Outdoors with Don Q: Two unforgettable, secret birthday surprises

Thursday, May 8 was my birthday, and Elaine had arranged two unforgettable, secret surprises for me as a present.

She had previously asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told her, "Heck, I have everything I want, let's go to the cabin with Jim and Kathi (our son and daughter-in-law) and have a quiet steak and lobster dinner up there."

The Quilici Cabin is located on a steep hillside between Portola and Davis Lake in Plumas County, California, and we like to go there as often as we can to enjoy the accommodations, scenery, wildlife and peace and quiet.
Little did I know what was in store for me for this particular birthday.

Secret surprise No. 01:
At mid-afternoon on Wednesday, May 7, while Elaine was watching, I was busy with a garden hose, hand watering some newly planted flowers in one of our front yard flower beds.
A small red car pulled up and stopped across the street and the driver rolled down his window and loudly said, "Hey, you're still ugly!"
I looked and she said, "Do you know who that is?"
I looked and said, "It is Barry."
Then, I did a double take and shouted, "BARRY!" in disbelief.

Barry and Susan Drury are our very good friends, who live in Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada.

Barry had told me that he was on a job assignment in Faro, Yukon, and that morning, when I talked to and saw him on Skype, it looked like he was in a hotel room in Faro. In actuality, he and Susan were in Virginia City, Nevada.

At Susan's suggestion, way back in late October, the two of them and Elaine had connived for the Drurys to be in Carson City for my birthday.

They had driven from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon, and flown from there to Vancouver, British Columbia. At the Vancouver airport, they rented a car and then casually drove on a series of secondary roads to Washington, Oregon and into Nevada at Denio. From Denio, they drove to Winnemucca and then to Reno and from there, to Virginia City to spend Tuesday night.

The plan was for them to arrive at our home at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 07 and it worked to perfection. Wow! What a surprise!

After that initial shock of seeing them, the four of us had lots of conversation, cocktails, dinner and they spent the first of five nights with us.

The next day, we took Barry and Susan for a sightseeing trip of our area.

Susan had never been here before, so we drove from Carson City to Cave Rock Landing at Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe, S.R. 89 over Luther Pass to Hope Valley, S.R. 88 to Kit Carson Pass, S.R. 88 back to Woodfords, the back road to Genoa and Jack's Valley and then back home in Carson.

Secret surprise No. 02:
Elaine told me that she had made reservations for she and I, Barry and Susan and Jim and Kathi for dinner for the six of us at our favorite restaurant Garibaldi's at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday for a birthday dinner.
I asked why her Mom wasn't going and Elaine told me that her Mom had other commitments for that evening, and Jim and Kathi would meet us there.

Like a fool, I believed her and it turned out to be the second, secret surprise.
Barry, Susan, Elaine and I entered Garibaldi's at 5:15, there were no other customers, and we sat at the bar to order a pre-dinner drink.

Suddenly, a crowd of people came from the back of the dining area and they were shouting "Happy Birthday!"
Elaine had arranged with Mark (the owner) for her to host a private, birthday party for a large number of friends and relatives!

There were a total of 46 people, including: immediate family, relatives, neighbors, former neighbors, co-workers at carsonnow.org, former co-workers at NDOT, fishing partners and close friends.

It was an awesome and very special group of people.

Following a great dinner, there were a number of speakers who hilariously "roasted" yours truly under the direction of Emcee Bill McClain.

Those speakers stories included:
Wanda Biggs:
When I first moved to our home, I asked her late husband Dick to help me replace a front lawn sprinkler that was not working.
We replaced a sprinkler in the neighbor's adjoining lawn.
Rob Buonamici:
My cheapo hunting binoculars that he claims can't see across the room.
Rhonda Buckley:
If I could not remember someone's name at the newspaper office, I would call them "Bud" when talking to them.
Amber Law:
Told about a fishing trip to Lake Tahoe when her husband Kevin accidently knocked my digital camera into the live well, full of water and fish.
Jim Quilici:
On a hunting trip many years ago, he and my brother Butch had hung a deer in camp and carefully placed the deer's liver on a low bush to protect it.
Later, I arrived back at camp in my old Jeep and backed up over the liver.
Kathi Quilici:
I told Jim at their wedding, "It would be a lot cheaper to get a good hunting dog than to get married."
Bob Scholes:
Told about our fly-in fishing trip to Mitchell Lake, B.C. where I took about 16 pounds of lures. The only lure that I did not take was the one that had told me to take: A Mepps lure, which I had to borrow from him.
Barbara Van Hise:
When they moved in nest door, Chuck was very proud of the apple tree he planted in their front yard. I secretly wired a banana to one of the branches and when he came out to admire his tree, I told him he had planted a very rare banana-apple tree.

Finally:
We took the Drury's for an overnight stay at the Quilici cabin near Davis Lake in Plumas County, California.
Susan is a professional bird watcher and an avid wildlife photographer.
She had an enjoyable time watching and photographing all kinds of birds and even some mule deer, while on the other hand, Barry was busying snoring in one of our easy chairs. Vacations are relaxing!
Susan's wildlife photos can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/yukonlife.
They are awesome!

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you what Barry did last month for the first time in his life.
If he grins and says, "He was successful in a Musk Ox hunt in the High Arctic in The Northwest Territories," I could have told him about that hunt.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.