It has been several months since we last caught up with Alix and her P.E.A.C.E Scooter ride. I asked her to give us an update on how she's been since completing the journey . If you want to read my interview with Alix, which was don mid-way through her trip, check out Scoot! issue #42 - April

I just wanted to extend a warm thanks to the scooterists who offered housing and took me out for coffee, beer and conversation to break the solitude. And to the mechanics in the pit crew who kept us safely on the road. Traveling this beautiful country by scooter, via backroads, and offering myself to the mysterious serendipity of the world is the most exciting thing I have ever done. This particular scooter, and my relationship with Genuine Scooter Company, is a case of getting far more than ever expected.

I miss riding. My happiness seems to be proportional to the amount of miles I ride in a day. Basically, this summer was a much happier time! Audre (Alix's Buddy 125 scooter) is all bundled up for the winter and every once in a while I put on layers of clothes and cruise to somewhere not as exciting as the places I visited this summer-like the grocery store. The scoot at least gets started up frequently and without fail- I spin the throttle, she starts right up. She's begging to be ridden. This particular scooter, and my relationship with Genuine Scooter Company, is a case of getting even more than ever expected. A little backstory that we didn't cover in Santa Cruz.

I was a (bi)cyclist for years, selling my Jetta in 1998 to avoid reliance on fuel. After taking my friend's scooter for a spin, I was hooked. I bought one on eBay (yep) within a week. Shortly thereafter, the idea for P.E.A.C.E Scooter came to me. Now, a lot of people thought it was just nuts to go that far for a cause, much less on a scooter. Never once was I worried, once I put my mind to something it's gonna get done correctly. My initial research led me to Genuine and PJ Chmiel's RAMBLE. PJ responded to the email I sent out and encouraged me to approach Philip McCaleb, so I set out writing a proposal. I wasn't just attracted to their scooters, it was also their uprising and ethos that paralleled my beliefs. All within a week of my decision to make the trip, hell or highwater, an artist hung a show in the cafe where I was working. One of the photographs was of a Genuine mechanic, Massimo; I laughed at the serendipity. I had taken a look at the local Vespa showroom and found everything ridiculously out of my price range. To start training for the ride, I cruised my little 49cc Metropolitan 120 miles roundtrip to Scoot Richmond, or SCOMO as it was. I took a look at the Buddy125 and knew it was my steed of choice. It had everything I needed for the trip: storage, comfort, performance, warranty-and with some accessories-the right dazzle. When I wrote to Philip, I just asked for a "wholesale" price and some free accessories. Within 12 hours of sending out the email, we were on the phone. Philip really put me through the grill, asking a lot of details about the trip and my philosophies in general. From the first conversation I was impressed by his authenticity and humor. The website that was up and running at that time was just bare bones, but Philip had a sense that I was working hard to get the show on the road. He said, "Yea, but are you really gonna do it? Are you really gonna make it to all these places?" I asked if he stood behind the Buddy's reliability, to which he responded enthusiastically, "Yes!" He made me squirm for a while and then finally called to say that Genuine Scooter Company and Scooterworks would go all the way to help me.

Mind you, this was all within a month of deciding to do the trip and within three weeks of that call, I was scootin' down the road. Two things were at play here in the beginning-I left town with 12 miles on the scooter and about 1,000 [of total riding] under my belt. Basically, we both had a soft break-in period. Now there are as many opinions on breaking-in a scooter as there are opinions on what oil to use. I had my first service done at 200 miles, something I would rather do myself, but I agreed with Philip that only certified mechanics would work on the scooter during the ride. I ran Audre through all her gears, didn't open her wide and took on some nice mountains during our first 500 miles. I've heard through many sources that the Buddy is pretty much rarin' to go even out of the dealer's box, but I maintained conservative speeds to assure that all sealed and set correctly. That was easier to do starting out on the East Coast, versus, say Montana or Oklahoma where many of the backroads have speed limits of 65 mph. After getting settled in to the ride, I was really impressed. As far as I'm concerned, the Buddy scooter outperformed my expectations. Even if I had paid for it, my take would be the same. People would give me a strange looks the further I got away from my home state but I never once regretted traveling by scooter.

