I don’t seem to have much luck with large birthdays.
My 30th birthday was a bit of a disaster and, among other things, involved a teen boy trying to choke Shae from behind. (Update: You can read what happened here.) Shae therefore wanted to make my 40th extra special. My parents had been due to be with us, but their trip got cancelled due to COVID-19.
What I hadn’t known at the time is that my sister was also due to fly over from the UK for my birthday celebrations, plus Shae had arranged for some of my friends from around the country to fly out to join us. Due to the pandemic, all those plans had to be cancelled, so Shae was left scrambling trying to sort out something else fun instead.
She did good.
She had asked me ahead of time what I wanted to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner that day. Knowing that I’d want to sleep in a little, I figured a late breakfast and then a large dinner would be good. I’m not a fancy person and was curious what the new breakfast selection from Wendy’s would be like, so I asked for a Breakfast Baconator and potato wedges. My verdict: the Breakfast Baconator was OK, but I prefer a Sausage & Egg McMuffin from McDonald’s. The potato wedges were great though.
I’m actually getting ahead of myself though because my birthday celebration started the previous day. We had to head up to Colorado Springs to get a birthday surprise, but on the way we stopped off in downtown Pueblo to pick up another gift. One of my friends had sent some money so I could pick up some beer from Walter’s Beer, a brewery that’s been around since 1898.
They offer all kinds of interesting flavored beer so, unable to choose, I went with as many different flavors as possible! I therefore ended up with growlers and cans of coffee bock, chili beer and more. I was very curious as to what the chili beer would be like and it was surprisingly tasty – they’ve managed to incorporate the distinctive taste of chili without it ruining the beer.
We still had a little time to kill before we picked up my next gift, so Shae and I took a quick stroll on the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk in Pueblo. This was opened in 2000 and is modeled on San Antonio’s Riverwalk. While it’s not quite as nice as San Antonio’s one, it’s still a cute area to walk and is probably a lively place to hang out in non-pandemic times.
After getting back to our car, it was time to pick up my next gift thanks to Shae’s mom and stepdad. Shae drove me up to Colorado Springs and just before we arrived, we did a video call with them so that they could see my reaction when I found out what they’d gotten me.
They’d rented me a Tesla Model X – a car I’ve always wanted to drive – for a couple of days through Turo. In case you’re not familiar with Turo, it’s a service where you can rent people’s private cars, so this was a great opportunity to experience a Tesla without the incredibly high price tag of actually buying one.
Having driven it, I now want to own one even more!
There’s so much to love about it. It’s stylish. It’s comfortable. It’s smart. It’s spacious. You don’t have to pay for gas because it’s an electric vehicle. Although you have to charge it, it charges quickly. It accelerates quickly and that was just in Sport mode. We didn’t end up putting it in Ludicrous or Ludicrous+ mode, so we’ll have to rent one another time to try that out 😉
Another cool feature was Autopilot. This is where the car drives itself, although you have to still remain in control; it requires that you slightly move the steering wheel every 20 seconds or so to prove that you’re still paying attention to the road as it’s not a full self-driving experience yet.
Autopilot can even change lanes for you. All you need to do is indicate that you want to change lanes and the Tesla Model X will do the rest. Here’s a quick video we took of it in action:
Anyway, back to my birthday day itself. When coming up for breakfast, I found the living room of our Airbnb decorated and a couple of bottles of whiskey waiting for me – a bottle of Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve from our friends and a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1884Â from our dog Truffles.
After breakfast I took a nap, then we headed back up to Colorado Springs to visit Garden Of The Gods.
We didn’t spend too much time there as we had to get back for the next stage of my birthday celebration, so we’ll definitely have to head back again. We’d visited quickly back in 2009 and it was even more beautiful than I remembered it, so I’m looking forward to returning again.
Next up was a meetup with all my friends. Although we couldn’t meet in person as originally planned, Shae arranged a Zoom call with them all, so it was good to see all their faces.
It ended with a photo montage video that Shae put together with my face over the last 40 years, set to the song that was number 1 when I was born 40 years ago.
My dinner request was a three meat platter from GG’s BBQ, so I filled up on brisket, smoked turkey, pulled pork, potato salad, jalapeno onion strips and a roll. This was waaaaaaay too much food, so I got to enjoy the rest of it the next day.
That wasn’t all I had to eat though. Shae made me the most amazing birthday cake ever which was a chocolate, raspberry and coconut cake. It was ridiculously moist and delicious and is something I’m still working my way through. Although it was a shame that I didn’t get to see my family and friends for my birthday, the upside is that I got the cake all to myself!
Shae also made me a couple of fantastic drinks. I’m originally from the UK and over there a popular dessert is banoffee pie. Shae tried making me banoffee pie for a past birthday, but it didn’t quite go to plan 😉 She managed to solve that problem this year by making me a couple of banoffee pie drinks.
The banoffee pie cocktail contained banana, banana rum cream, caramel vodka, graham cracker, whipped cream and possibly something else and was incredible – it really was like liquid banoffee pie, but in a good way!
She also made me a banoffee pie shot which I think was just banana rum cream and caramel vodka and was also very good.
That wasn’t the end of the birthday surprises though as I then found out what my gift from Shae was. She’d arranged a sunset helicopter flight over Pikes Peak – the highest mountain in the Rocky Mountains – which we’d be doing a couple of nights later.
Neither of us had been in a helicopter before, so I was really excited about this. COVID-19 struck again though; restrictions meant recreational businesses in Colorado were still unable to operate, so the helicopter flight had to be cancelled. We’re not going to be in Colorado by the time businesses like that are able to reopen, so I’ve effectively got free rein to pick something else to do in the future as my gift from Shae. I’ve got absolutely no idea what to pick, so I’ll be giving that some thought in the coming weeks and months.
Update: We extended our stay and got to go on the helicopter tour after all – you can read about it here.
All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend my 40th birthday, despite things not working out as Shae had initially been hoping. I can’t wait to see what she plans for my 50th!
BethC. says
Happy birthday! Amazing celebration considering all of the restrictions. You’ve now given me an idea for my husband’s next birthday (the Tesla rental).
stephen says
He’ll love it!
Jon says
Happy Birthday!
stephen says
Thank you!
Dan @ Points With a Crew says
You can’t just tease us with “… My 30th birthday was a bit of a disaster and, among other things, involved a teen boy trying to choke Shae from behind…” without coughing up more of the details!!!!! 😀
stephen says
Hahahaha! I’d meant to actually write a follow-up post about that experience but completely forgot. I’ll add that to the list, so stay tuned 🙂