ecodweeb blog

I plan my year around the week that is Electrics at the Dragon. Generally I spend the entire week out there with my eMoto buddies, who ride/tow in from around the US, for a week of fellowship and curvy roads. This is an exercise in putting myself out there -- from tolerating personality differences (like being ragged that your company’s hardware is broken) to coping with my fear of claustrophobia and heights in the tunnel-filled mountains of NC/TN. This year, however, I decided that I wanted to spend more of my time pool side in Georgia than the potential fight for charger access with 20+ EVs running around rural western NC. As such I decided I’d only spend one day - Tuesday - with the Dragon crew and the rest of the time would be spent completing my NC State Parks challenge and lounging with my other (reads: gay) friends in Augusta by the pool.

Sunday: pre-trip ride to Graham, NC

After volunteering a friend to take over house/dog sitting duties I’d committed to, I departed Raleigh in Sunday May 14th for Graham, NC. It’s only ~60mi from my home, but I have a friend who lives there and this would cut 2+ hours out of my Monday riding/charging plans if I left from his house. So I packed everything up into a tank and tail bag (CPAP, thermally-controlled injectable medication, clothes, charging gear for bike and phones, rain gear, etc) and headed over to his house. The hour-ish long ride was entirely uneventful, and this would be one of only two times I’d use my travel charging cable for the bike. After locating a plank of wood to use as a kickstand support, I plugged into the 120v outlet off his deck and left the bike. We walked over to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner, and we chatted (since both of us have been traveling a lot this year for work) until well after midnight. The next morning I awoke just after 7am to the smell of pork sausage being cooked in a cast iron skillet (this is a uniquely southern smell that takes me straight back to childhood and grandma’s house). I woke up and got a shower while my buddy worked on breakfast. After repacking the CPAP and medications, gearing up, and eating a delightfully southern breakfast... I hopped on my bike shortly after 8am and headed west in a light drizzle of rain.

Monday: all systems go

My first stop was at a Duke Park and Plug location (with BTCPower charging hardware) some 50mi away in Kernersville, going from 56-90% in 20 minutes total charging time for a cost of $2.74. 

From here I’d hop over to a Nissan dealer in Wilkesboro. Here is where I feared things were going to go south. I arrived and the charger wasn’t in use, but the screen was solid white and not responding to touch. The throw switch for the main power is right next to the station, so I turned it off and counted to 45 and then powered it back on. It took a moment for the ABB station to power up, but once it did the card reader came active and I was able to insert my credit card and start the station. It took an hour and three minutes to go from 13% to 85% but the cost was crazy: $25! Next stop: Mt. Jefferson state park!

One park down, 6 more to go until this bike’s been to all 41 North Carolina State Parks. Next charge stop: Circle K in Boone, NC. My arrival at the Circle K was met with panic: there’s a work truck, one of the stations is already opened up, and the other one is powered down. I pull up to it and turn off my helmet’s bluetooth so I could talk to a worker. He asked if I needed to charge, and I said yes else my trip ends here with a tow truck. They powered up the unopened station and allowed me to charge. 

This charge was just over an hour, and I didn’t record the starting and ending SOC (I likely was above 90% SOC when I left). After getting the charge session started, I unhooked the bags and walked over to an Italian restaurant where I had an interest observation with a table of Boomers and a delightful ravioli lunch. The table next to me was lively, but what really got to me was they got on the topic of electric vehicles by way of a “not to get political, but” comment targeting the current US Administration. I politely interjected that as someone working in the EV industry, their lack of understanding of capabilities, existing and planned infrastructure, and the sheer cost savings alone means they are only being fed the news approved by Oil Industry-backed media outlets, and that the transition will happen with or without their approval or involvement in the name of cost savings -- environmental benefits be damned. I also reminded them that, by the time I’m their age (they had a solid 25 years on me) that most people will summon an on-demand vehicle to take them somewhere, ownership will be a thing of the past. The guy’s only comment was “thank God I’ll be dead then.” Can’t say I don’t envy him there a little bit... After getting a sealed lid container for the left over ravioli and shoehorning it into the tail bag, which was becoming so tall now that throwing my leg over it was becoming a challenge, I set off for my next stop: Elk Knob State Park! The cost of this charge was $2.51.

After Elk Knob, I rode on over to Grandfather Mountain state park before my last DC charge before arriving at my AirBNB in Asheville.

I rolled into the Chevy dealer in Marion, NC and saw that a rather new looking Bolt was plugged into the DC station. I then spied a 24kW station next to the show room, so I attempted to use it. A man came outside to talk about the bike, informing me he owned a Zero a few years ago and was waiting on his Hummer EV truck to ship. He said he’d had issues with this 24kW station and offered me the L2 in their bay. That station was a Blink, and it didn’t want to work with my bike either! At this time I told him I’d just wait for the Bolt to finish since it was at 94% and wouldn’t take very long. I rolled over to the station and waited until I saw the charger report 100% SOC and stopped the charge to unplug the Bolt and plug in my bike.

While charging, the “owners” of the Bolt showed up. Turns out they’d rented it from Hertz, because it was the cheapest rental, and they were charging it up to return it. The father of the guy who rented the car is a fire fighter and we had a rather in depth but brief conversation about lithium fires and how sodium batteries were likely the tech to take EVs truly mainstream. It was great to talk to someone who had a legit concern but was aware it was a temporary one in the grand scheme. After topping off to 80+% (for FREE) I hit the Blue Ridge Parkway for nearly 30 miles of fog and cold temps to reach the last state park of the day, and the highest elevation in the state of NC, Mt. Mitchell!

I never feared running out of power, even though I know I hit the red (less than 20% SOC) before I got to Asheville. I had to pass through 4 or 5 tunnels on the road, but I rarely was above 35mph at any time due to the poor visibility -- seeing more than 5ft was impossible. I was literally traveling through a cloud for what seemed like an eternity. The weather was so bad that I was losing GPS signal for upwards of 10 minutes at a time. Luckily the exit came, I got off the parkway, weaved through some truly insanely designed neighborhood streets, then wound up on the outskirts of UNC-Asheville in a cute little neighborhood. I happened to pull into the driveway right as my Airbnb host - who drives a Leaf - got home. He showed me where the EV charger was (right next to the door to my room) and asked if I’d plug his car in when I was done. I agreed and we chatted a bit more about his solar setup and how his Leaf’s held up over the years. After our chat I plugged the bike in and proceeded to strip down and launder my clothes (everything was wet now), eat my leftovers, and take a power nap with my eSTIM TENS unit attached to my lower back. A few hours later my alarm went off, I swapped the charge cable to his car and pulled out my dry laundry and went back to sleep.

Tuesday: let’s slay the Dragon!

Tuesday morning I woke up and didn’t want to move. I was pretty sore, I’ve not done a ride like this in quite a while and frankly I’m badly out of shape. I popped some acetaminophen and ate a granola bar before packing up the bike and heading further west. I only had one charging stop - a Duke Park and Plug in Cherokee, NC - before I’d get to the Tail of the Dragon house. I ate at a local “Cakery and Deli” which had a really good Bacon-egg-cheese biscuit, and after getting to ~90% state of charge in 32m for a cost of $3.57.

On my way to the rental house in Robbinsville, I was following a pair of Harleys and an RV. The RV pulled over so we could pass, and 1.6 miles before the driveway to the rental, the lead Harley went down. The rider thought he had a broken rib - he’d indicated he’d had one before - and refused help to move. His son, who was my age or older, called EMS. After I was sure they had help on the way, I left them and headed to the house a little shaken. You forget the inherent dangers of two wheels until you get reminded of it. The guy wasn’t going too fast for conditions, he hit a patch of tar that was sticky and that caused him to break traction. His bike, which was weeks old, wasn’t totaled but it wasn’t in great shape either. 

I didn’t even get unpacked before my friend Rory asked me if I wanted to go eat at Tapoco lodge just down the road from the Killboy Tail of the Dragon tshirt shack. I agreed, store my medication in the big fridge and put the ice pack in the freezer, then hopped back on my bike and rode over to the lodge. Lunch was great, as it always is there, and then we went to the tshirt shack for the organized 4pm group photo (which many folks failed to attend). 

Rory and I went down and back up the Dragon before the photo event took place. When it was time to move my bike, it wouldn’t go into Run mode. It kept saying the kill switch was triggered, and what that means is the seat switch wasn’t working right. After adjusting the arm on the switch, the error went away and never came back. It was also during this gathering that I found out that Tellico Plains, TN no longer allows EVs to plug into the “Food Truck outlets” in town. This caused a stink and ruined some early morning ride plans, as stopping for a leisurely (and on average $25 per head) breakfast at Tellico has been tradition since 2021. A letter to the town is being written, the whole crew (usually 8-10 folks per rider group) agreed to boycott the town until their policy changes or dedicated chargers get installed. 

After the photo, I went back to the house with several other folks while another group went to Tapoco for drinks and food. I got to catch up with everyone, and found out the rental house has a house cat this year -- no idea her name, and no photos sadly -- she’s the sweetest little thing and she will plop down in your lap and go to sleep so fast it’ll make your head spin. I was glued to the sofa listening to the rain (oh, yeah, it POURED moments after we got to the house) for a solid hour before someone came looking for me (I’d only come out to check the charge progress of my bike).

I slept on the sofa that night, and was awake before 6am despite not going to sleep till after 12:30 (I stayed up talking with a new guy who I’d never met before). Tomorrow, it’s back to visiting parks and making my way south towards Georgia...

Wednesday: plans changed

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Rory asked me if he could follow me to Franklin, NC (my first charge stop) in the morning and I said sure. This ballooned into a convoy of 6 going to Franklin on a morning joy ride. Somehow I got into the middle of the pack and lost Rory and Rick (leading) in some curves and decided to follow my GPS which said to make a right turn... this led is on a good 17 mile, about 40 minute, detour around a lake on wet gravel roads with some serious grades going downhill. I felt so bad for everyone who was following me, tho Scott (from Florida) said that was one of the coolest rides he’d been on. Once we got to pavement, I sorted out my directions and the rest of the gang headed to a brewery in Sylvia. I finally, nearly an hour later than intended, got to the Franklin Post office where I mailed my extra clothes to myself -- this made it so I could get on and off the bike easier since the tail bag wasn’t as loaded down/tall. After my Post Office visit, I stole the charger from Rick at the Duke Park and Plug in town. The guy I’d met the night before, Lee, was also there along with Rory. 

They all decided to go to the brewery and left me shortly after I got there. I charged to 95% (cost $4.16) and headed over to Gorges state park.

