Roy:
What a day that was…Rocket summarized it pretty good. Everything was going well and we had a great ride with twisty turns on Road 42 in the Ozarks Mountain region in Missouri. After Kansas that was a welcome change. Although idling badly after getting some bad gas, our scooters were running great and on the twisty roads we were able to catch up to some of the smaller automatic scooters. Too bad that we had to pull over for gas. Rocket would have so liked to pass them on his scooter, which I am sure he would have been able to do if we would have had a few more miles of twisties.
I noticed that my clutch felt looser compared to previous day, but I was able to switch gears and therefore chose to ignore it until the end of the last leg of the day, but suddenly things go way worse and shifting became nearly impossible…the rest you probably already read in Rockets post. I managed to finish the last stretch to St. Louis either banging in gears or bump starting the bike when necessary.
Vespa St. Louis invited us to come to their shop and their mechanics helped getting work done getting the scooters again in shape for the remaining days. We really appreciated their hospitality and help. When we found out what the situation was with the clutch I was very frustrated knowing that this could have been the end for my scooter.
We talked to the mechanics..in a town like St. Louis there must be a person who works on vintage scooters. Luckily there was Robert Craven. We persuaded the mechanics to get us in touch with Robert. I can’t thank him enough!!!
He drove across the city a couple times for parts we were missing and he agreed to pull a matching clutch out of his running shop scooter. It always amazes me how much help scooterists offer to other scooterists they have never met when help is needed.
Rocket and Robert got my scooter patched up and going again and I was able to ride back to the hotel. Although the scooter doesn’t idle properly anymore and it is no longer on auto-lube, however the main thing is that this gave me the chance to complete the Cannonball.
By the way…you may have seen pictures of Rocket’s scooter that show something yellow on his side panel…here is a close-up…the sign says”Hair Dryers are available at the Front Desk” 
