Fast forward a few years, and I'm getting the airplane building bug. My wife and I decide to move out of the perpetual overcast that is western Washington, back to my home state of Oregon. We chose the Bend/ Sunriver area because, well, we LIKED it
Turns out that Adam and Nancy had beat us to the punch and had moved to Bend, where Adam now works for Columbia.We made the move just before winter kicks in, so I had to buy some snow tires and get them mounted. There's a privately owned tire store two miles from the house, so I go down there and see AOPA and EAA stickers in the front door, and several pictures of a Kitfox and T-28 behind the counter. I ask the owner if the Kitfox is his, and he says yes, but he sold it and now has an RV-6A. "Perfect!" I think to myself, and tell him that I want to build a 7, so we start talking a bit. A couple of days later I get the idea to ask him if he would be interested in selling his tools, to which the answer was "sure"
So a deal was struck, and I now have a good head start on airplane building tools, including a pneumatic sqeezer, for $1250 Last week, Nancy came down for a favor & I told her what I was planning to do (she and Adam are pilots), and that I was planning a trip to Vans the upcoming weekend. Turns out that her brother Joe now works for Vans as a customer rep.! So I make it to Vans friday afternoon, and purely by chance, Joe is the person that gets roped into giving me the tour and test flight!
So after the flight, we're talking about everything at the counter. I'm buying a practice kit and stuff, and telling Joe that Nancy volunteered him to help me build, to which he says "sure!", he also handed me a brochure for Synergy Air for possible builder training. I thank him for everything and am on my way to pick up the wife from her seminar that was the primary reason for the trip. We got a hotel room and hit up the Evergreen Air Museum the next day before heading home.
Today I visited Mike and chatted for a bit and gave him a new check for $1000 because he didn't feel right about taking me for an extra $250! Oh, twist my arm!
He also is somewhat axious for me to get a tail kit so he can help me get started (sounds like he wants to be somewhat of a repeat offender without having to do the whole thing over again 
) As it turns out, Wally, that owns Synergy Air, lives in the area also 
So there's my story so far! I'm really starting to think that this is meant to happen!
Sorry about the "book", but thought I'd share
Oh, I forgot to add that we had our FAA MIDO inspector visit us today, and as it turns out, he's also the guy that signs off amature built aircraft