The ride to Gorges was wet, cold, hot, and beautiful. After snapping my photo I had to ride up the access road to the gas station to get signal and be able to plot my route to the charging station in Saluda, NC. When I got to Saluda, there were two Mach-E’s charging. I plugged into the open space and popped my seat open to reveal my charging port then went into the Subway to order lunch. Right as I paid one of the pony cars was leaving, so I ran outside and moved my bike over to the vacant charger. I had to start the session twice, I don’t know why, but it didn’t work on the first go. As I was getting things going another Mach-E pulled up with a big muscle guy getting out. He seemed confused looking at the CCS and CHAdeMO plugs, and I told him the black one worked with his car. He thanked me and I went inside. As I ate I watched him plug the car in and walk away on the phone, then he came back over pulled a child out of the carseat in the back of the car. Then he realized he wasn’t charging, and I assume he called the 800 number on the machine for help. Ultimately, he unplugged and tossed the connector into the grass and drove off with his child sitting unbelted in the passenger seat and his charge port door open. No idea what happened there, but it was the first of two times I’d run into frustrated Ford owners that day. Well, 28 minutes and $3.26 later I was ready to go, but instead of going to Chimney Rock and South Mountains state parks, I realized I was very close to the SC border and the pool was calling me. So I decided to shelve the last two state parks for Memorial Day weekend and proceeded, unplanned, towards Augusta. My first charging stop would be in Piedmont, South Carolina at an EVgo located at a Spinx gas station.

When I arrived at the Spinx, I couldn’t find the charger. As I was pulling around I saw the meters and transformer, and a large white Ford Transit parked along the curb... oh, it’s an eTransit. Oh, the angry looking woman is pressing buttons on her phone and holding her hand over her other ear. I paused my music and pulled up next to her and asked “Is it broken?” and she said, angrifly, “yes and I’m on the phone with them now.” I sighed, opened Plugshare and picked another EVgo in Simpsonsville that was down the street from a new Duke Park and Plug location -- one of these spots had to be able to charge me up. I hopped on 385 and paid a $2 toll and arrived at an unoccupied EVgo in Simpsonville. I tapped my ChargePoint card to it and it authorized and began charging me to 70%. I laid out behind the charger resting my back, when this guy came up and asked if the bike was mine. Turns out this guy is an EV owner, has a Leaf and a Tesla now, and he had never seen an EV bike. We talked pretty much the entire 46 minutes I was there (cost $5.14). Once I hit 70% I had enough to get to Nienty Six, South Carolina for yet another Duke Park and Plug charge. I thanked the man for the conversation, and headed south.

The town of Ninety Six is a postage stamp. I was hungry but didn’t really want to try the China #1 restaurant across the street based on the reviews. I opted for a beef stick and some water from the nearby BP while the bike charged up. It took me 38 minutes to get to something like 75% I think (for $2.63), and I was only 60mi from the hotel in Augusta. I ran a little slow to save energy, and when I got to the highway that would take me into Augusta, I was at just under 20%. I arrived at the hotel and could barely walk, the last several days really took a lot out of me. My husband was already at the hotel and had run our travel charge cable under the door and dropped it off the balcony to the parking spot in front of the room where our Audi was parked. We moved the Audi and plugged the bike in, it was fully charged and balanced by 9am the next morning.

After another of our friends who was going to be hanging out with us this weekend saw how badly I was walking, he offered to give me a massage. It’s rare for someone to massage my back and get it to pop, but he did it in three spots. I felt so much better after that, and I slept like a log -- waking up before 7am, as per usual, with bright eyes and a smile. The next several days were spent lounging, laughing, drinking, and relaxing. We got one good day of sunshine on Saturday and I got my first sunburn of the year.

Sunday: all good things must come to an end

I was on the road before 8am on Sunday. I left all my bags with my husband and the crew we spent the weekend with so I had no issues mounting or dismounting from the bike. I decided on my return route the night before, my first charge stop would be Electrify America in Columbia. This location was half de-rated, but 50kW is still more than my bike can take. I got the last charger when I pulled in, and this was going to be the theme for the rest of the day. I spent 1 hour and 5 minutes in Columbia, with a yellow battery at the end of the charge session, for a cost of $5.77. I then rode to Rock Hill, SC and charged at a Circle K for 29 minutes and a cost of $2.31. While there, an etron pulled in to use the 180kW station and a Bolt EUV pulled in right as I was leaving.

From here, I hopped over to the Electrify America in Charlotte. On arrival only 4 of the 10 stalls were open. By the time I left there was a small queue of cars waiting to charge. This charge was an hour and 16 minutes long, costing $4.53. My last stop before home was Greensboro, NC. On my way to Greensboro, my nav phone bit the dust (third one I’ve killed on the bike), so I had to look at the directions and pay attention to the exit numbers. I rolled up with only 4% state of charge! This charge took over an hour and a half to complete, due to how warm my battery had gotten on this wonderfully sunny and 78F weather. The cost was $5.65 adding 15kWh (I charged to 88%). From here I hit the highway and didn’t need navigation to get me home. I pulled into my driveway about 10 minutes after my husband (who left 4 hours after me and only had one charging stop) with 5% state of charge and over 1200 miles on my odometer.

Route 1: US1 with a charge stop in Lilesville

This route is more direct, taking a little over 4 hours door-to-door with a charging stop on both the outbound and return legs. This station is run by the Pee Dee Electric Member Cooperative on the ChargePoint network and only costs 14-cent/kWh (about 3-cent more expensive than home charging), but it’s only a 50kW charger. 

Route 2: US1 with a charge stop in Hamlet

This route was roughly the same as Lilesville, however, the Duke Park and Plug stations here are 150kW each (so we’d get the full 75kW if the battery was low enough) but they cost more at 41-cent/kWh (30-cents or 3.7x the cost of home charging). In theory, we’d spend less time here since this system can max the car out -- but it also assumes that we’d need to be at a very low state of charge to achieve that maximum power.

Route 3: I-95 to I-20 with charge stops in Florence

Every single mapping app suggested taking 95 to 20, and at the time the Electrify America app said that all the stations at Florence were reduced to 50kW power -- so no maximum charge rate. It’s also 36-cent/kWh (25-cents more / about 3.2 times the cost of home charging). This route seemed the least attractive as the travel time was at best 12 minutes faster and we’d certainly be charging for longer, however this location does have good food options to chew up that time (har har, I made a pun!).

The Winner is...

My husband wanted to see what taking US1 to Columbia was like, as this is my alternative route to get to our campground in Georgia. So we decided to take the Hyundai down to Lilesville and then to Columbia. We left around 7:00am with a target arrival time of 12:00pm in Columbia (I budgeted 1 hour for charging). With 100% state of charge we set off for Lilesville and arrived with 58% after driving 110 miles. We only had two or three scary downpour moments from the severe storm front that was moving through the area.

As I plugged in I was inspecting the charge handle and noticed the rubber around the button was cracked. When I plugged into the car I did not hear the usual “click” of the latch on the plug locking into the socket on the car. However, the station said “Waiting for EV” and the car engaged the charge lock and the status ring in the charge port went green, followed by the ChargePoint station clicking and delivering power. Turns out the latch was broken, so it was pure luck that the station started charging. We never topped 48kW due to the state of charge, and we charged for 42 minutes to 90%. While PlugShare said this station was a 62kW, the screen said it’s a 50kW -- missing 12kW can make a big difference, but since the battery was over 50% the car wasn’t going to charge faster than 50kW anyway so it was a wash. This stop cost $3.52.

As we are pulling out of the parking lot, the foster texts me and says that she won’t be home before 1pm -- I tell her no problem, we will get lunch and see her at 1. The problem with charging at places like the Pee Dee main office is that there’s no bathrooms available outside their Monday-Friday business hours. Right as we went to leave, the urge to pee hit me. I asked Google for a truck stop and picked a Love’s that was on the way -- a little over an hour out. As we snaked our way into South Carolina and over to I-20, we watched as the sun peeked out of the clouds and the rain seemed to stay behind us. 

The Love’s I’d picked was off of I-20, and before we got there I spied another truck stop that also had a Subway -- this would be ideal for lunch. My husband’s like “Subway? Really?” and I told him that I know I can get something from Subway that won’t upset my stomach (remember I take Ozempic and I basically don’t like the “read meat burps” I get if I eat burgers and such from fast food places anymore). We pulled off at the Pilot travel center and hit the restroom, then walked into the Subway where we each ordered a wrap -- $25 later (when did Subway become so expensive?) we headed to the car to continue our trip. By this time we’d decided, since we were arrive around 12pm, that we’d go to the Electrify America and top the car off so we could drive straight home from the foster’s home.

Unfortunately, the Electrify America in Columbia was in worse shape than Florence -- only one station was operational, but it was running at 150kW. That said, it was in use according to the app when I checked about 20m to the exit. I decided to try the Nissan dealer down the road, seems the station works fine but the NAYAX card reader (ugh, I can’t stand these guys) was problematic and it might take a few tries to get the card to read. The Nissan Dealer is a mile or so from the Electrify America, so if it didn’t work we’d just wait for the person at the Electrify America station to finish and then plug in. As luck would have it, it started raining when we pulled up to the charger. I tried using Google Pay on my phone and it was rejected. By the time I got my wallet from the car, it had timed out so I had to run through the steps to start a charge on the screen again. This time I put in my chip card and it said not authorized. I tried swiping, it said to insert it, I put it in and it said not authorized. Then it timed out, so again I ran through the steps and got to the payment screen and I tapped my card. I got an error and then on a whim stuck the card into the chip reader and volia -- it started processing the payment! Third time’s the charm. The station fired right up, and as we were again around 56% state of charge, it never went above 48kW. We charged for about 42 minutes while we ate our wraps (it was tasty) and then drive the 6 miles to the foster house. The cost was around 42-cents/kWh with a $1 session fee, all said it was $9.39 to charge up here.

Darcy was more beautiful in person than any of the photos I’d seen. Her sister, Dixie, was also way more adorable in person. Dixie is blind, and despite that, she was the more social of the two and came up and head butted my ankle and rubbed on me. Now, my previous cat was blind... and I told the foster I’m really torn now. But we both agreed (tho me not 100%) that our household was way too active for her to adjust to, she panicked when she came into contact with any of the other cats living in the house that were not her sister or their room mate in the quarantined section of the house (a bathroom and a hallway that has a few bedrooms -- all doors closed, of course). Darcy was aloof and not really interested in meeting us or letting us pet her, but the foster said she was confident she’d be affectionate after she had time to settle into her new home.

When we brought in the cat carrier, the foster went and got gloves just in case Darcy decided to claw at her (she said she didn’t have a habit of it, but this was safety protocol). We opened the door to the carrier and low and behold Dixie marched right into it and checked it out. She was not scared of it at all, and then Darcy walked into the carrier behind her to check it out. We were both dumbfounded that the cats just put themselves into the carrier -- no cat likes the carrier! The foster put her gloved hand into the carrier and ushered Dixie out (she never bit, but she did growl), and Darcy never made a sound. Once Dixie was outside, we closed the cage door -- not even quickly, slowly. It wasn’t until the door clicked shut that Darcy’s Siamese yowl started. Oh, boy, this ride home was gonna be fun. It was at this time that the foster tells me the cats ate about an hour and a half before we got there... remember that, dear reader.

