Come to the Light / Roadhouse Party/ Birthday Girl

It was my 59th birthday, and what a fabulous day I had! I have to tell you that with my parents' passing a few months ago, I feared December. I feared my birthday. I feared Christmas. Well, Christmas is still ahead of us, but the birthday thing? We just smashed it. What a party!

Just to make sure it was a good birthday, I did a few things in advance: I ordered a birthday cake from the Penn State Bakery, and I picked up grilled stickies ice cream from the Penn State Berkey Creamery. (And managed to sneak in a little Arboretum visit in between!) I'd bought candy. So we were well stocked on birthday treats.

Friday night, my husband had suggested that we go into town and try out the Texas Roadhouse for a Saturday birthday lunch of steak. He'd looked into the menu and the prices seemed reasonable and the options tasty. 

But I balked. Olive Garden is my go-to birthday lunch place; I love their fettuccine, and I enjoy the free dessert they give you on your special day. "Town? On a SATURDAY before CHRISTMAS? Are you NUTS?" I said. "It'll be too crowded. I think we should wait and go to Olive Garden for lunch on Monday." But he replied, "If we go early, like 11 a.m., it should be just FINE."

Later in the evening, lying in my husband's arms and feeling pretty darn good about it all, I reconsidered. My loving husband wanted to buy me a steak dinner for my birthday lunch, and I was holding back? What kind of crazy girl was I? Besides, I'd looked at the menu and baked potato soup was one of the sides. How could I say No?

We got up on Saturday morning and were treated to a blanket of fog. Well, now, anybody who knows me knows that fog is one of my favorite atmospheric conditions. It's fantastic for photography. So out I went, with camera. Here is a shot looking up Tow Hill, just as the light came. The clouds parted, the sun came out through the fog, it lit the tops of the trees with gold, the road began to shine, and BANG, there was my shot! I'm calling it Come to the Light.

I got back home to find my husband had placed a card and a little gift or two, along with our stuffed animals, all arranged on the bed. "Loved you since we first met!" he wrote in the card. (Hooray for the State College laundromat scene, let me tell you. That's where I got him!)

"Do you still want to go out to lunch for a steak dinner?" I asked him. Well, he hemmed and hawed: It was a crazy plan. It was a Saturday before Christmas. They'd be packed. Was I sure I wanted to risk it? I replied: "If we go early, like 11 a.m., it should be just FINE."

This is how we ended up at the State College Texas Roadhouse restaurant for a birthday lunch of two 6-oz sirloin steaks. Salad with really good ranch dressing and steak fries for my husband. A baked potato dipped in sea salt with butter and sour cream, and a bowl of baked potato soup for me (a cup can be included as a regular side; for a buck more, you can get a bowl). Plus plenty of those sweet rolls and butter.

On our way in, we walked past a glass display case featuring amazing looking steaks that you could select for your meal. My husband asked our server if they do anything special for birthday people. I didn't hear the server's reply. My husband didn't really either. "I think he said they make you ride a mechanical bull," he said. I told him I didn't think I needed any of that. 

So we sat down and had a really fabulous lunch. The steaks were done exactly as we'd asked. The baked potato soup was luscious. My potato was nommy. I saved about half of everything for later (yes, I take along containers for this; be prepared, that's my motto!). And those rolls? Oh my!

At the end of my meal, I told my husband I needed to check out the restrooms, which as it turns out were labeled OUTHOUSE. They were also spacious, clean, and well stocked. Good. Check mark! And as I walked in, Johnny Cash came over the PA system singing about how he'd shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Oh, PERFECTAMUNDO. Extra points for featuring the dark side of Johnny Cash!

I got back from the restrooms to find they'd tidied up our table, taken things away. "I think they said something about bringing a dessert tray over," my husband said. I grabbed my camera, ready to photograph desserts. But no . . .

A trio of people came trooping in, a little gal and two big guys (one of them our server Dylan) and they had some kind of horse/saddle thing they wanted me to sit on while they raised a ruckus and asked the whole place to celebrate my birthday. I think of this as celebration via humiliation, LOL.

Ride 'em, Cowgirl! As I laughed in happiness and embarrassment, the little gal shouted out admonishments to the crowd and my husband took my picture. (Warning: be prepared, as they will ask your name and age and then shout this information out to the crowd!) In the extras, you may see a festive view of the Roadhouse from where I sat, and then a photo of me on the saddle with my two body guards. LOL! Actually, not body guards, but servers, with our main man Dylan on the right.

It would be hard to top our first impressions of this place, after the amazing experience we had there. We discovered that you can order the same meals we had on this day for $2 less on Monday through Thursday between 3 and 5 p.m. There is a loyalty/VIP club you can join to get a free appetizer. You can buy $30 worth of gift cards for Christmas and get $5 off your next meal. Yes, I plan to do all of these things!

The rest of the day was pretty darn fine too. We shopped at TJ Maxx for half an hour (but didn't buy anything). I sat in the sun and read my book on what turned into a mild and sunny afternoon. I put leftover steak on my mushroom pizza for supper, and later we had cake and ice cream.

Wow, what a fantastic lunch and what a wonderful birthday! Hats off to all who made it possible, and especially to my husband, for making sure this birthday girl's dreams came true!

I have three photos for this day, so let's haul out the tunes. First, for my photo of the light coming through fog, I've got Jeff Healey, with See the Light. For my photo of the party-party Roadhouse, we've got Jeff Healey, with Roadhouse Blues. And for the happy birthday cowgirl in the extras, and for the boy who loved her and whom SHE loved from that very first glance, here's John Mellencamp, with Key West Intermezzo/I Saw You First. Oh, and I'm back to add an extra song. Just had to include Johnny Cash, with Folsom Prison Blues. :-)