Dave Hamblin
(formerly DaveH on old site!)In this months Plane & Pilot Budd has a nice article on their B&B and how it came to be.
The training sounds like a great investment (and accomplishment). I am a soloed student; your story reminds me of my thoughts when I started flying initially in my friend/CFI's Luscombe. It was a 50' x 3000' runway. The first time I looked down at it on downwind I thought "You want me to put it on that little thing!"
I got a 1 hour Pitts intro in Pompano in 1995, it was quite a ride!
Good luck with future Pitts adventures.