sorry but i am having trouble posting pics you may want to go to the site to see the pictures

8/20/2008
Well I think shipping is worked out now, Steve from Kansas will be taking my scooter as well as his own in the back of his pick-up. I met up with him last weekend and we made sure both his scooter and mine would fit ok. They both fit with room to spare, so i will be meeting him at the starting line. Luckily my hotel is only a mile from the start so I can just walk over and meet him before-hand.

8/25/2008
I've just returned from Tulsa Scooters where once again they have hooked me up. Sacha and Brad are my new heroes. I've got my cushy foam grips installed as well as a throttle lock...

as you can see from the second picture the grips are a bit longer than the originals but it should be fine for the ride. The cushy grips make a big difference in the amount of vibration that get to your hands, arms, and shoulders. The throttle lock is going to be a life saver on the long days. If you can see I also added some rubber grips to the brake levers which make it easier to grip especially while wearing gloves.
they also added the auxiliary tank which gives me a total of three gallons witht the original tank.

The tank sits on a black rear rack and Brad actually had to weld a couple of pieces to the rack so the tank's brackets would fit.

In the next picture you can see that original tank's vent is where the fuel line runs from; it is sitting
on top waiting for the auxiliary tank to be installed.

After some trial and error we had to add a new vent to the tank so both tanks were venting properly. In the next picture you can see both the fuel line and the vent line coming out of the back of the buddy's orange plastic just behind the seat. the vent line actually hooks around the rack so that the open end is facing down to make sure no rain or dirt gets into the line. The end of the line is copper tubing, so even if pressure is put onto it it will not kink the vent line.

I plan to take it for a couple of test rides and try to run the tanks completly empty to see what kind of range I'll have. I'm hoping to be able to go 250-300 miles between fill-ups (though 300 miles may be asking alot).
Not much more to do to get the bike ready which is good because I only have ten days or so before I have to put the Buddy on a truck headed West.