Oh, I'm Getting Older Too

My birthday was a mixed bag this year. After last year's totally perfect birthday weekend, I knew I couldn't expect that again. But luckily, the good easily outweighed the bad.

I took Friday off of work and went to visit Coadster in Ames. We went to Reiman Gardens and checked out the butterflies, the Leggo sculptures, and of course, the world's largest cement gnome.

Then we drove to Des Moines to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up all kinds of stuff, since we don't have one in my town, and then finally to the gas station, to fill up The Guy's car. Alas, I couldn't get the gas cap unlocked. I tried, Coadster tired and then three other customers tried, with no luck. I called The Guy and he had no idea why we couldn't get it unlocked. He had to work until 5, but then he would drive to Des Moines with his other key to see if that helped. Of course, it would take 4 hours for that to happen and I would be sitting in a parking lot in West Des Moines on a 95 degree day that whole time. The Guy was smart enough to call a locksmith to help me out. It took a while for him to get there and he couldn't unlock the cap without basically beating the cap into many, many messy shards. So, three hours later, I finally got out of the damn parking lot and on the interstate home.

Saturday of my birthday weekend, we were supposed to do a bike race in a little town called Le Claire, Ia.  We decided to pre-ride the course and somehow got lost. We found ourselves in the next town over and had to ride down a busy street along the Mississippi River to our race. By the time we got there, everyone had already taken off. Oh, well. Our ride was pretty anyway.

We then headed to Maquoketa and went on a bike ride there. It was the third day of a migraine for me, and after all that riding and taking migraine meds, I was beat. We made it to a church, when I told The Guy I needed to stop. he was a very gallant boyfriend and I rested under a tree while he took off back to his car, on his bike and drove back to pick me up.

We met Coadster and her boyfriend at the hotel and they had sodas while The Guy and I had a drink at the bar downstairs. Then we had a lovely dinner and went to see Brave at the drive-in theater just outside of town.

On Sunday, we went to the caves in Maquoketa and hiked around. We were going to try to canoe or kayak, but it was extremely hot and the river was crazy low, on account of the damn drought. Instead, we all decided to go our separate ways and The Guy and I headed back home.

On Monday (my actual birthday). I got up and had the 5th day of my migraine (le sigh). I took even more meds and was able to make it though another hot, but nice day of lunch with The Guy and his mom, a nap, ice cream with The Guy and my girls and finally our Monday Night Bike Ride with some friends. So, aside from a few bumps, I couldn't ask for much more from my extended birthday weekend.