We spent well over an hour at the foster home before we loaded Darcy into the car and headed back towards North Carolina. About 10 minutes into the drive -- we’d just gotten onto the highway -- the smell hit. She pooped. In the carrier. Then she sat on the poop. We killed the AC and vented the sunroof and opened most of the windows -- it was sunny and comfortable (low 60s) so this wasn’t bad. Once we went nose blind to the smell, we closed up the windows and turned on the AC just in time for another surprise rain shower! We drove straight home with only one stop to pick up Pho for dinner about 4 miles from our house. When John got back in the car after getting the food he commented on how the nose blindness had worn off, and he gagged a little before rolling down his window.

As soon as we got home, Darcy was taken into her quarantine bathroom and let out of the carrier. I set the carrier outside and shouted “someone please take this carrier outside for me” and proceeded to get a wash cloth and my Lush “Honey I washed the kids” bath gel. Poor Darcy, who only made a few peeps on the drive home, was about to yowl like no tomorrow. I turned on the shower and the sound of water immediately made her start scrambling for a place to hide. I scruffed her (grabbed her by the back of the neck) and took her into the shower. Much to my amazement, she didn’t fight me. The only injury I sustained was a small claw puncture to my pinky finger. This cat can jump, though. She got on the shower seat and about cleared the top of the glass shower door. Once I got her soaked and sudded up, I rinsed her and wrapped her in a towel and dried her off. She never fought me, not once. This is a very good sign about her personality, so I was relieved that the worst was over.

After the bath, I moved a small cat tree into the bathroom and used it to prop open the sink cabinet and draped a towel over the opening so she had a level of privacy. I set out food and water, and let her be. Luckily she ate the next morning while I was sitting in the room with her, and she used the bathroom the night before in the litterbox. Now we wait for her to settle into her new home, and I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she sees how big this house is.

I left my house sometime before 7am on Monday, expecting this to be another mindless drive down I-95. I decided to finish reading Leslie Reyes's book "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle," since I was gifted the audiobook and hadn't gotten past the first two chapters. This turned out to be one of the better parts of this trip -- the book is extremely relatable to a bipolar electric motorcyclist like myself. I often will sign up for Audible and a free book credit when I know I have long drives to complete, it's less stressful than shuffling though the 3,000+ songs that make up my music library. My first stop is, as it always is, Florence SC. This is a good stop for the dining options next to the charging stations, which is adding a new Crumbl Cookies! I was the only vehicle at the location will I rolled up a few minutes past 9am. All 4 stations were operational, and I picked unit #2 for my charge. Like I always do, I pulled up the Electrify America app on my Android Auto screen in the car, selected my location as I was making the final turn into the shopping center, then tapped on select a charger. As I swing into the Walmart parking lot, I scan the stations and decide on #2 and tap on it on the screen as I pull into the parking space. I tap the "Start charge" button and wait as the machine goes from the Electrify America screen saver to a "Plug in here" screen. I turn off the car, pop open the charge port, grab the charging cable, pull out the charging port cover caps, and plug in. I stretch. I walk to the passenger side of the car and get my things out of the car, then I walk back to the driver side to see what the time to 100% estimate it. It was over an hour and a half, which is perfect for a leisurely breakfast at the Eggs Up Grill restaurant.

As I walk over to the restaurant, I hear jackhammering. There is a Crumbl cookies going into the space next to the Eggs Up Grill -- and the vibration never ceased the entire time I was in the restaurant. I ordered a delicious omelet with chicken, peppers, and cheese. I surfed the web (boy that sounds dated these days) from my phone while I waited on my meal. I ate, I used the bathroom, I had a discussion with some friends in a group chat, added a positive check-in on Plugshare, and then I decided it was time to head on since the car was over 80% charge. After paying and taking a photo of the receipt in the Expensify app (because all meals on travel and paid for by my work), I walked over to the car and pressed the stop button on the charger and unplugged the car. I hopped in and decided that I'd charge next in Pooler, GA.

The drive to Pooler was slow. The rain caught up to me and I went through two really good squalls that reduced traffic down to speeds below 55mph. I have to say I became very, very thankful for the radar-based cruise control of the Hyundai. While I couldn't see the blinking hazard lights on the SEMI I was following, the car could sense it and kept me two car lengths away at all times. It couldn't lane keep, because that relies on the cameras which were useless in this level of rain, but that's ok. I could see enough to stay on my side of the white lines. After what felt like longer than 2.5 hours, I arrived at Pooler. There was a Rivian R1T and I believe a VW ID.4 already at the location when I pulled up. There was a man with an high-viz safety vest that read ABB on the back, so I knew he was a service contractor for Electrify America. He and the Rivian owner were talking, the Rivian may have been the test vehicle to confirm the repairs. I don't generally check sites out before I go -- for better or worse I have blind faith that I'll get to my destination eventually -- but I happened to look at Pooler's on Plugshare while I was making the positive check-in at Florence. At that time Plugshare said one system was unavailable, but when I got to the site all 6 stations seemed to be operational. I pulled up and repeated the process of starting my session before leaving the car, plugged in and then went into the Walmart to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. When I got back to the car, I was the only vehicle at the chargers. I waited a bit for the car to hit 80% before unplugging. I did not know if I could make the 201-miles from Pooler to Gainesville, so I planned a short stop in Brunswick to give me a buffer. I was averaging 3.9mi per kWh, but I didn't feel like taking any chances. The drive to Brunswick is only an hour, and during that drive I attended a Zoom meeting by phone. The drive to Brunswick was uneventful, but my experience at Brunswick is where all my headaches would come from. This site has 4 stalls, located in two rows with the stations next to each other and their screens face oppose parking spaces (so the stations are positioned between parking spaces instead of at the head of them). A Kia EV6 and an ID4 were already pluged into the stations that I could just pull straight in and plug in, so I had to reverse into the end space to use the open charger. As I tried to start a session from the EA app, the Android Auto screen keep saying I had a session going. Sometimes the app does this, it's the weakest point of their service, so I killed the app on my phone and relaunched it. It still gave me the end session button. By this time I noticed that the screen saver on the station had cleared and I saw the "Plug in First" screen with the Complimentary Sessions blue banner -- well, who doesn't love a free charge? I plugged in and immediately saw why it as in free vend mode -- I was getting a staggering 14kW (that's twice the speed of the car's built in AC charger) instead of the 50-70kW I was expecting. Okie, well, I can move to the other station and hope for better speed once I get the app working, except that the app still thinks I'm charging in Pooler (and I'm at 79%). Great. I called Electrify America and get a very kind newbie on the phone. I tell her what's going on and she does everything she can to try and get my app unstuck: ending the session on her end, which it says it's ended but my app says it's still going on. She rebooted the station, no change in my app. Finally, the Kia moved and I asked him (while still on the phone with EA customer service) if it was slow and he said that he was only getting 30kW out of it. Well, 30 beats 14. I asked the lady to start a session on station 3 using my account, which is the one next to the station I was using. Luckily the longer cables at this site meant I did not need to move my car, just unplug from one and plug into the other. Immediately I got 38kW -- ok, this is a lot better and I don't need a ton of charge to make it to Gainesville either -- but then a Mustang Mach-E pulled in. I explained the situation to the driver, and she took the 14kW freebie since the Kia had moved to the only other open station. The EA rep was listening this whole time and complimented me on my kindness, and I thanked her for her patience in getting this mess sorted out. We then started chatting about my experience with the network, how it's grown, what the pains are, why I picked the Kona despite having an Audi etron, and mentioned I was missing 700+ charging sessions form my history and that last I checked they just closed my case. She said let me fix that for you, and opened a new case about my missing charge history. We also commiserated on the fact that both of our jobs require us to use Salesforce and how we don't hate it, but we wished it was better laid-out. I ended my call with EA support, chatted a bit more with the Mach-E owner, then went into the Walmart for a bathroom break and to get a subway sandwich for lunch. There was a line at the Subway, but I didn't mind as everyone was in good spirits and talking among each other. I got a 6" flatbread with steak and cheese, then headed back to the car. I ate my sandwich after updating some tickets for work, then stopped the charging session from the app (which seemed to clear up the ghost session), unplugged and made the final leg to the Electrify America in Gainesville. The drive was uneventful, save for the now clear skies and very humid weather. I pulled into the Target at Gainesville and 2 of the 4 stations were in use. Once again there was a Rivian R1T, and a Kia EV6 already plugged in. This location has the newest generation of chargers for the three CCS stations, but I opted to use the older station with the CHAdeMO. Mostly because I could pull straight through to it, and I'd have to reverse into the only other space to use the only open CCS-only charger. I started the machine from the app, but as I went for the plug I hesitated. The white plastic cover on the handle was missing, but the connector itself was fully in tact. I decided I'd rather risk electrocution (ok, that's really NOT something that can happen) than reverse into the space to use the other charger. I plugged in, and it started charging just fine. I had about 45 minutes to kill, and half of that was spent in the Target bathroom. After relieving all the gas that had accumulated in me over the last two plus hours, I wandered to the far end of the shopping center which has a Sushi restaurant. I figured I'd let the car trickle to 100% and go ahead and eat dinner. Well, that wasn't going to happen as both the Sushi place and the Maple Street Biscuit Co were closed. At 6pm on a Monday. Maple Street I could understand, but the Sushi place's hours said 5-10pm M-F. Annoyed, I marched over to the Publix and picked up a Body Armor water, some peanut butter M&Ms, and a bottle of water. I checked out, scanned the receipt into my Expense report, and then wandered to the car. I was over 80% charge, so I said screw it this will do for the week. I drove 4.6 miles to my hotel, this took me over 25 minutes. Traffic here is unjustifiably heavy for a college town. I added a stop at another Sushi place that looked to be on the same road as the hotel. What I didn't know is that it's literally next door to the hotel, which is in a downtown-like setting where there is NO FREE PARKING. Enter the next frustration -- I decided I'd check into the hotel and then get dinner at the Sushi place. I asked the Valet how parking worked was told you can pay $30 EACH TIME you leave the parking deck for self-parking, you can free park on the street but have to move every 2 hours, or you can pay $30 for Valet and that it doesn't matter how many times you take the car out with Valet it's one flat rate. Well, Valet it is. They get me a luggage cart, I unload, and head into the Hampton Inn. Check in was smooth, I head up to my room on the 5th floor and start unpacking. I get to my Ozempic -- a once a week injectable medication I take for diabetes -- into the room's mini fridge. The fridge is warm, there's water on the back wall as if it's defrosted. I call the front desk, and no one answers -- I get sent to the phone tree as if I called the 800# after 10 rings. I hang up and call back, the guy who checked me in answers after 5 rings. I tell him I need someone to come look at the fridge as I have medication I need to keep refrigerated, he said the maintenance staff has gone for the day but I could leave it in the fridge behind their desk. I politely declined, this stuff was a fight to get approved to use and costs over $1100/pen and I'm not letting it out of my sight for any reason. I asked him to move me to another room, he said no problem. I pack everything back up, and head to the lobby. I'm given room 404 -- insert nerd jokes about "room not found" here -- and thanked him. Back to the elevators, up to the 4th floor, this time I check the fridge and it is indeed cold. I unload, unpack, and fall onto the bed in a tired and frustrated state. I laid there at least a half hour before deciding I needed to eat. I put my shoes back on and walked over to the Sushi place. It wasn't busy, maybe 5 or 6 total tables. There was one waiter, and only one Sushi chef. I ordered an Angry Orchard - they were out. Again, this day is just trying me. I said that's ok I'll stick to water, and placed my order for Crab Rangoons and two sushi rolls. The Rangoons came out and my word they were beautiful, I should have taken a photo. And delicious! The waiter says he feels bad about them being out of Angry Orchard and he'd buy me another beer, I told him unfortunately that's the only kind of alcohol I can have. He understood, but then I asked for a Shirley temple (it and a few other non-alcoholic mixed drinks were on the menu). He smiled and said certainy. When he came back with my drink I complimented the rangoons and he said the lady in the back only does things by hand. This set the stage for the Sushi, which took more than 20 minutes from getting my Shirley Temple to come out. A lady who I guess was the GM or owner came over and apologized, saying she was short staffed today. I hadn't been gruff in my talking with the waiter, and I don't know if the fact that I am a giant covered in arm tattoos, but I said that's OK I know it'll be worth it from the reviews. She smiled and thanked me for my patience. When the sushi did arrive -- woah boy -- it was delicious. I told her when she came back by to check on me that this was well worth the wait. During all this I had a small side conversation with two ladies sitting at the table catty corner to my back. One of them had leopard print dyed hair and I was smitten with it. She told me she does it herself and I was floored. I told her she's a light in this world and don't let anyone ever snuff it out. I have no idea what her day was like, but she looked like she was going to cry when she said "thank you so much for saying that." They left shortly after my food arrived, and I enjoyed my two rolls. I made myself eat the last two rolls -- and I felt uncomfortably full (this is an expected effect of the Ozempic -- a 15% loss of body weight is typical for people on this medication). I was afraid over eating might give me the "nasty burps" in the morning (think a burp but it tastes like rotten flesh), but I decided it'd be worth it. I went back to the hotel, prepped the bed, put on my CPAP and fell fast asleep before 10pm. At 4:04am I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed... in room 404... in Gainesville Florida. It would be two hours before Breakfast was served at the hotel, so I attempted to go back to sleep and gave up after 30 minutes of rolling around in the bed. I got on my phone and goofed off till 5:30, when I took a shower. Now, Florida has hard water which I don't like, but man the water pressure and the instant hot water made this one of the better hotel showers I've ever been in. Feeling refreshed, I threw on my sweats and a shirt to wander down to the 2nd floor for breakfast. It was the typical Hilton 3-star hot breakfast: eggs, potatoes, and a pork-based protein (ham today). I loaded up on eggs and got a small portion of potatoes and two slices of ham. I then got a cup of OJ and sat down so I could watch Good Morning America on the TV in the dining room. The news was grim, covering the school shooting in Nashville. I remember my grandparents, when they were around the age I am now, saying the world's going to hell in a handbasket when they watched the news. I felt like I was channeling my maternal grandfather with my internal commentary on the world watching the coverage of yet another mass shooting. After breakfast I broke out the laptops in my room and proceeded to catch up on emails and tickets. I decided I didn't want to go to the client site until after lunch today, so that the commissioning team had enough time to assess the installation so that they could give me a rough ETA on when we could expect to power up and test the charging system. At 11am I walked over to Harry's - a place that bills itself as a seafood joint but the seafood options are rather limited -- for lunch. I ordered their salad with grilled chicken, and then joined my 11:30am project engineering call. I ate while I listened to folks get lost in the weeds on various issues we have experienced, which thankfully ended about 10 minutes early. I finished up my salad and paid the tab, then headed back to the Valet to fetch my car. I had joined a telemed call while they got the car. I drove to an Aldi and parked so I could talk with my psychiatrist about my current medication regimen and how things were going/how I was feeling. It was a productive call. It ended just after 12:30 and I put in the address for the client site. I arrived at the client site and was met by our on-site contact who badged me into the secured lot where our chargers were being installed. I got to work checking on the labeling, gathering serials, and doing all the other things my team does to activate a new system. I created the needed tickets to address things I'd found, and after about 3 hours on site I called it a day and went back to the hotel. I did a little more paperwork before calling it a day and heading across the street to the Day-of-the-dead themed Taco shack. I ordered a burrito, chips and queso, and the mango Limoade (think frozen lemonade made with limes). It was all delicious, and again I made myself eat that last bite. I then headed back up to my room and downloaded the Roku app onto my new-to-me $230 Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 with a cracked front screen. This is the folding tablet-phone, and I'm only using it as a wifi tablet. I watched the last episode of "For the Love of DILFs" on OutTV, this is a trashy gay dating reality show hosted by Stormy Daniels. After getting angry with who was chosen the winner (posers, they didn't deserve it), I was left wondering what else I could binge until I felt sleepy. Well, a suggested show was "Popporn." which I can only describe as Mystery Science Theater 3000, with comedians (and Lucy the Slut from the hit musical Avenue Q) and porn flicks. It's actually really funny, and I binged the entire first season in one sitting. Afterward, I put on music and said it's time to sleep. Wednesday I woke up around 6:30am. I goofed off on my phone for a little bit, then showered and went down for breakfast. Today it was "Western style omeltes" with sliced sausage for the protein. I ate and watched Good Morning America, then headed upstiars to update tickets that the commissioning team had opened last night with updates from my tickets that crossed over with the things on their punch list. I did not plan to visit the site today, everything I need to do from this point on I can do remotely -- and, in fact, this is supposed to be the last on-site activation that my team is going to be doing. I was informed during the day that the site would not be energizing on Thursday, meaning that there was no reason for me to stick around after the replacement parts arrive on Thursday and I deliver them to the site. I would love to say this was the end of my frustration, but it was not. There is another situation that has been ongoing for about 6 months, and while there is traction to correct the problem the situation is heating up with the stakeholders. I made a comment on the case and tagged some top level brass for visibility on the suggestion of another coworker who isn't in my group. I was immediately hit with an anxiety attack that I'd just made a career limiting move -- so I informed my boss who said this wasn't career limiting but it wasn't the right way to go about escalating the issue. He said to run things by him next time.  He told me this while I was out to dinner -- at a fabulous Thai place whose building blocks all cellular signals (so I didn't read it till after I'd gotten back in my car). I picked this place because there was a Level 2 nearby, but it was in use by some Toyota Plug in Hybrid that was there for the soccer game going on in the park. First Come, First Served... After dinner, I drove over to the Electrify America at the Target to top off the car so I could attempt to drive from the client site directly to the Electrify America in Pooler, GA without stopping in Jacksonville or Brunswick. While I was there an EV6 pulled up and I chatted with the owners, who were in town because of a family medical emergency and only rapid charging because well it's Wednesday and that's not usually when they need to charge the car at home. After they went into the Target to use the bathroom, a lady with a Polestar 2 pulled up. It became evident very quickly that she has never done this before. So I asked her how she liked the car, and she tells me that it's a rental and she just needs to top it off to turn it in. I knew the credit card readers were not working on any of the machines -- and in fact the legacy CHAdeMO machine she pulled up to was listed as unavailable in the app -- so I said let me give you a hand. I explained the process as I started a session for her from my account.