I rode in many conditions that one probably wouldn't think were fit for riding. 40 mph wind gusts in Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Flash flooding, lightning and hail my second day out. The endurance of the Buddy is rugged. It's a smaller frame bike, for sure, and I remember just laughing while climbing massive up hills like Stephen's Pass in Washington. There we were with wide-open panoramas surrounding us, a heavily laden shiny black bullet in the middle of the West, passing tractor-trailers. It was a 9,000-foot elevation and her bottom speed was 45mph. (clocked with a GPS). These Buddy's sure can rack up the miles, but they have to be ridden with the awareness that they aren't motorcycles. You have to be prepared in order to ride these long distances. You have to not just know what you can and can't do, but accept those limitations. Oh, and treat your scooter with a lot of love. I might have ridden 8-10 hour days, but I always had a long "lunch break," for us to both cool off. All scheduled maintenance was done by the book. All the mechanics along the way were totally helpful. And, wow, just the scooter community itself was amazing. My experiences were a lot better because of the scooterists who came out to show me their towns.

So, keep in mind, I was riding an average of 1,000 miles a week-anywhere from none to 380 miles in a day. Sure, people ask about the breakdown I had in Montana. The stator went after my longest ride, 380 miles, pretty damn shy of wide-open the whole way. I had just jammed out the 1,500 miles from Tulsa, OK to Circle, MT in a week. Perhaps all the dust from these rural areas and summer heat-temperatures (up to 105 degrees) factored in. My mileage was at 5,000 when it happened. We all considered it a fluke--Buddy's, and most scoots in general, just don't have stator issues. Sure, Genuine was sponsoring most of the ride-but that two-year warranty/roadside assistance is pretty impressive. That caught my eye in the very beginning. The last thing I wanted to pack (in addition to everything else one has for 3 months on the road) was tools and parts. And do what? Work on the side of a 105-degree road? There wasn't a damn thing I could have done to prevent that fluke.

I was pretty blessed that it went down in a town of 600 people that had one wizard of a small engines mechanic. Holy Crow, if it weren't for Fed-Ex and Genuine, who knows how long I would have been stuck in Circle, MT. People in the town were taking bets on the parts arrival, but somehow Genuine got them overnighted from Chicago, with just 15 minutes to spare. It was all part of the adventure.

Sure, I was a novice, then I up and rode more than most people can/will. When it comes down to it, most of us just want to ride, who cares if you're jamming the twist and go. The Buddy is perfect for someone learning or experienced. It certainly didn't disappoint after 3 months on it and 10,000 miles into the ride it was just as strong. That's something, a scooter that you can saddle up and ride hard, with just the basic maintenance. No matter how well I balanced the load, all that weight factored in on the handling-especially in the wind. I remember those first gusts in Oklahoma, both scared and exhilarated. By the second time around through Oklahoma, it was nothing. I had a support vehicle on the way to Austin, TX, so we took the highway. I was a bit nervous, but without the gear I had such better handling. Basically, I learned my scooter with all that weight and so it's a maniacal blast to finally ride her unburdened. Her performance is so much zippier now that she's lost the 100 lbs. I guess we've both completed our break-in period now. I'm real excited that the Buddy's going strong because I'm gonna take her out again this summer. Once I got home and slept for a month, there has been a lot to sort through. Currently, I am compiling a stats list, the basics and a best of list. I can tell you that it cost me only $388 to scoot 11,000 miles. That's estimating my mileage at 85 mpg and average gallon at $3.00. I still keep trying to find the time to check in with the people I met along the way. It was, so far, the richest life experience I've ever had. Learning that I could actualize a dream has given me a lot of freedom and faith in myself. I've been working really hard to chip away at the debt I accrued from the trip and putting together a book about the adventures. The website, www.peacescooter.com is being upgraded to primarily focus on hosting one billion definitions of Peace, called Speak YOUR Peace. One thing that irritated me more than I thought was the incomplete section from Washington D.C. to Fargo North Dakota, the upper right part of the Peace signs outer circle. So, come late spring, I'm heading back out to talk about Peace and complete that 2,000 mile section. Funny that seems like such a short ride in comparison. I think it's gonna be called the Missing Peace. So, hopefully I'll have a chance to meet a lot of the scooterists from that part of the country who contacted me. PEACE!

Interested in Alix's 3-month journey across the USA by scooter? Check out her website: www.peacescooter.com. Scoot! will keep you posted on her next journey.