Day 18, Another year older

50's hunting, fishing thermos

August 19 and today I turn 45! It’s amazing how fast time is flying by and when I bought the Traveleze, I thought this will be my birthday gift to myself. This has been an exceptional day from start to finish. I actually opened my first gift yesterday from my brother and sister-in-law in Portland. My brother was going to be gone on my birthday and they want to know what my reaction was I opened it. When I opened the box, I found the neatest 1950's thermos I have ever seen! Im serious on the cool scale, this is it, it is absolutely perfect!  It even still has the original label on it and it's going to look awesome in the trailer.

My day started off with a phone call to the guy in Bend to see if I could catch him on his visit to Redmond. I dialed the number and he said hello Eric, so he knew it was me. He was very interested in coming by and looking at the trailer and would be here in 45 minutes which would give me an excuse to be a little late to work today. He arrived right on time and took a good look at the trailer and was very enthusiastic about what he saw.  He said I had a very good trailer, which made me feel great and a little reasuring that I wasn’t totally delusional. I thought I Had a good trailer but what do I know.  He gave me all kinds of good advice and recommended that we keep all the skin intact and not take it apart. I really want to enlist his services and I am sure he will be helping bring this 1950 trailer back to life and back on the road. He was going to go back to his place a work and think about it and what to do. I told him I would like to be on his work schedule, which is out to October. This works for me as it will give me time to find parts on ebay, like the tail ligths etc.  As for now, he said keep cleaning and polishing, he told me what to use and what not to do. His polishing recommendation is a product used on diamond plate truck boxes. I forget the name of it, but it’s “box…” something, and you get it at Lowe's, so I will be stopping there tomorrow afternoon.

One of our birthday traditions in the office is to buy breakfast, so that’s how we started the day. I think everyone appreciated the extra energy. My office then gave an amazing gift and one that I think is so creative and thoughtful. They bought me an old wire egg basket and then created a personal egg carton label for me, from “Coup De Ville Farms”. It is so hilarious it is awesome beyond words. It has all kinds of great saying on it like, "100% Resort Raised", (who needs free range, these birds are spoiled). Anyhow, it is a very thoughtful gift. All my gifts were thoughtful and very unique, including a killer vintage flashlight, which will look fantastic in the trailer, homemade rice crispy treats (who doesn't love those), my very own buffer and a Pendleton sweater that I saw way back in March!

I had a wonderful day and then I did one of my favorite things of all, I had dinner at my folks place.  Ddinner was served on the patio, with, New York steak from the barbecue, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and a salad. For my birthday cake, my Mom made me my grandmother’s recipe for Apple Spice Cake, with nearly inch thick brown sugar frosting. You have to make it several days ahead of time and let it age.  My Mom even made the apple sauce from scratch (I love my mom!).

It truly is a special feeling, when you know you are loved. Beyond the gifts, just the number of people who wished me a Happy Birthday, who sent me notes via card, text messages, emailed or Facebooked me, it was overwhelming. I feel so very blessed to have such good friends and a wonderful family.

Today was the best birthday ever!