 This lady is a radio show host, based out of Charlotte. We talked for about a half hour as her car topped off from 81 to 100%. She said she really liked the car but she thought the fueling process would be more developed than what it was. I told her this is 1996, you've gotten your first Windows 95 PC and you signed up for AOL...and everyone is complaining about the busy signals on Friday nights. She giggled, getting the nostalgic reference in our shared technological adoption curve. I told her if you're ok with some headaches and can be a tad flexible with your time, now is the time to adopt. If you can't, wait two or three years -- at which point the nice cars today (like the Kia she oogled that was parked next to me) will be Certified Pre-owned and much more affordable. Her charge ended and it costs $4.32 - she asked me if I wanted her to venmo the payment to me. I told her that I do a lot of consumer surveys for prepaid gift cards and just load the balances into my account, that I haven't paid to charge since October, and that I wasn't worried about a $4 charge. Pay it forward. She agreed, thanked me, and hopped in the car to go have dinner at the Thai place I'd eaten at because she loved my raving review of the drunken noodles. I waited until the Kona hit 100%, which wasn't long after the Kia folks came back and left -- waving and thanking me for the chat -- and I hopped into the car and smiled. I'd helped someone today, and I had a great conversation with a number of people. You really do meet some of the kindest people at charging stations. I drove to my hotel and the valet was parking another car, so the desk took my key so I could head up to bed. I goofed off online for an hour or so before I went to sleep, knowing this was my last night in the hotel and feeling so excited to be going home tomorrow. I get homesick all to easily. The next morning I woke up later than normal -- 7:45 -- and I got a shower and rolled down to the second floor for another eggs and meat breakfast. This time I missed Good Morning America and instead was greeted by Dr. Phil -- I ate fast and headed back to my room. I checked the Fedex status of my package and it was out for delivery, so I called the front desk to let them know I was expecting a package in the next 3 hours. The package came before 10am, so I packed up my bags and checked out of the hotel and headed to the site to drop off the parts. I got on the road to home just before 11am and feeling pretty confident. It's a shame that confidence wouldn't last. I asked Google for a Krystal's (because I'm from Tennessee and can't make a trip in Krystal territory without having a meal there at least once). There was one about an hour away in Georgia that was easy in/out from the highway. I ate a banana to keep my blood sugar up until then. I stopped at the Krystal and they weren't super busy -- two cars ahead of me -- but obviously understaffed. I ordered 4 cheese Krystals with no mustard, tots, and an unsweet tea. I got my tea but was asked to pull forward to wait on my food. I waited a good 10 minutes before someone came out and gave me the correct order, on the bright side it was rather hot still. I ate my little nostalgia burgers (my dad and I loved this place when I was a child) and hit the highway. I drove 206 miles (3 of those being the in-town driving from charger to hotel and hotel to client site) with more than 50 miles estimated remaining when I got to Pooler. I don't remember the charge level when I arrived at Pooler, mainly because Pooler was a mad house with all but one stalling appearing to be in use. I backed into station 1 and found it was showing unavailable in the app, but acting normal on its screen. I plugged in and waited for the payment screen than tapped my phone. Volia! It started! I ran inside to use the bathroom and then caught up with my boss who asked me to ping him when I stopped. Turned out it was the annual compensation review and I got good news on that front -- the decision to leave NC State for ChargePoint was certainly the right one. Feeling good and lookin' gorgeous (my boss made a joke about my hair in the wind on our Zoom), I chatted with the F150 owners who gushed about their truck. They showed me the Frunk, and how the rear seats fold up so you can use the back seats for storage, and really did a good job of selling me on the vehicle -- and these aren't folks my age, they're easily my parents generation. Pretty cool.

