The man who installed the trailer hitch, also welded on a rack for the bike. The car's trunk was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to use when the bike was attached to the car, but without the bike the rack was hardly in the way at all. When not in use, the post and top lock for the bike holder came off and then went into the trunk . Only the bottom wheel cups stayed in place. It was a nice system, even if it was home made by the same welder who had installed the hitch onto my car.

The time between the purchase of the trailer and the date of the show passed slowly. I served a few papers and I made a few pictures. Mary and I went out a few times, and dog grew like a weed.

The day finally came for me to drive Dog to Williamsport for his sleep over with Mary. Dog didn't seem at all upset with me for leaving him. Probably because Mary was a friend, who always spoiled him. The drive pulling the trailer took a few hours longer than the drive would have taken without it. I looked at it as an adventure,so it wasn't so bad. I found the municipal campground easily enough. I paid for a space, then parked the trailer on a concrete pad. Since I didn't have water or sewer needs, all I had to do was to plug in the power outlet. the power in the trailer looked to be on one of those power strips with six plugs. The single circuit breaker was an inline box. There was nothing fancy about it at all.

The breaker would blow at anything over 20 amps. It was enough to run the dorm style refrigerator and a toaster oven, with a quartz tube inside, at the same time. The trailer had come with a two burner gas stovetop looking thing. The fuel was from a tank like those used by plumbers to soldier. I figured it was pretty much useless. I kept it but I also bought an electric frying pan.

"This model is deep enough to double as a slow cooker," the saleslady told me. I had no idea what I would do with either, but I wanted it. The refrigerator was empty when I pulled into the space. I planned to buy something on the way back from the armory.

The drive to the civil war armory located on an island in the James river was a dream. Without the anchor of the trailer, the car seemed to fly along. As stated in my information packet, the armory was open for set up after noon on Friday. It was a couple of hours after noon, so I parked the Ford near the entrance, then I went inside to find my site. The show's promoter had me set up in the center of the room. Since I had never done one of the shows before, it seemed as good a place as any.

I spent about half an hour filling my table with product. I also set up the two wooden poster display cases. Those were no more than v shaped holders on legs. They would allow customers to just flip though the heavy paper posters. When everything was ready, I took a few steps back to look at the display. It looked pretty darn professional, I decided.

I spent the evening with a grocery store's deli pizza, and a six pack of diet coke. I had seen the campground's sticker for Wifi. After about thirty minutes of boredom, I decided that I would buy some kind of Internet device before I did another weekend show.

Saturday morning I had breakfast at a McDonald's somewhere in Richmond Virginia. I could probably never find it again. It was just on the side of one of the roads leading to the armory. It wasn't a great breakfast, but it was fast and relatively inexpensive.

When I arrived at the Armory, I found that my display had been disturbed a little. Nothing seemed to be missing, so I didn't mention it to any of the promoters staff. There were plenty of staff members wandering around while the other vendors set up shop. I found the vender selling coffee and made friends with him first thing. He had agreed to give his fellow venders a discount on the coffee. Even then it was way more than McDonalds had charged. Even so, at that moment I might have paid even more for coffee.

The customers began arriving around 8:30 AM. I made my first sale just before lunch. the foot traffic was good, I just didn't have a big Christmas gift product. I did manage to sell a few of the note card packs. It seemed that there were a few civil war buffs about. The art posters went slowly but a couple of them did move as well. By the end of the day I had sold slightly over a hundred dollars worth of product. That had been the price of the space rental, so I felt vindicated.

During the day I made friends with a couple who were selling handmade jewelry. She designed the items, and he made them from gold wire and non precious stones. He also did some silver foundry work. The pieces were all his wife's design and were quite popular it seemed.

"Several of the vendors are going over to Momma Leon's for dinner and a few drinks. Why don't you come along?" the husband asked.

"I'm pretty tired but I do have to have dinner somewhere, so why not. I will have to leave early though."

"That's fine stay as long as you like or leave whenever you are ready," he suggested.

Mama Leon's was just one step above a grill. It had long tables with table clothes, and a bar, but otherwise it was just a down home style restaurant. I ordered a hamburger steak with slaw and french fries. It came with cornbread which was fine with me. The table seated twelve but there were fifteen of us. So the eating area was a little cramped.

"So you are the civil war photographer?" The question came from a woman even older than me, if that were possible. She had mostly gray hair and some pretty serious wrinkles in her face. She would have been unremarkable, had it not been for her bearing. She sat perfectly straight in the restaurant chair. There was more, but her posture was the one thing I could put my finger on.

"Yes that's me." I replied.

"Too bad you didn't get some of those re enactors to pose as dead bodies. I think that would have been more interesting to the tourists," she explained.

"That's a good idea. Frankly I haven't quite got a grip on what, if any, use the images might be."

"From the ones I saw there are quite good."

"Thank you. I'm afraid I haven't seen your display what do you sell."

"Nothing actually, I am the instruction of those charming little ballet dancers."

"Oh I see. I'm afraid that I don't know much about dance."

"Not many people do," she said almost sadly.

"That's what it is about you," I exclaimed stupidly. When she looked at me curiously I went on. "I was impressed by your presence, your bearing if you will. Now I get it, you have a dancer's grace."

"Why thank you," she replied with a warm smile.

"So tiny dancer, is your dance school here in Richmond."

"Yes it is, and where are you from."

"A little town in North Carolina. I'm just in the big city for the craft show."

"Ah well you don't sound like a small town boy. You seem to have an eye for beauty and balance. That's what I noticed first, the balance."

"I didn't see you at the display."

"Oh I saw your display after the rehearsal last night. I guess you might say I'm stalking you. I convinced Edgar and his wife to invite you to dinner so I could arrange a meeting."

"I am flattered," I replied more than a little bewildered.

"Well it's more about your talent than you. Still I wasn't disappointed."

"I'm glad. It's too bad that I have to leave tomorrow, we could have had dinner or something."

"Well we have had dinner, and the night is young." I was a little surprised that the woman who was a few years older than me at least, seemed to be flirting hard with me. I decided to quietly go for it. All she could do was say no in a very public manner. Even if she did, so what, I didn't know any of the people sitting around the table.

"So I have a camper at the city campground. Have you ever done it on a tiny little camper bed."

"No, but I have a real house with a real bed and I have done it there."

"If that is an invitation, I accept."

"Then settle the bill and let's go?" she demanded.