You only turn 29 once

On may 18th, I turned 29. But, that’s not what this post is about. On June 3rd, Rob turned 29 too. He always jokes he married a much older woman (16 silly days older). I love birthdays because it’s a privilege not everyone is guaranteed; to celebrate another. So they should be special, and highly anticipated.

A few posts back, I posted this. Easter weekend, Rob and I were driving up to Nashville for a fun car event when someone blew through a red light and changed our lives.

It’s an incredible miracle we were not hurt, but in the same breath, Rob lost a large piece of his heart that morning and grieved the loss in much the same way most would mourn the loss of a close friend. For those of you who know us, you know that’s an appropriate perspective to have. We are not really normal when it comes to cars and that car represented Rob’s identity for more than a decade, throughout his most formative years.

It took a few weeks to sort out the details, but we eventually had to say goodbye to the blue VR-4 forever. I’m fairly certain Rob didn’t even know I was taking these. This is the last night the car spent with us, and Rob took some time taking little parts off as keepsakes. 

Now, this post is about birthdays, but I had to get through that part of the story in order to set up the happy ending. While we were in Savannah, Rob found an opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade. He found a car for sale that he felt was a suitable successor to his VR-4 and after talking through our next steps, we decided to go for it. After all, life is lived only once. So, we were able to celebrate Rob’s 29th birthday in a most special way with the purchase of our 1998 NSX.

Photo credit goes to Evan Verschoore here in Huntsville who did an incredible job capturing the loveliness of this car. For Rob’s birthday, we went to our local monthly car meet and spent the night doing what he loves most! Hanging out with good friends in parking lots, eating food and drinking good beer.

And today, we returned to the Nashville car meet that, two months ago, ended so terribly for us. But today, today it was everything we were hoping it would be. A summer day filled with amazing cars, friends, and spirited driving.  Happy 29th birthday to my best friend! Like you told me years ago, true riches lie in true love, and we are millionaires.

For anyone who wants to read more about the blue VR-4 and what it meant to Rob, read this.