Once I hit 80% or so I had enough range to make it to Florence. I unplugged and waved goodbye, and set off. Bonus -- my session never billed to my account despite me getting updates in the app from it and stopping the session from the app. My optimism was going to fizzle out on this leg. Google told me that it's avoiding a crash and to exit in 20 miles. Well, before I get there my engineer on site says they're ready to power on the stations. I asked Google for a Subway and pulled off at the next one (I was feeling a little hungry as the burgers were not substantial). I spent an hour at the subway prepping the chargers for tomorrow's test and then I got back on the road. I get to the exit Google wants me to take and things have certainly slowed down. I'm in the exit lane and waiting, and waiting, and waiting... the traffic seems to be moving just fine past the exit so I break the line and get back on 95. This was a mistake. About 5 miles head things came to a dead stop. I'm 1.5 miles to the next exit to bypass this mess. After a solid 20m of waiting, cars start passing on the shoulder - and I join them. Some Semis and bigger trucks were trying to be dicks and block the shoulder, but we went around them in the grass. We got to the exit, and myself and at least 7 other vehicles all followed the same route around the accident and back on to 95. The rest of the drive was ok, save the book I was listening to -- "The Other Family Doctor" by Karen Fine -- which was making me well up with tears of pet deaths from the perspective of the veterinarian. I got close to Florence and checked the app to find one open station. As I exited the highway and got closer to the chargers, the app updated to 3 open stations. It said station 1 was not available, which happened to be the one that I pulled into. It also said all but station 4 (with the CHAdeMO) was derated to 50kW. I never got above 40kW the entire charge, but I was somewhat OK with that because I'd planned to eat at Pizza Mio. However, because of the earlier traffic, I got to Pizza Mio about 20 minutes before they closed and lemme tell you they banged out my pizza in 5 minutes and asked me to shoo. I barely had time to pee after paying for the order. I sat outside and ate the whole personal pizza. I opted for pesto as my sauce, with fresh mozz, peppers, siracha sausage, black olives and pineapple. It was very tasty. Afterward I wandered back to the car and sat in it to listen to my Audi book till I had 180mi of range (I need 154mi to get home and I like a buffer). As I'm waiting a Mercedes pulls up and backs into the station next to me -- I wave at them and they roll down their window and I tell them that machine's derated they may do better at the one next to it. He says well that one also says it's derated, I said try the one on the end the app says it's 150kW. So he pulls out and plugs into the legacy CHAdeMO equipped station and heads off into the Walmart. As I'm nearing 68% (more than enough to get home) a Porsche pulls in and seems to have trouble getting the station to start. He finally does and wanders off towards the Subway next to Pizza Mio. I unplugged and headed towards home. Things were good until outside Lumberton, North Carolina where the construction has been ongoing for months. Things went to a single lane twice, and I came to a full stop several times. I would see this again on I-40. But I persisted and I got home just before 11:30pm (I'd hoped to get home before 11) and plugged in the Hyundai and headed off to bed.

It's Wednesday and I'm waiting for my service contractor to arrive at a client site in Memphis to do some on the ground troubleshooting, which turns out that someone from my team needs to visit the site to do some local magic that only my team can perform. I knew this was a possibility, so I already had a bag packed and Karen the Kona charged up to above 90%. Once I got off the phone with the contractor, I loaded up my car and made my way west towards the home of the blues.

My first stop was in Statesville, North Carolina. I used to love this stop, but now it's one I may seek to avoid in the future. It has nothing to do with the hardware -- all the stations were in working order on both visits to this location. It has to do with the amenities and the construction at the exit that makes accessing it a royal pain in the arse. The construction has changed where the exits are, thus Google Maps freaks out and you end up going a solid 3 miles out of your way to get to the shopping center where the chargers are located. The bigger thing is that the Italian restaurant there used to be really good, but the portions have shrank while prices did not and the service has slid noticeable. The last time we went through here was during the cat transport in Feb, and I noted that the portions were smaller. Well this time I placed the order online 2 hours before I arrived, arrived 8 minutes late, and waited an additional 16 minutes on top of that for my food to be handed over. And if it had all the shrimp (I got 7, menu says 8) and if the sauce was...a sauce and not melted butter with some other things not quite mixed into it to be called a sauce... I might not have been upset about them being late an order placed hours ahead of time.

44 minutes, 31kWh and $11.16 later, I was on the road. I charged to 86% which I thought would give me enough range to make it to Kodak, TN for my next charge. But bladder and dropping temps had me detour to the Local Market of Waynesboro, NC for a quick charge, bathroom break, and snacks (mainly caffeine as it was dark now and I had the twisties to contend with ahead). 13 minutes, 6.17kWh, and $2.16 later - I was back on the road. Driving at night through the mountains is either alright or hell, and tonight it was alright. Not a lot of traffic, no broken down cars, no deer, no bears, no rock slides. I pulled into Kodak with 18% state of charge and plugged in for 49 minutes to get 46kWh for a cost of $7.97 -- I do love pay by time locations when you've got a car that charges relatively quickly. I charged enough to reach my hotel in Mt. Juliet - 180ish miles away - but I decided to stop in Cookeville and add a little more range to the car in the off chance that the ChargePoint Level 2 at the hotel wasn't accessible or broken. The Cookeville stop was for all of 13 minutes, adding 12kWh for a cost of $2.17 (compare this with the ChargePoint charge in Waynesville -- you'll see why I like time based charging a little more with this car).

I arrived at the hotel in Mt. Juliet around 1am local (central) time. The charger was not blocked and fully operational. I plugged in and went upstairs to sleep. 6-hours later, the car was at about 70% state of charge and I was refreshed and ready to make it to my client site in Memphis. I drove from Mt. Juliet to Jackson, TN and this is where I met my first "problem" charger. I was pulling up to it and tapped the start button in the Electrify America app on my Android Auto screen when the screen went from the screen saver to the "plug in first" screen and I saw the blue complimentary session banner. But then it switched to Plug in Here and proceeded to charge me 15-cents a minute. I decided that was fine, and went inside to use the bathroom. When I returned the car was still only pulling 17kW, so I disconnected and moved to one of the other stations -- only to see if I'd used the station next to where I'd parked (I would have needed to back up the car into the space behind where I'd parked) that station was also in complimentary mode. But I ended up paying $7.16 for 44kWh in 44 minutes, I also attended a work call while at this charging stop. Charged up with range to spare I headed to the client site where I proceeded to work magic and get the charging system into a state of semi-functionality. I was going to be waiting on a backend software tweak before I could test the station, so I called it a night at 5pm and proceeded to head over to a Pho and Sushi place to meet a retired teacher friend I've known since childhood for dinner. She had a celebration of life event (aka a funeral service) to attend, and said she'd be there at 6. As I hopped on I-40 I pressed the Voice Assistant button on the Hyundai steering wheel and told Google I needed a charging station. The first option it came up with was Jim Kerras Nissan, and it listed CCS as a charging option. I had a solid 45 minutes to kill, so I set the navigation to the Nissan dealer to charge up. Much to my surprise, as all the Nissan dealer in NC with CCS require payment, this station was FREE! I charged for a little over 40 minutes and made it to the restaurant at 5:58pm -- only to then see the text that my friend will be at least 15 minutes late because "this is rolling on with lots of stories from the speakers." Not a problem for me - I wanted sushi but also wanted to try the broth this place makes, so I ordered a dumpling soup appetizer and settled in. Dinner with my friends was delightful, and the sushi was superb. She told me about a recent shooting that her best friend witnessed at the local mall (the one across the street from the only Electrify America in Memphis). She also told me all about the Murdaugh trial in South Carolina. Then we pivoted to my cousin who is getting married next year in New Orleans. Truly a wonderful evening and a great way to end a long day. After dinner I followed her back to her home and unloaded a small piece of furniture from her car into her house. I hugged her goodnight and then headed over to Midtown Memphis to catch some shut eye at a middle school friend's house. He and his girlfriend had just gotten back from dinner with another mutual couple we know moments before I pulled into their driveway. I unloaded the car and proceeded to the bathroom for my eventual rituals. Afterward we sat at the kitchen table and drank wine while talking about the mall shooting, gun culture, what I was working on for the transit authority in town, and the upcoming Orville Peck show. Around 11 we were all exhausted -- well me and the girlfriend, my first works nights and it was his "day" off so he pulled out the iPad and started playing games -- so we retired for the night. I was up a little after 7am, showered, and texted my friend and his girlfriend that I was headed out the back door and would update them on my plans as the day progressed. At the time I had no idea if I'd be heading home today or staying the weekend. I drove to Bryant's Breakfast for a Philly Cheesesteak and Egg biscuit with a side of hash browns, then drove to Bartlett to pick up some labels that my company mailed to our contractor. From here it was back to the client's site to apply the labels and see if the back end database had been updated so the station would activate. I handled all my daily calls on site, including the end of week team call. It was determined that I should head back to Raleigh as all the hardware was in working order, so I let the customer know what the status was and that I'd be in contact with them before the end of the day most likely to tell them it was OK to charge their bus. I drove straight to Jackson, TN to charge. On the way there I had an engineer hit me up about doing some live troubleshooting on a different station when I got stopped, and I handled a couple work calls on the drive. I arrived to find a Polestar 2 using the other complimentary charger, the slow one I used had been marked unavailable, and a Kona attempting to charge on the only other 150kW. I pulled in and plugged up to the 350kW and my charge started fine, the Kona owner and a guy in a high-viz work jacket were talking and I could tell the Kona owner was having issues. I asked what was up and he said that he's at 3% power and that he thinks it's too low for the charger to charge it. I told him while being undervoltage could be a thing, it's really unlikely with that car. He then realizes I own the exact same identical vehicle. I told him I've run it to 3% before and charged it an EVgo without any issues. He seemed quite frustrated (which I totally understand) and not open for more help (to which I wanted to say, you should drive it over to the Nissan dealer half a mile away and plug into their Level 2 charger and see if you can unplug it from the car after locking the doors -- if so the charging lock has broken and that's why you can't DC fast charge).  I jumped in the car and pulled out my work laptop. This charge was an hour and 20 minutes long, adding 48kWh and costing $13.24. I worked the entire time I was plugged in. I got Memphis successfully charging, we confirmed what I suspected about a hardware failure for a FL customer, and I found out that Chapel Hill was going to activate their new hardware on Tuesday (so a good thing I was headed back to Raleigh today). As I was working, a tow truck showed up and hauled away the Kona that was parked next to me. I felt really bad for the owner, because I've been in that situation. I hope his car gets fixed and he never experiences anything like that again. After finishing up some paperwork to order parts and schedule contractors, I closed the work laptop and signing off for the day, unplugged my car and proceeded to Cookeville for my next to last charge of the day. I got nervous when I came close to Cookeville. About 40m out I decided, based on what happened in Jackson, that I might want to check the status of the site. Well, 2 machines showed unavailable and 2 showed in use. I figured that was OK as one of the two in use should be done by the time I get there. Nope, a Bolt and a Ford F150 Lightning were still parked at the chargers when I arrived. However, one of the two machines that said were offline had the green lights on so I pulled over to it and sure enough it was in complimentary mode! I reversed into the parking space and plugged in, the charger came to life and gave me the full 75kW my car can take. Who doesn't love a free charge?! While it was charging, I opened my hatch to get a business card from a bus representative I met at the client site. I wanted to let him know we got the client charging successfully today. While I was rummaging around, the Ford owner gets out of his truck to unplug. I asked him how he liked the truck, and the take away from out 10 minute chat was that he's owned Ford trucks for 17 years and this is the best truck he's ever owned from them. He said the front trunk was always a conversation starter at the parking lot of the grocery store. I do really love this early onset of mainstream adopters, the folks you meet at charging stations tend to be really nice (tho I've totally been cussed out by Audi owners before). He headed off to the college to get his son and I jumped in the car as it was getting rather cold and starting to rain. I charged for ... well I don't remember how long since I don't have the receipt! I left Cookeville and made it to Kodak TN where I plugged in at 26% and headed over to The Chop House for a nice dinner. An hour and one full belly later, I unplugged the car and drove across the parking lot to the Fairfield Inn where I'd stay for the night. This hotel had a Blink Level 2 charger that actually wasn't blocked, so I plugged in and charged my car to 100% overnight (it only took an hour and cost me the outrageous price of $6.34 -- not all chargers bill equally). I slept until 6am, when the hotel alarm clock went off on its own. I'd wanted to sleep till 8 or so, but I knew once I was up... I was up. I showered, packed, loaded up the car, unplugged, and headed back towards Statesville. I had some grapes I'd picked up at an earlier stop that I munched on to keep my blood sugar up. When I got to Statesville the app said all stations available, but a Mach-E had pulled into one of the 350kW stalls and the owner hopped out of the car right as I pulled in the parking lot. I parked next to them and took the other 350kW -- since the 350kW's share two 175kW cabinets and the Mach-E only needs 150kW max and I only need 74kW max this was the most efficient use of the machines available at the time. As I got out and stretched after a 3 hour drive to get here, some folks in a truck parked near the chargers asked me how long it'd take. I said about 30 minutes, that'll give me enough to get home to Raleigh. The guy driving the truck said that's not bad, and you've got a McDonalds next door too. We then chatted a bit about the Italian restaurant -- he too had a negative experience with them recently. Sad. I may start charging in Greensboro and skipping Statesville now. I wandered over to the McDonalds and ordered a sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle and settled in for about a half hour. As I finished easting, I saw a Porsche Taycan Grand Tourismo (the station wagaon) pull up and park at the 150kW charger that has the Nissan CHAdeMO plug. "Oh boy, we are going to get chewed out" I thought to myself as I downed the last of my tea and decided that I'd use the bathroom before walking over to my car. After using the bathroom, I walked over and walked in front of the Porsche and Ford, and unlocked my car to check my estimated range (it was more than enough to get me home). As I'm peering in my door to read the dash, I hear "Hey sir, excuse me, sir?" and I turn around to find a thin, long blonde hair, lady with a rather worried look on her face. She asked me if I could help her, she can't get her car to charge. She tells me she's only had the car a few days, that she's coming from Lake Norman and headed to Greensboro to pick up a friend and that she lives in Durham and doens't know this area at all. She said that her partner installed the Electrify America app on her phone but never told her how to use it. She said I've only ever charged a Tesla, and I don't understand the on-screen instructions of this charger. Now I picked up on the gender neutral language and general body language and figure this gal is LGBTQ+ family, but even if she wans't I was going to help her out. So I asked if it was OK to unplug her car, and she said yes. I unplugged it and said ok now pull out your phone and open the app. She did and I showed her how to navigate to the site, then the station, and then swipe to start. Once she did that the machine switched to "Please Plug in Now" and I said "When it switches to this screen, then you plug in the car." She did and it started charging. As we high-fived to celebrate getting the charge going, the Mach-E family returned and said she can use their 350kW since it'll be faster. So we stopped the charge on the 150kW and plugged into the 350kW. She was able to do it all on her own this time. The Mach-E left and I stopped my charge and went to get into my car and leave when I heard a knocking on my window. It's the Porsche lady again, she says I'm so sorry but the car say it can't charge. I glance at it the station has faulted (probably because the second shared power cabinet became available and their back end software doesn't handle ramp-up requests correctly), and the car has a red ring around the charger release button. I put my car in park and turn it off and say let's try this again. We unplug, we wait for the machine to say Plug in First. We swipe, we get the Please Plug in, we plug in, and it's happy. This time I stand there and wait to see it move up a % on the State of Charge (she was at 4%) before I jump in my car to head home.

