Chapter 27

I spent all that week’s days trying to beat the pain without depending on the Tramadol. In so doing I was swallowing a lot of aspirin and Tylenol cocktails. It began to work on the road rash by midweek. The joint pains was still a factor, but without the road rash pain I was able to work through the other pains.

By Thursday morning I even had the new front wheel on my road bike. I still wasn’t ready for the Twenty mile round trip to Tonya’s diner. I was back to having breakfast at Scooter’s Diner. The food was always good there. It just lacked Tonya information service.

Tonya called to insist that I make good on my offer for dinner. Her kid was with Tonya’s mother over night. I was afraid I was going to have to fight her off. Okay, I wasn’t ready to fight her off, but I was ready to give her a lecture on ‘friends with benefits.’

I talked to her after dinner, but before I got out of the car at the lock shop. Her answer was classic. “I need some time to decide how I feel about that,” she advised me.

My answer was also classic. For me at least, “I can’t say I blame you for that.” So the big date of the week ended as a dud.

On Monday the thirty six volt controllers arrived. The battery was on order, but since it was coming from Hong Kong, I didn’t have any faith in it’s being delivered on time. The only hold up at the time was that battery. Every thing else was in place and appeared to be just fine. Even so I continued to do basic research. That research potentially prevented a catastrophic failure. I found a short post on a forum for a motor augmented bikes. Push trailers were not popular with bikers. But I did find one guy who give details about trailer hitches. It was a simple suggestion, but after looking it over, I could see how ignoring the possibility of the bike’s rear wheel coming loose could cause the rider a potentially dangerous situation. The fix was simple, so I used it to make the installation in the beginning. The cost was minimal and I had fallen off the bike enough times to know that it could be serious.

The trailer had eighteen inch wheel wells, and it was Thirty inches wide. It was long enough and wide enough for the lithium battery to sit between the wheels and behind the motor. I was waiting for the battery to arrive before I built the frame that would allow me to put a large box on top of the trailer’s running gear.

What I expected to end with was a eighteen by thirty inch frame just over the running gear with a plastic box on top to create a small cargo trailer. The trailer hitch would be secured to the bike’s rear wheel axle on both sides. Then the trailer would be hooked onto a single spot on the hitch allowing it to swing a small distance. It was a perfectly acceptable way to hook everything up. I gathered all the information from the Internet.

I spent two more weeks being bored while waiting for my battery. It came in under five hundred bucks, so I was thankful for that. The whole trailer thing came in under a grand. I was happy about that as well. I wasn’t happy about the delay, but I was busy with the insurance settlement, so I had plenty to think about. The battery issue didn’t completely occupy my few working brain cells.

After three weeks and two days, the battery showed up in the mail. I checked on the Internet to be sure that I knew how to care for the battery, then I charged it. I let it go for an hour, then I hooked the whole thing up to the mountain bike. I jacked the trailer up on a couple of storage boxes. Then I checked it out. The first time I opened the hand throttle up the chain jumped off the sprockets. I had to adjust the position of the motor. Once I got it correct, I turned up the throttle and it hummed right along. After that I did a one mile test ride, I came home and checked everything yet again.

Once I was sure everything was working as it should be, I increased the length of the rides. Some of the time I rode it just motorized, sometimes just pedal, and sometimes I rode it a combination of both. On my first real ride with the trailer, I headed out for Tonya’s diner.

I got a lot of attention, and it made me smile, so it was a good day. I found that I could pedal and free wheel to increase the range to a ridiculous distance. I rode it a full twenty miles out and twenty back during the first week. Not only did I go home with almost full power, but when I measured it, I had over half the battery left. The twenty miles using the motor, and not using it some of the time, seemed to give me a full morning’s work out.

Okay, I didn’t set any speed records, but eighteen miles an hour average was plenty for me. The recharge time was only eight hours from dead empty, to being full. I decided that given enough time, I could manage to ride anywhere I needed to go. By converting the top of the pusher to a cargo trailer, it had made the stronger mountain bike a really a good choice for me. To be honest the bike had a range much farther than I felt comfortable riding. I mean, I was usually in real pain after anything over fifteen miles on the bike.

