I checked with all my delivery people and found that I had only two days to sight see. So I headed up the coast along the not so famous highway 17. I visited three of the best known early towns in North Carolina. They were founded back with river boats were about the only way to get goods inland. The towns all had two things in common. The first was a mostly decaying downtown in the process of being revitalized for about the hundredth time. The second was that each had an almost identical riverside park. From the signs I could tell that the state of North Carolina had sprung for the money to build all of the parks in the same budget. That was long before the fall of the US economy.

Two of the three river towns were being tastefully restored, but the third and smallest of the three looked as thought it had been done by one of those reality TV shows. It was just plain awful. All the wrong colors and way too many of them. Instead of the quaint cobble stone pavers most often used, they had gone for colored in the mix concrete. It was truly a gay decorator's wet dream.

I did find. probably. the worlds best fish sandwich along the way. In one of the small towns, on the main street, within sight of the mouth of a river, I found a small seafood restaurant. Their lunch special was a fresh filet of fish sandwich. Since the fish could vary widely, they didn't specify a type.

Being somewhat adventurous, I ordered it with a home fried potatoes. I ordered the potatoes in hopes that they wouldn't come from a bag of precut frozen ones. The sandwich absolutely lived up to it's billing. The filet was just thick enough to be flavorful, but no so thick that it was too fishy. The breading was light and well spiced. The sauce was mayonnaise based, but not too sweet. It was truly delicious.

I loved the road trip and hated to see it end. On the last day I took a ferry ride to the barrier Islands. It was another beautiful day and great scenery. I had never taken the time to just wonder around, so it was a real treat for me. Life on the run did have it's advantages.

When I got back in town I found a medium sized box sitting beside my door. The mail carrier had left a box of tools unattended. If the place hadn't been a flurry of activity for a while, and the door inside a small alcove, I expect the package would have been gone. Still, there was so little traffic it might have gone unnoticed for several more days.

Inside the box were four sets of wrenches. One was a metric set of box and open end wrenches, one was a sae set of the same type wrench, there was also a set of Allen wrenches, and finally one set of metric in a knife like handle to fit in my pocket. I had bought them on line through ebay. I did it because I knew it would take a while to arrive and I really had no place to store tools until I took possession of the building.

I called the carpenter who had worked on the roof deck repair. The economy was so bad that he was able to come right over. It took him all afternoon to build the work bench which covered the rear wall of the service bay. When he had finished he left me the scrap 2x8s and plywood. I stored them under the work bench.

I went on line that night to get some help determining what tools I needed. I knew how to use simple hand tools, but I had a feeling there would be a need for specialized tools as well. I was right of course. There were special wrenches to make tightening wheel parts easier and special tools to remove crank sets from the bike and a tool to remove the sprocket set of a multi sprocket rear wheel.

Then there were the power tools. There were grinders and cutoff tools. as well as power drills and saws to buy. I found it best to just drive to Harbor Freight and load up all at once on the power tools I needed. Everything bike related, I just ordered on line and hoped I wouldn't need it before it arrived.

On the second day after my return from the trip just as scheduled ups delivered several boxes of used parts, which I had purchased on line. There were three 600 watt scooter motors and the mounts to attach them to the drives. Those all came from an electric scooter repair shop.

A second box held a half dozen used rear wheel assemblies from a much smaller scooter. Those came from a scooter salvage yard of all things. I chose those wheel assemblies because they were smaller than the ones from the repair shop and they had solid core tires. Those two items along with some raw metal from home depot would made my first three bikes. There were more sophisticated kits on the way from china, but these three would be the first to hit the showroom floor.

I stole the design from a guy on one of the bike forums. He didn't mind since he was just an old fart who was in it for fun. By the first weekend in the shop, I had the motors and the electronics ready to mount on a bike. I was waiting for the heavy duty bikes to arrive when I decided to hell with it. I went to three different Wal-mart stores to find three bikes I wanted to use. Since the rear seat, on the sedan Cindy left me, folded I was able to get the bikes back to the shop.

Instead of assembling the bikes over the weekend, I called my cop friend. "Jen gin, what you got planned for today?" I asked.

"Who the hell is this?" she asked.

"It's Eddie, from the palm room." I said it with a laugh.

"Oh the older guy?" I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Yes the one who reminds you of your uncle. You know the one who took your virginity," I laughed out loud so that she would know that I was joking.

"Damn I must have been drunk, If I told you about that." She paused a moment then added. "I'm working this weekend. Actually swing shift so there is nothing I can do for you."

"Too bad, I guess I'll just have to tough it out alone. So when can I take you to dinner. I did promise."

"You promised to ask me out, I did not promise to accept," she said with that smile in her voice again.

"Good point," I admitted.

"I have a friend you might like. She just broke up with her boyfriend. How about I fix you up."

"Aren't you worried about her taking me away from you."

"Can't lose what I never had," she replied.