through town was or if he feared any legal repercussions, Myshak didn’t seem too worried about it.
“I mean a few people kind of said, ‘Hopefully you don’t get a ticket,'” he said. “Just to be safe, I had one of our guys follow me there in his pickup with the four-ways on when I came onto the highway.
“We had a county cop pass us and no lights were thrown on so it worked out OK.”
Watch below: It doesn’t get much more Canadian than this. An Alberta man became an Internet sensation when he drove his Zamboni through a Tim Hortons drive-thru. Kent Morrison has the story.
When asked why he needed such a professional-looking Zamboni for his backyard rink, Myshak described its size: 100 feet by 40 feet, or about half the size of an NHL rink.
READ MORE: Canadians prove backyard rinks won’t become history
Myshak said the rink is highly appreciated by his children and their many friends who come to play the most Canadian of sport on it: ice hockey.