This all started out with optimism: he was going to rent an Ioniq 5, which was a potential candidate as “next car” whenever that time came. He rented the car on Turo from a lady who apparently had a fleet of cars with a “driver” who delivers the cars to the renters. This person doesn’t follow directions, as my husband was detailed with photos as to where the car needed to be parked at his work and which charger to plug it into. They ignored all of that and plugged it into a Level 2 charger in the wrong part of the parking lot, meaning the car wasn’t charged sufficiently for him to immediately hit the road when he got off work.

Not like that was going to happen -- the car was delivered with a flat rear tire and he spent over 20 minutes in fleeting daylight to photograph every wheel on the car which had massive curb damage, every scratch, wrinkle, and tear. This car had just over 30,000 miles on it but looked like it had triple that in wear. He was so late coming home to get the dogs that I called him afraid he’d been in an accident of some kind. When he gets home, he plugs the car into our ChargePoint Home Flex 50A charger so it’ll soak up as much power as possible before he hits the road. I got our Ryobi hand held air compressor out and aired all the tires up to the factory spec. The rear tire was over 8lb underinflated -- not good for tire life.

So after rushing about to install the dog cover in the back seat, harness and load the dogs (remember we have a quasi-geriatric who needs help getting into and out of cars and is prone to puking), and load up all his stuff.... he kissed me on the forehead and said goodbye, walking out and leaving his dad’s birthday card and present on the pool table. Oops. This, however, wasn’t going to be the worst of the weekend. He had to stop twice on his way up to put air into that rear tire. The trip is only ~180 miles so every 90 or so he’d have to stop and air it back up. His consumption was low 3′s - which is poor for this vehicle as it should get over 4 on a trip like this - and he rolled up with 6% state of charge (he left with around 90%) and a low tire warning.

Now, on Saturday - the day after he left - I bought the Kona and had every intention of driving it up to his parents house and dropping off the birthday present, however the whole locking the keys in the car at the Greensboro charging stop derailed those plans. He did look at the car and found that it did indeed have a nail in that tire, and had asked us to bring him a tire patch kit - which we couldn’t do. I felt terrible about this, in fact, I moped about it for days.

He did the smart thing and ignored the car until Monday, when he took it to a tire shop. Turns out this thing didn’t have one, but two punctures in it and it was filled with slime where someone used the roadside kit on it already. There is no way this car should have been handed off to him in this condition. This is where things get ugly, fast. He had been calling the owner multiple times and only getting voicemail. He was messaging her in the app and could see that she read his messages but wasn’t responding. So he called Turo and Turo refuses to replace the tire, saying they’d reimburse him if he did it. The tire shop refuses to let the car drive away with that tire on it. Eventually - after about two hours of calling - Turo agreed to send a roadside tow truck to tow the vehicle back to the Raleigh dropoff/return point. John now needed to rent another car to get home.

HIs mom went to the tire shop and picked him up, she’d intended to take him to Enterprise (which he worked at in college). On the way he saw Hertz and that Hertz had a Tesla Model 3 sitting right in front of the lot, so he asked his mom to pull in there. The Tesla actually needed to go back to North Carolina, so they were delighted that he inquired about it. I was less enthused, because I knew he was going to utterly hate the car but at least he could say he’s driven one on a real road trip and could form his own opinion. He loaded up the pups and headed towards home. I called him at one point and it sounded as if he was talking to me in a tunnel, the audio quality of the Tesla was horrible - worse than the Hyundai, our Audi, or really any vehicle we’ve owned with a factory handsfree system. He said that I, too, sounded like I was in a tunnel to him. I’d say perhaps it was a bad connection, but all calls I made were at home over Gigbit Fiber (T-Mobile Wifi calling for the win). I asked him how he liked the car and he said “on paper I thought I’d love it, but it keeps emergency braking in the middle of sweeping bends on US220 and the last time it threw the old dog against the back of my seat, so I can’t use the cruise control system at all.” Well, that’s both unfortunate but also what I expected. We have a friend who lives out that way and is currently stuck with a Model 3 (intended it to be a 3-6mo purchase then flip for $$$ until the used market for Teslas dropped out). He told me that his does the same thing, and that he’s just accepted that he has to manually drive that section of 220 to get to Roanoke. 

When my husband got home, he didn’t say he hated the car... but he did say we’d never buy one. We’d ridden in Kyle Connor’s 2018 model on I-95 and both complained about the wind noise, he said that this 2020 model was just as bad as the 2018. He also said that the trim that goes around the passenger seatbelt in the B-pillar would squeak/rattle - and I said hold up now, that was an endearing trait on your Volvos (the “volvo squeak”) and he said yes but that wasn’t loud and border line ear piercing. He then went into the common complaints -- the touch screen is annoying to use, nothing about the car was intuitive, and that the minimal interior was too minimal for him.

He didn’t plug the car in, and I asked him why. He told me that Hertz told him so long as they could move it around the lot that he didn’t need to charge it. I told him we should plug it in because I recalled reading an article from Reddit that Hertz (or someone else renting EVs) had modified their return policy so that if you brought it back with over 70% charge there wasn’t a fueling fee, 30-70% there was like a $50 fee and below 30% was a $100 fee. He wanted to argue that “They said,” and I said “It’s Hertz, do you really want to chance this?” So we plugged it in and let it charge until it was over 75% charged to return it. While we waited the owner of the Ioniq 5 messaged him - not called, messaged - that she’d so sorry, she just got off a 16-hour international flight and wasn’t able to respond. John’s exact words were to her were “If you’re going to be renting vehicles and know you’ll be out of touch on a flight, you should have someone to manage this for you.” He was much more polite than I would have been.

We dropped the Tesla off and didn’t think much about it until a few days later when John was dealing with Turo about being reimbursed for his trip interruption. Turo finally agreed to refund him the cost of the Hertz rental, but they wouldn’t refund anything on the actual Turo rental. He flat out said he’d never rent from Turo again. He then checked his credit card and sees an additional $75 charge from Hertz for his rental. He calls Hertz and they tell him it’s because he returned the car without charging it. He argues, no I did. They’re confused. You used a Supercharger, so that’s why there is the fee. He said no, I plugged it in at my house and charged it above 70% before returning it, keeping in line with the online policy. This call gets escalated, and ultimately they’re told the office issued this charge and that he’d need to take it up with them.

So we have a friend who works at the office we dropped the car off at, and she told us that no his rental was closed out by corporate and gave him a number to call. The person who answered again said well you supercharged it, and he said no I charged it at home. The agent couldn’t seem to understand this and I couldn’t help but grin when he said “Madam, we own 6 EVs and three charging stations at home. I charged it at home before returning it, I did not pay to use a supercharger or anything else.” They say they need to send him to a Tesla specialist, that person again wants to argue that he charged at a Supercharger. Well, after standing his ground they come back and say “oops, sorry, yeah, we’ll reverse this charge.” 

At the next run club he saw our friend who works at the office. She said she poked around and saw that the office never closed the rental out when he returned it and had rented the car back out to someone else who did charge at a supercharger and it billed to my husband’s rental. Ultimately this was a comedy of errors that only we could experience.