To help with that problem I switch the seat on the mountain bike to one of those ergonomic seats with no front on it. That also made getting on and off the bike easer.

I could also shorten the ride by stopping half way through and getting off the bike. I could take a walk around, or get a cup of coffee somewhere. It seemed that nothing much could stop me by that time not even my injuries.

I had the bike up and running for almost two week when the Insurance company decided to settle my claim. They cut me a check for eighty seven hundred and change.

Since it was the middle of October the cool weather wasn’t far away. I was still concerned about the weather on my biking efforts. I could still remember riding in the cold weather of New Jersey. North Carolina was not nearly as bad, but it was probably going to be bad enough, since I would likely still be in pain...

I had intentionally done nothing to the Spa for a while. I was waiting for the local cops to come up with something. When I got a call from the chief of police, I was still running tests on the push motor system. He invited me down for a conference, and then a press briefing. I said sure, if I could have my lawyer present.

“This isn’t an interview, it’s just a briefing. Trust me nothing bad is going to come of it,” the chief said.

It was scheduled for noon, so I rode the road bike to the police station. If he didn’t have a good excuse for the lag in progress, I planned to call Bitsy and borrow her expertise. That turned out to be unnecessary.

The locals had pinpointed the angry bomber early on in their month long investigation, but they had let him wonder around due to an ATF request. The whole story was involved. The bomber’s father had been arrested for, and convicted of rape. He got sentenced to a long term in state prison.

Then the oldest brother, of the angry bomber, shot the police officer from ambush outside my home. I of course stuck my nose in it. So the shooter` was in county lockup when younger brother rolled a pipe bomb under my camper. He chose the camper because he couldn’t find an opening to the house. The new window bars prevented him from tossing it though a window. At least it was all in the family.

ATF came into the investigation because the kid had no earthly idea how to build even a simple pipe bomb. He had bought it over the ‘Dark Web’ whatever the fuck that was. ATF needed some time to track down the seller.

“They finally have the seller, so today we are going to make the arrest and have a press conference after,” the chief announced to me.

Suddenly the police radio monitor sounded off with all kinds of trash. There appeared to be a standoff at the kid’s house. I heard the calls go back and forth for several minutes. I was torn. I thought I might be able to help, but I didn’t want anyone in Siler City to know what I did when I was away. Before I could decide what to do, the call came in telling the chief that the suspect had shot himself.

“God damn it,” the chief said. “Some one is going to pay for this cluster fuck, and it’s not going to be me.”

“You,” he said to me, “Get the fuck out of here. There is going to be no Press Briefing today.”

“At least not one for a victory lap,” I said. I wanted to spit in his face, but I thought that might come back to bite me on the ass later.

I returned home. I loaded up the trailer then returned to testing it. My plan, thanks to Addie, was to drive to Raleigh over the weekend. The plan was to leave the next morning with a full charge and just drive straight through. Addie was on standby to come pick me, and the battery pack, up. That was plan B, if my original plan should fail.

I spent the rest of the afternoon riding one bike, or the other around town. I had determined before the sun went down, that it was reasonably safe to make the trip. I called to be sure Addie was expecting me.

“Of course, I’ll be expecting you to call or to show up at my door step. I know we are to meet at the Bavarian Pancake house, but with you I never know what to expect.”

“Well at least expect something,” I said with a laugh in my voice.

“You do know there will be a charge for his?” she replied.

“Oh no, not more kinky sex. I’m not sure it’s worth it,” I said.

“Then screw you,” she laughed. “See you in the morning.”

During the ride at least half the time I was either on full pedal or full free wheel coaster mode. The other half I tried to be mostly on motor assist not full motor. After three and a half hours I pulled into the pancake house. The last half hour was the worst. I rode in heavy traffic and it was a hundred times worse than downtown Siler City during rush hour.

