Dad's 71st Birthday

This past weekend we travelled to Warner Robins to celebrate my dad’s 71st birthday. Cynthia and I drove (actually, we rode my Goldwing…) to see him and mom and to take him out to lunch to celebrate the special day. When we got there, my sister (Lynne) was at their apartment, so we also got the extra blessing of seeing her and her twins, Brooklyn and Madison. Lynne couldn’t believe that we rode the motorcycle “all the way up there” (as she put it), but we told her it was a double treat—a chance to come see dad on his birthday AND a chance to ride the road as free spirits! We spent a little while visiting with everyone at mom & dad’s apartment, and then we headed off to Longhorn’s Steakhouse restaurant for a nice lunch together. We purposefully went late so that the crush of the lunch crowd would be gone.

I don’t really remember when my dad turned forty (my general age now), but I do remember when he turned 50, then 60, and now in his early 70’s. We have tried to have a special time at some of these milestone markers of his life. For his 50th birthday, a surprise party was thrown for him with black balloons and all of the requisite ‘over the hill’ paraphernalia, but we were unable to attend since I was in school at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. For his 65th birthday, Cynthia and I surprised him with a trip to Washington DC to see the Vietnam, Korean, and World War II Memorials. And for his 70th birthday last year, we all gathered at my sister’s house to be together for the afternoon. Birthdays seem to come a lot faster than they used to, and I am knocking on the door of the next one myself, which occurs next month. After a little more visiting at their apartment after lunch, Cynthia and I got back on Big Red (my motorcycle) and made the trip back to Statesboro.