Chapter 84

I woke up hungry Saturday morning. Mrs. Trinh had made pancakes and bacon. I ate everything she made, except for the two small pancakes she made herself. I apologized, but she said she was happy to see me so hungry, though she cautioned me to get plenty of exercise if I planned to eat like that every day.

Most of the construction noise had subsided. It was going to be an ongoing process, and not quiet by any means, for weeks. I'd paid for the laying on of extra hands to expedite the process as much as possible, but it would still be many weeks before I was swimming in my new pool. ADT had their hands in as well, having begun work on replacing the fences with the beefier, more secure and tech-friendly version they had proposed. Both projects were being completed simultaneously, though the new fence at the front of the property, not to mention the new gate, would not even be started until after all the heavy equipment was done and gone.

This all made for an unfriendly environment for Mrs. Trinh and I. We persevered as much as possible, but it was not long before I told her not to worry about lunch, and to go somewhere for a while away from the noise.

"What about dinner?"

"I do owe Kelli a dinner, but I think we can hold off on that a few days. I should have saved our trip to Oregon for something like this."

"Very good," she said. "Edwina has been after me to come to dinner. Perhaps tonight would be a good time. I'll call her."

With Mrs. Trinh taken care of, I had to decide what I wanted to do. I needed to get one session in down in the cavern working on the new suit, but that could happen any time. Certainly not this morning, I thought.

I looked through my email, but there was nothing but junk mail, all caught by the filters. A Google ad for some Independence Day sale reminded me that next weekend was the start of the July Fourth long weekend, since the fourth was a Monday. My parade plans were fast approaching. I'd have to remind Kelli of that. On top of that, I figured a call to the folks at the folks at the Double V and see if there were any changes in those parade plans.

On second thought, this was a great excuse for a bike ride.

I brought the Harley out, wiping it down with a cloth to clean the dust of that had settled on it in the few days it had been sitting. The vibrations from the construction had raised a little dust in the garage, obviously.

I got a couple of toots from some of the equipment operators when they saw me riding out. I waved back at them and hit the road.

The folks at the Double V were very welcoming. Gus was glad to see the bike and gave it a good long look, but was happy with how I was treating her.

Parade plans hadn't changed, but some of the details had firmed up. I had names and numbers to call on Parade day to get directions for lining up. Turns out that this is something of a variable, not just from year to year, but from day to day as the parade drew closer. Some people assumed the Harley folks were collectively disreputable, and tried now and then to put a crimp in their parade plans. The last minute fluctuations seemed to take care of that problem pretty well.

I drove around Santa Rosa for a couple of hours, just crisscrossing the streets, trying to get ever more familiar with were things were in town. That included long rides south and east. I drove south as far as Rohnert Park, and east past the Roseland section of Santa Rosa all the way out to the development that surrounded the Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club. I considered stopping in, but decided it would be pushing it, especially in my riding leathers.

The downtown layout was starting to look familiar to me now. Blending in the rest of town, the residential areas and seedy sections would be important if I was going to be working, living and super hero-ing in the area. Several places brought Bud's commentary, as these were places tied to some of our surveillance.

"I need to think about what it will be like flying in, out and over these places in the suit," I said in my head.

"We will have very accurate, live overlays from our satellites," Bud reminded me.

"Are those overlays going to tell em where telephone and utility lines are? Clotheslines and TV antennas?"

Bud's silence told me I'd once again pointed out something that he and his had failed to consider. I grinned inside my helmet and hoped Bud didn't feel it. Harley had, as I could feel his own mental grin joining my own.

I stopped in Sebastopol and ate lunch at a place called Martha's Old Mexican Grill. I was tempted to order more than I did, but did make note of the place. This would be good place to have lunch or dinner with Kelli.

The good food had me feeling energized enough for a session of suit building, so I pulled out of Sebastopol headed north ... I saw signs for highway 116 north, and followed the signs, then followed the highway. I laughed when I began recognizing the scenery. I was going to go straight through Forestville. When I did, I got off 116 as soon as it turned east, and instead stuck with roads headed north until I reached River Road.