I was sitting down having coffee when I made the call. Addie showed up fifteen minutes later. She was dressed very well of course, but her make up was minimal. I thought she looked her age, but she did so beautifully. I kissed her hello and I meant it.

I knew that I couldn’t keep up with her, so after breakfast I followed her directions to her small one story townhouse. I carried my small backpack full of tools into her very well decorated living room.

“You have a beautiful home,” I said.

“Thank you,” she replied with a smile.

“I need to bring my battery pack in, if that is okay?” I asked.

“If’s fine. Just put it on the coffee table. I’ll clear it off for you,” she insisted. I knew better then to refuse her help.

I carried the battery into her house. First I checked the remaining charge and found about 20% of the usable charge remained. That led me to believe the distance doable on a charge would be about seventy miles maximum. Next I set my timer for eight hours and then turned the charger on.

Addie wanted to have slow loving, but still kinky sex. It lasted four hours. I checked the battery after our sex and found it still charging. I took Addie to lunch, of course she drove and I paid, so I’m not quite sure who carried who. When we arrived home, I checked the battery again. It was still charging. We watched TV for about an hour and the battery was charged. I moved it to an empty spot beside the front door. I carefully placed one of Addie’s paper place mats under it. I did that just to be sure that I didn’t damage her carpet.

“You are never this careful at home. I don’t know whether to be thankful, or pissed that you think I’m that prissy,” Addie said. She wasn’t smiling at all.

“I’m just careful with other people’s things,” I said.

We went on an afternoon tour of the city. Addie knew a lot about her adopted home. I also got to see the office of SJL. It was a one story building and part of a strip mall. I wasn’t disappointed, but I also wasn’t impressed. I knew that Mason was hired mostly for his fund raising abilities. By all accounts he shouldn’t be in charge of the day to day case work.

Then we ended up at the several veterans memorials. They were moving of course, but I had seen the ones on the mall in Washington, so I was less impressed than someone else, who who not seen the national memorials, might have been.

After dinner we returned home and went to bed immediately. After we made love yet again, I fell asleep. I had my watch set for five thirty. Since I didn’t know a good diner, I rode off into the darkness and headed out of town. I wanted to clear the city traffic before it began to build. I did it too.

I was on the open road by 6 AM. I was hungry, but I mostly needed coffee. Breakfast was a welcome addition to my coffee, even if it was only a two pack of Krispy Kreme raspberry donuts. Then I quickly got back on the road. I did use the motor a little more on the return trip. I made sure I was within easy pedaling distance before I got too slack with my battery use. I made it home without the battery dying completely, but I did notice a little lack of speed on the hill climbs. I wasn’t sure, but I wouldn’t have been surprised by it either.

I made it home with mostly motor power, since I wanted to see how much I had left. I even rode around the block a couple of times. It all worked out fine and I had 15% of the usable charge left when I checked the battery. After I chose the slow charge setting, I resigned myself to the long charge time.

I called Addie and left a message, “Hey girl I made it home. Sorry to miss you thanks for taking me in.”

After that call I went about my normal Sunday stuff. I was moving around again, so lunch was an option. My breakfast had been crap. It was great tasting crap, but I needed a hell of a lot more useful calories.

I filled a 24oz thermos with iced tea, then stuffed it into the lower right hand pocket of my fatigue cargo pants. Then in the left hand pocket, I stuffed a plastic container filled with two wholewheat blueberry muffins. There was room beside the thermos for a tiny jar filled with peanut butter and a wooden craft stick, like a Popsicle stick.

Then I was off on the road bike to a city park by a tiny creek. I sat on a park bench to eat my lunch. The view of the tiny creek was available, but I would have had to sit on the other side of the walkway. I preferred to have the creek at my back, so my view was of the jungle gym and behind that the city street. It wasn’t much of a view, but, two blueberry wholewheat muffins with peanut butter weren’t much of a lunch either.