So, will we rent a car from Turo or Hertz again? Turo’s a hard no - when they were RelayRides I had an account and cancelled it after the Liz Fong-Jones lawsuit. I named their treatment of this vehicle host as the reason I was closing my account, as a result... several years later after they rebranded to Turo, I re-opened my account to rent my BMW i3 to my best friend who took it on a 2800+ mile excursion to Florida before he moved to Colorado. I had to fight because my account is permanently blacklisted from renting card on their platform. I went through many avenues to find out why - it’s not Turo policy to explain why they do things - and the NC Attorney General’s letter to Turo got a written response that was forwarded to me stating that I was deemed high risk due to comments made to customer service and not due to my driving record.

Geeky Details of Energy Distribution and Production

16A ChargePoint: 2.2MWh over 324 sessions

32A ChargePoint: 2.4MWh over 204 sessions

50A ChargePoint: 3.21MWh over 160 sessions

Total charging: 7.7MWh over 688 sessions

Total Solar Production: 4.4MWh

What changed?

in 2021 the 4.3kW solar array handled 75% of all energy used for charging. But since that time we had my best friend move into our basement apartment with his Chevy Volt, and later he acquired a 2020 Zero SR/F motorcycle. His husband was discharged towards the end of 2022 and he plugs in his Ford CMax Energi on a daily basis (when he isn’t off driving a semi truck). But what really tipped the scales was the 2010 Chevy Volt that I picked up in Feb of 22. We picked up the car with 195k and sold it with 201k. 

Dudley’s original route had me picking him up in Charlotte (164mi from home), which is where our local IKEA is. We are in need of a Lack floating shelf, and I’m always slowly replacing all the plastic food containers with IKEA glassware ones. My bestie Brad decided to tag along, and he was considering a small desk if it’d fit in the car with the carrier. Unfortunately, as we rolled out the door just after 9:30 in the morning on Saturday the 11th, we had no idea that we were not going to go anywhere near IKEA today...

About 20 minutes before we reached the Siler City Smithfield Chicken-n-BBQ, a location with a ChargePoint 62kW Charging station, my phone rang. I answered and it was Joan, the transporter ahead of the guy I was to meet in Charlotte. She tells me that the transport is already running a half hour late because the shelter staff were late opening up today and that the driver who was meeting her in Hickory to drive the cat to Charlotte has had a family emergency and cannot continue the trip. She asks me if we could meet somewhere between Asheville and Charlotte, and she happened to suggest Statesville. I said let me do some gameplanning and I’ll call you back.

I cancelled the nav and told Google to take me to the Electrify America in Statesville. We were just under 2 hours away from there, with ample range. We glanced at the EA app, all 4 stations show as working and available (being a Saturday, I worried about stations filling up - what a silly worry that was in retrospect). I called Joan and told her we were headed to Statesville and that I’d text her an address and the name of the restaurant we were headed to. We arrived to one station in use, and a Polestar plugging into the other 150kW station. A 350kW it is, and I said a small prayer that no eGMP platform Hyundai or Kia shows up and wants to say something about a slow car using their charger... The Polestar was either unhappy with the charging speed, or maybe they had a problem, but they got out of the car as I pulled up and moved to the other 350kW stall to charge.

We placed a to-go order online with the restaurant, it was ready and waiting when we arrived. We had about a half hour between our arrival and when Joan would arrive with Dudley - which was about the time the car said it’d take to reach 80%. The cat hit 80% right as Joan pulled up, we got Dudley situated in my car and she asked a few questions about my car. She said that when I told her we were plugged in an eating, she expected to see a Tesla, and the all-to-commonly heard “I didn’t even know Hyundai made a fully electric car.” I told her they make three, but only two are actively available as the third just started production, and that Kia sells three models, and Genesis has one model. She was very surprised to find this out, and I suspect she might have gone home to go some Googling about the cars after she got home.

We chatted long enough to add 3% more to the battery, and I said we needed to get going as we knew we had rain we were going to encounter, and I didn’t want to add to my already super-long day by getting caught in an accident backup. Did I mention that I was wearing shorts and flip flops? I didn’t catch that the temp was going to be dropping with the rain in the forecast, and this was going to prove to be my biggest mistake yet.

The drive to Columbia was painless with the Lane Keep Assist and Active Cruise Control. Dudley was rather quiet, he’d wake up and chatter for a few minutes and then settle back down and sleep. We called Joan, and Kim who arranged this whole thing, to let them know what’s going on. We made it to Columbia right on time and charged for 35m to 80% and took off. It had started to rain when we arrived in Columbia, and the dark skies were a mere omen of what was to come. This was the only stop where my tried-and-true start the charger from Android Auto didn’t work. I had to plug in first, then the station responded to the app request to start a charge. Usually it will switch to a “Plug in here” screen, but today it wasn’t wanting to cooperate that way.

Dudley was, in hindsight, a good luck charm. By the time we reached Pooler - which the GPS took me to the middle of town and not the Walmart where the chargers are like I’d asked it - we were below 10% state of charge. It’s only 160-miles from Columbia to Pooler, but our efficiency had dropped from 4.1mi/kWh to 3.8mi/kWh. We plugged in and handed Dudley off to Ronda, who was taking him on the next leg to his adopters. Brad decided this was the stop that he was going to go into the Walmart and walk around because we had a solid 45 minutes before we would be charged up enough to go to Lumberton. Inside we bought a car towel (a towel that stays in the car), a hot dog for me, some waters, and he bought a hoodie. Neither of us had brought cold weather clothes because... it was 72F yesterday. We forgot it was false spring in the south!

Once we hit 80% we unplugged and headed north. It was between Pooler and Florence that I realized we had a very strong headwind (15-20mph sustained based on Windy app’s historical data, with gusts up to 40mph). We were not going to make it to Lumberton, as our efficiency had further dropped to 3.5 since we’d left Pooler. Ok, no worries, we’ll stop in Florence and top off and then make it home -- it’s only 155 miles. Yeah, well, best laid plans...

We left with a 31 mile buffer and by the time we’d passed our last exit with a charging station on I-95, we had a 5 mile or less buffer. Once we hit I-40 I killed the climate control to add 3 more miles and re-routed from home to the EVgo off Highway 64 that’s about 4 miles from my house. Plugshare showed it was in use, but I figured by the time we got there in an hour it would be free. Unless it’s broken and reporting in use, so I asked Google to show me charging stations neaby and that was less than helpful as I hadn’t picked the plugs in my preferences so it was showing me lots of Tesla stuff that I can’t use.

As the range estimate drops to within 1 mile of the miles to destination counter, I opened EVgos app to see the status of that station. Much to my surprise, despite having written about it in the state of charge report,  the app showed two stations in Garner as available. Fantastic, they’re only 18 miles away vs the 28 miles to the other one and we’re at 27 miles of range left. As soon as I exited I-40 and got onto 70, I defrosted the windows and then turned the heat back off. At 8% we got the low battery warning (which, to me, is really really really low to be giving a first warning), but the cruise control didn’t disengage. At 5% the car went into turtle mode, and I was being very gentle with the throttle. Did I mention the temp had plunged from 41F to 36F? Oh, and the rain had picked up too. It was miserable outside -- and I’ve got flipflops on, remember.

I pulled into the parking lot, I can’t find the chargers. I pulled up plugshare and tapped the pin to get GPS coordinates. We go to the other side of the parking lot. I still see no chargers. This parking lot is also exceptionally dark with no lightning whatsoever. It was about this time that Brad woke up, he’d been asleep since 10pm and it was now almost 2am, and he assisted me in trying to figure out where in the parking lot these chargers were before the car ran out of charge entirely. Keep in mind, first long trip with this car so while I expected something like this, I didn’t expect these exact circumstances.

Thankfully Plugshare users took lots of photos and I was able to see the stores in the background of the stations. I asked google to take me to Sally Beauty, it wanted to send me to one 7 miles away. I asked about another business, again it was 4 miles away. Finally I said “where is gamestop?” and it said 300ft away! YES. Ok. Turns out the stations were on the other side of the Ford we’d stopped next to. The lot was so dark, the rain was so intense, that we couldn’t see them. I pulled up and plugged in, having taken my keys with me so I can use my ChargePoint RFID card to start the machine. Except this is a new Delta charger I’ve never seen before, and none of the locations that look like they’d accept a phone or card tap are working. I open the EVgo app, I don’t have a payment method attached to my account and the only option is a credit card - no Google Pay, No PayPal, just manually enter a credit card. At this point I cursed outloud and the guy who was smoking leaning against the door of one of the stores in this strip mall looked up then went back to his deadscrolling.

I opened the ChargePoint app, and it immediately had the named charger I was plugged into pulled up. I tap start charge, and I hear the machine make a thunk sound as a relay opened. The screen moved from how to pay to initializing. I said a thank you prayer, hopped back in the car, and cranked the heat to 78 to thaw my poor feet. I wasn’t taking any chances, even though we were only 9.6 miles from my driveway I charged until it estimated 40 miles and then we left. We pulled into the driveway at 2:32am. Exhausted. Frustrated. But also thankful that we didn’t have a flat tire, we didn’t end up needing a tow truck, and that really everything worked out -- I also know what the limitations of the car are in some of the worst possible conditions. 

After sleeping a solid 8 hours, and eating some food and watching Transport Evolved’s News Roundup program, and lamenting the EVgo experience ... my husband pointed out all the good things about this trip. We were not one of the many vehicles we saw spin off the road and need a tow truck. We didn’t get a flat. We didn’t end up getting stranded, and honestly 4% isn’t as low as I’ve rolled up to a charger before. So all in all, a win. Especially when I got this photo of Dudley with his new dad.

Final Thoughts

I think about what could I have done different to have made this better. One of the thing is letting the car take the additional 20 minutes to get to 90%. If we’d waited to 90% in Florence, the storm would have been a little farther ahead of us and perhaps the wind wouldn’t have been as bad. At a minimum the panic of finding a last minute charging station (and, hey, what a miracle one was there that I needed that wasn’t there 6 months ago) would have been avoided. So I will now rethink my trip strategy with the Kona, and I also realized that because it’s “so slow” to charge that I’m not limited to Electrify America’s network -- we’d intended to start this trip off using a ChargePoint. However, I partake in a lot of consumer surveys and put all the visa gift card balances into my Electrify America wallet. I haven’t actually paid for a charge with them since October of 2022, and I have over $50 left in my account wallet after this trip.

Speaking of cost, the total cost in DC charging on this trip came to $55.46 with an additional $6.97 to refill the battery from my home charger. Over 793 miles we had 6 charging stops: Statesville (43m, 33kWh, $10.39), Columbia (36m, 32kWh, $10.61), Pooler (51m, 53kWh, $6.61 - this location billed by time), Walterboro (33m, 27kWh, $9.04), Florence (43m, 40kWh, $13.39), and Garner (EVgo, 14m, 13kWh, $5.42). Every single station we plugged into worked on the first plug in attempt, and only two (Columbia and Garner) deviated from the normal/quick procedure to start a charge - but they started nonetheless.

