It has been kind of frustrating to have the scooter parked in my car port and not be able to anything with it. I was out of town for much of the weekend and have only had snatches of a few minutes to work on getting it tuned up. Because of that, I don't have much to report.

I am starting to call my Vespa a "smile machine." The little I have been able to limp the bike around, I have gotten a lot of positive feedback. At one instance, I had the scooter parked in a spot at my office. I watched a couple of people walk by. As they did, they would slow to look it over and a smile would come across their face.

Can't wait to get a smile on my own face. Right now I am having trouble getting the gears dialed in. The engine is running pretty well now. However, as I go up the hill near my house, the gears slip out when I go from first to second. It causes the bike to lose momentum. I have to down shift and that puts the bike under a load on the hill and ends up stalling out.

I hope to report more good news this evening.