Chapter 45

That Monday morning we ran. I found that the super motel/hotel was on almost the southernmost tip of the island. When we ran north, it was almost three miles of public beach before I came to the gated community. By the time I ran the almost six mile round trip I was exhausted. It was hard to run in the sand even in the wet sand.

The boots I ran in made it worse. I had failed to pack a running suit or shoes. After a long shower including washing my hair several times, I sat in the bedroom and waited for Oz to finished her equally long shower. I also had to watch her walk to her bag naked. She removed a small pair of panties which were cut in a French bikini style.

She turned to me naked and holding the panties up for me to inspect. "You should try these the waist band doesn't show when you bend over in jeans." Osborn said.

"Okay Osborn, you proved you are better looking than me, so get dressed and lets go buy some clothes," I said. Osborn smiled as she pulled on the clean panties and her bra from the day before. She had one clean white tee shirt that looked a lot like a men's undershirt. I was dressed in the same outfit as the day before.

We drove to the first town inland and found a department store. It wasn't upscale at all, so it didn't offend my sensibilities. I bought four pairs of ten dollar jeans, for twenty bucks a pair, because that is what they were at that store. Osborn insisted I not go to Walmart, but I missed them already. I bought a six pack of boys tee shirts. I also bought a six pack of bikini panties. I thought they were all white, but I found when I opened them they had little flowers. I had inadvertently bought children's again.

I drew the line at five dollar a pair cotton socks. I insisted we go to Walmart for my running shoes and socks. I spend the best part of a thousand dollars that morning on clothes for Oz and me. I didn't really regret it. I was splurging, but I still felt guilty for wasting the money. I hadn't gotten past having lived simply for so many years. I hadn't been poor but I learned to use and reuse everything in my lifestyle. This money thing was going to take some getting used to.

When we got back to the motel, I took another shower and redress in the new and most important clean clothes. Because I hadn't bought anything dressy, I convinced Osborn to go casual for dinner.

Casual was a chain semi upscale restaurant. The had good food and the service was good as well. I really didn't feel impressed, but I said nothing. I was determined to go along and see it I would eventually feel comfortable.

I had a ton of email almost all spam, so I set up a new email account. I got the new address to the few people I needed to contact. All the others I left sending email to an address that would not be opened.

I managed to look at a few barges on line. I found the best bet was to go to a river tug boat base and ask them. There was one of course back on the mainland, so I made plans to spend Tuesday talking barges.

I went to bed after getting quite aroused looking at Osborn sitting topless in the bed. She was naked, but the sheets covered her pubic area. But since she was sitting her breast were exposed and her nipples were hard and pointed. I knew she was flirting, but I really didn't want her to stop. Besides it was a good test of my will power.

When we left the room for our morning run at 6AM, we were both dressed for it. Me in a cheap gray sweat shirt and matching gray pants. Oz was dressed a little better in a matching jogging sweat suit. Of course her boobs joggled up and down as she ran. Along the way we picked up three marines running with us. Oz had turned out to be great date bait.

They offered us coffee, so we did it. They were stationed near the beach it turned out. I was impressed with them, but not as much as the men who trained with Swamp Dog. They however were handy, while the swamp dog people were about a hundred miles away. So we agreed to meet them for a beer that night.

"Those kids are at least ten years younger than me," I said.

"Hell, they are about five years younger than me." Osborn said.

"You are ten years younger than me Osborn," I said.

"Yeah I'm twenty five and those kids are about twenty, so duh ten years younger," she said.

"Fuck you Osborn," I said with a smile.

"No comment," she replied.

"Come on, you have flaunted your beautiful naked body at me the while trip. Time to get dressed and lets go see the tug boat man." I suggested.

"You go. I'm going to go to the pier and watch the ocean," she said.

"Well, be careful," I replied. Then I left the room.

Everette Marshall owned the New River tug boat company. He explained to me the difference between a river tug and an ocean tug. "It's all in the shape of the hull," When he went on to explain the difference it did make sense.

"So what I want is a good used barge with a few cargo containers on it," I said. "So I need to say, I also want to get it as cheap as I can."

"You gonna keep it either on a river or close to shore," he asked.

"Absolutely," I said.

"Barge at 50x20 would be best for the rivers. That would still let you strap down some pretty good sized boxes. You could get a few 40 x 8 boxes on it no problem," he said.