Chapter 3

Waking up and feeling pretty good because of last night's love making activities with Sara, Joe knew he needed to get moving. While he was dressing and washing up he couldn't help but think about Sara. She was the total package and an excellent lover. While her physical attributes were outstanding it seemed to Joe that more importantly she was an honestly nice and caring person. Her telling him to stop back here on his way back from his westerly travels was an invitation he wasn't going to refuse.

Joe walked across the road to Charlie's' and ordered a large portion of biscuits and gravy to go along with his order of ham and eggs. He knew he was going to need to watch how often and what he was eating or he would start to put on the pounds but the food here was good.

In looking at a road atlas while he was eating Joe decided to head on down to Dayton. The US Air force Museum was located there. One of the fellows he worked with had mentioned this place has one to visit. A quick calculation that Joe made in his head said it would be about a four hour trip.

There were no problems in the drive or in finding the museum. The number of cars in the parking lot indicated that there wasn't a large crowd visiting the museum at this time.

As Joe entered the museum he was impressed by what he saw. The museum was set up for visitors to follow a path. At the start of the path were the first air machines that were invented and progressed to where at the end of the path were the current planes that had been developed. Joe's favorite was the F-15 Eagle which he spent some time looking at it and imagining what it would be like to fly this plane.

He decided not to drive to another building to see some of the planes that had been used by the various Presidents. He had flown on the current 747 that was flying the President and thought visiting these other planes would be a downer when compared to the present Air force one.

Since there still was about four hours of daylight left Joe turned on to the I-70 interstate and headed west. He had put Indianapolis in his rearview mirror when he started to look for a campground. He wanted to setup for the night while it was still light out. His GPS told him there was a KOA campground about fifteen miles west.

After stopping for some gas to top off his tank he looked for and found a grocery store. He purchased some hamburger patties, potatoes and onions for tonight's dinner and a pound of bacon and a dozen eggs for tomorrow morning's breakfast.

After paying his fees he found the pad he was assigned to and setup the motorhome for the night. The electric, water, cable and internet connections were quick. It didn't take long to fry up the hamburgers, potatoes and onions. Clean up was even faster and since there still was a little daylight left he went for a walk around the small lake this campground surrounded.

Back in the motorhome with the television tuned to a news channel he sat in his captain's chair and with his laptop checked his email. There was one bill the realty notified Joe of which he quickly paid. He felt a warm chill and had a flashback of some nice memories when he saw an email from Sara.

In her email Sara again thanked him for solving a problem. She went on to say, "I take that back, thank you for solving two problems" and ended her note with a "LOL, Sara."

Joe sent her back an email response that simply said, "In solving your problem the pleasure was all mine."

With nothing interesting on the television Joe closed the privacy shades and went to sleep.

After breakfast next morning he was on I-70 heading west. He wanted to get to St Louis and go to the top of the Arch. He had been to this city a few times with the President but he never had the opportunity to go to the top of the Arch.

In arriving at the Arch he could see that there was a line of people waiting but it didn't seem to be an overly long wait. Going up in the Arch's elevator had Joe being thankful that he didn't have claustrophobia. Once at the top he took a few pictures of the views it afforded and then headed back on down.

Instead of immediately leaving the area he walked over to the McDonalds riverboat restaurant that was parked on the Mississippi river in front of the Arch and had something to eat. He thought putting this franchise on a riverboat was a clever idea.

There still was daylight which enabled Joe to get about one hundred miles west of St Louis before he pulled into a campground for the night. This campground had a heated pool and it tempted Joe because in the early evening there were no swimmers there. Joe put on his swim suit and did a few laps in order to work off some of the calories from the food he had consumed. Too bad there weren't any good looking ladies at the pool in their bikinis for Joe to admire was a thought he had.

The next morning Joe was on the road early heading for Spencer, Kansas. The reason he was going to Spenser was that he was going to surprise Carla Baines-Davis. Joe first met Carla when her last name was Baines and she was a brand new Secret Service agent. She was assigned to Joe as one of a number of new agents had been over the years for Joe to be her training agent.

Carla stood out from the other agents Joe had trained over the years for a number of reasons. She was extremely intelligent and quickly became proficient in handling her assigned duties. She was also the most attractive agent in Joe's opinion that ever worked as a Secret Service agent. Long dark hair, a killer body, proficient in both Spanish and French along with a beautiful face and a blemish free complexion made him questioning his self-imposed rule of not dipping his wick in the company inkwell.

Joe did make an exception and was pleasantly surprised when she welcomed his advances. Carla was a good lover. She would go ballistic when Joe would go down on her and often bit down on a pillow to stifle her screams. It was not a one-way street in making love with her as she said her favorite thing in making love was giving head. There were a few mornings when the reason Joe woke up was that Carla was giving him head. Couple her love making ability with her good looks, intelligence and winning personality had Joe thinking she was the one for him.

That was not to be and something Joe has often thought about. When Carla who was from Spencer, Kansas came back from visiting her mother who lived there, she broke the news that she was going to be resigning from the service. She said her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and was going to have a mastectomy. Even with that procedure the prognosis wasn't good. Taking a leave of absence from the service was not possible as she knew she would be staying in Spencer because someone needed to take care of her father and her younger brother who had Downs-syndrome.

Joe kept in touch with Carla initially fairly often but over the years the contacts with her were reduced to a once a year Christmas card which contained short notes bringing the other up to date on the happenings in their lives. One of Carla's cards informed Joe of her marriage and the Davis name change. In another card she said she had joined the local police force and another card received four years ago said she had become the Chief of Police. One Christmas card was a picture of her baby they had named Joseph. Overall it seemed that Carla was quite happy in her life and marriage and Joe was honestly glad that she was.

In driving into Spenser, Joe saw the sign said the population was just over twelve thousand residents. His first impression was that it looked like a nice small town that probably at one time had a larger population. He thought that because there were some store fronts that looked abandoned and a closed movie theater. Television and cable had moved the entertainment business from Main Street into the home.

Seeing the sign identifying the Police station caused Joe to pull into its parking lot.

In walking into the building he asked an officer whose name tag identified him as Curt Sturgis if the Chief was in and if she was Joe would like to see her. Joe was told that she was in and was asked what his business was with her.

"It's a personal matter, she is a friend of mine that I haven't seen in a long time. I want to surprise her so will you please just tell her there is a man out here who wants to see her."

The deputy walked into the Chief's office and in about a half of a minute out walked Carla. Seeing Joe she momentarily stopped and then ran to Joe throwing her arms around him shouting out, "Joe Brady"

Hugging her as she was hugging him caused the people who were there to give them a look.