It was a long day for a good cause, and even with the headaches at the end of the route I was smiling about having been part of another rescue effort. I have greatly missed doing this as most of the groups I worked with folded during Covid, and this is probably the first transport I’ve done in over two years. Here’s hoping the next one is a lot shorter, something more like 400 miles round trip...

Carolina Beach

Carvers Creek

Chimney Rock

Cliffs of the Neuse

Crowders Mountain

Dismal Swamp

Elk Knob

Eno River

Falls Lake

Fort Fisher

Fort Macon

Goose Creek

Gorges

Grandfather Mountain

Hammocks Beach

Hanging Rock

Haw River

Jockey’s Ridge

Jones Lake

Jordan Lake

Kerr Lake

Lake James

Lake Norman

Lake Waccamaw

Lumber River

Mayo River

Medoc Mountain

Merchants Millpond

Morrow Mountain

Mount Jefferson

Mount Mitchell

New River

Occoneechee Mountain

Pettigrew

Pilot Mountain

Raven Rock

Rendezvous Mountain Singletary Lake

South Mountains

Stone Mountain

Weymouth Woods

William B. Umstead

Greenlots Shell ReCharge

Sine I last reported, QwickCharge out of Atlanta bought the old Greenlots assets and intended to slap a credit card reader on them and get them back in operation. To date, nothing has happened at any of these locations and I will no longer be mentioning them in future reports. These included:

The Biltmore Ave Parking Deck

The Asheville Public Works station

Charlotte’s  AAA South End

Charlotte’s AAA on Flat River Dr.

Cherokee

Waynesville (personally tried to use this unit, while powered up it will not start a CCS session due to a proximity error)

Dallas

Salisbury

Matthews

Wadesboro

Greensboro

Hillsborough

Durham

Chapel Hill

Leland

Calabash

Duke Energy’s Park and Plug program has finally launched in North Carolina this year! They added 3 locations all featuring a pair of 150kW charging stations:

Kinston

Hallsboro

Saluda

There is one other Shell ReCharge DC Station in Asheville, a 50kW at AB Tech.

ChargePoint

ChargePoint's footprint continues to grow the North Carolina Electric Member Cooperative’s Electric Vehicle Network using funds from the VW Diesel Emission Mitigation funding plan. The North Carolina EMCs brought a few more stations online this year, but most of ChargePoint’s growth has been in the auto dealer sector. The complete list of online locations:

2021 Machines Online: 34

2022 Machines Online: 45 (change: +11)

Raleigh: Land Rover, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Durham: BMW, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Greensboro: Land Rover, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Concord: Speedway Harley-Davidson, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Raleigh: Tobacco Road Harley-Davidson, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Fayetteville: Fort Bragg Harley-Davidson, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Shallotte: Beach House Harley-Davidson, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Wallace: Bad Boar Restaurent, 50kW (CPE250)

Lenoir: Blue Ridge Energy District Office, 50kW (Tritium)

Moncure: Jordan Damn Mini Mart, 50kW (CPE250)

Avon: Pangea Tavern, 50kW (CPE250)

Dobson: Circle K, 50kW (CPE250)

Huntersville: BP, 50kW (CPE250)

Asheboro: McDonalds, 50kW (CPE250)

High Point: Riding High Harley-Davidson, 24kW (KEYWATT)

Evergreen: Sun-Do Kwik Stop, 50kW (CPE250)

Enfield: Shell, 50kW (CPE250)

Boone: Blue Ridge Energy, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Statesville: The Greenbrier Grill/Banner Drug, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Mocksville: Mcdonalds, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Marshville: Town of Marshville Public Parking, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Elizabeth City: McDonalds,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Tarboro: Edgecomb EMC,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Wilson: Chick-Fil-A,  125kW/62.5kW (2x Powershared CPE250)

Mebane: Arby’s,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Carrboro: Carrboro Plaza,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Halifax, 125kW/62.5kW (2x Powershared CPE250)

Hope Mills: Dirtbag Ales/Dirty Whiskey,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Lake Gaston: Lake Gaston Pit Stop,  62.5kW (CPE250)

Graham:  PART Park & Ride, 50kW (CPE250)

Lexington: Lexington Parkway Plaza 62.5kW (CPE250)

Lilesville (formerly Wadesboro): Pee Dee Electric, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Siler CIty: Smithfield’s Chicken N Bar-B-Q 62.5kW (CPE250)

Goldsboro: Deacon Jones Hyundai 62.5kW (CPE250)

High Point: Kia 24kW (ABB)

New Bern: Red Bear Lot  125kW/62.5kW (2x Powershared CPE250)

Elizabeth City: Hall Hyundai 125kW/625.kW (2x Powershared CPE250)

Asheville: Jaguar-Land Rover, 24kW (ABB)

Fayetteville: Mercedes-Benz, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Fayetteville: Lee Hyundai, 2x 62.5kW (CPE250)

Salisbury: TICO MFG MOBILE 1, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Kinston: Caswell St Parking, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Statesville: Flow Hyundai, 62.5kW (CPE250)

Waynesville: BP, 2x 62.5kW (CPE250)

Wilmington: Market St Parking, 125kW/62.5kW (2x Powershared CPE250)

Monroe: Union County Kia, 24kW (ABB)

Raleigh: Mercedes-Benz, 24kW (ABB)

EVgo

EVgo has expanded their footprint using VW Diesel Emission money and GM funding, adding 6 new high-power locations to their footprint:

2021 Machines Online: 30

2022 Machines Online: 36 (change: +6)

Asheville outlet mall (2) 50kW

Asheville Biltmore Park 50kW

Charlotte Ballantyne Commons Pkwy BP 50kW

Charlotte Walker Branch Road BP  50kW

Charlotte Steele Creek Rd BP  50kW

Charlotte Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd BP  50kW

Charlotte Vinnie's Way BP  50kW

Charlotte Cambridge Commons Dr BP  50kW

Charlotte The Shoppes at Highland Creek  50kW

Charlotte Thomas Ave Public Lot  50kW

Charlotte SouthPark Mall  50kW

Mooresville BP  50kW

Durham at The Hyatt  50kW

Durham South Square Mall  50kW

Cary Sheetz  50kW

Morrisville Sheetz  50kW

Raleigh Marriott  50kW

Raleigh Airport Sheetz  50kW

Raleigh AAA New Hope Rd  50kW

Wake Forest has one at the AAA  50kW

Mint Hill at Earp’s Express  50kW

Matthews BP  50kW

Charlotte Carmel Commons 2x 100kW + 1x 350kW (dual CCS no CHAdeMO)

Greensboro Lowe’s Foods Jamestown 2x 100kW

Raleigh Lowe’s Foods Brier Creek 2x 100kW

Garner: Shoppes at Garner 2x 100kW

Cary: Shoppes at Kildaire, 2x 100kW + 1x 350kW

Raleigh: Ridgewood Shopping Center, 2x 100kW + 1x 350kW

Durham: Woodcroft Shopping Center, 2x 100kW

Durham: Erwin Mills Shopping Center, 4x 100kW

Charlotte: Food Lion Tuckaseegee Rd, 2x 100kW + 1x 350kW

Electrify America

2021 Machines Online: 58

2022 Machines Online: 58

Electrify America is the largest operator by a wide margin now: 58 dispensers across 12 sites. They’re no longer the only company with a redundant design - meaning more than one dispenser and more than one cable per machine. The open locations:

Raleigh: 6 (BTCPower)

Wake Forest: 3 (Signet)

Rocky Mount: 4 (Signet)

Henderson: 4 (Signet)

Greensboro: 8 (Signet)

Charlotte: 10 (ABB)

Asheville: 4 (Signet)

Hillsborough: 4 (ABB)

Cary: 3 (Signet)

Smithfield: 4 (Signet)

Lumberton: 4 (Signet)

Service Stats

In Service Date: 1/28/2023 In Service Mileage: 18,353 Current Mileage (Jan 2023): 18,353 Out of Service Date: -- Out of Service Mileage: -- Service Life: ongoing Avg. Miles/yr: ?

The History & Story

My husband and I had been sharing a single out of town car, our 2019 Audi etron named Albert, for over two years when the fates stepped in and let me know it was time to have a plan B. With the Audi sitting at the dealer waiting for repair and a Turo experience that went to hell in a handbasket, it became clear that we needed another out of town vehicle that we could depend on. Enter Karen, a lightly used 2019 Kona Electric Ultimate with head up display, ventilated seats, and a heated steering wheel -- finally, I get to have a heated steering wheel!

So why the name Karen? Well, when we arrived at the dealer the 12v was dead. The dealer put in a new aftermarket 12v and the car starts, but it also has a dead HV battery. They push it up the hill to their 50kW DC charger and charge it up so that I can take it for a test run. After buying the car, my best friend Brad and I had intended on taking the forgotten birthday gift my husband left at the house up to my father-in-law. Except that one of Karen’s fobs had a dying battery and would randomly set off the alarm. While we were charging in Greensboro to make it up to Virginia, the alarm went off. I hit the unlock button on the door and the alarm stopped, so I closed the door. Seconds later the lights blinked and the car had locked itself. Luckily this car has roadside until Oct/2024, so they sent AAA out to pop the lock. This delay killed our plans to go to my father-in-law’s birthday dinner. As a result, this car is a Karen because only a Karen would ask to speak to the manager (alarm going off) while being fed (she was charging).

New Vehicle Suggestions -- $40,000-ish

I’m going to be referencing a Car and Driver list, because I can’t keep up with all the models available today.

1. VW ID.4 - 275 miles for $42,525

It’s ironic that I’m starting with a VW given that the driver in question already has a VW and my friend is an independent mechanic for VW vehicles... however, this vehicle is the first suggested new vehicle on the C&D list. I’ve driven this car, and I was somewhat underwhelmed. It is by no means a bad vehicle, but it isn’t exactly exciting either. The base rear-wheel drive ID.4 lacks about 20HP compared to the 2017 GTI that she’s currently driving, but I don’t know that she’d really notice the difference. Also, this is a compact SUV -- so it’s really not a fair to compare it to a sport hatchback, but that’s kind of how real-world car shopping goes... right? My biggest gripe on this car is the fact that it has a lot of capactive-touch buttons (on the steering wheel, the door, etc) that can be flakly. I also really dislike the power window switch -- it only has 2 buttons to control 4 windows. You press a capactive touch “Rear” button to make the switches control the rear windows.... A bonus for this vehicle is that some models are manufactured at the Chattanooga, Tennesse plant -- making them elligible for the US Tax credit (but how much of that credit, I can’t really tell you). I found one new 2022 ID.4 for $42,900 on AutoTrader, and I found a Certified Pre-Owned 2021 Pro S model for $37,300 -- which I’d say is a pretty good deal. Here’s all the ID.4′s within 200-miles of my friend’s zipcode.

2. Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 220 miles for $41,245

The Ioniq 5 is actually the third-listed vehicle on Car & Driver’s list, but it’s actually the car I am most interested in: the hard edged 80′s styling, the very innovative interior, the 800-Volt drivetrain, ultra-fast 200kW DC-fast charging, and the Vehicle-to-Load functionality (which sharing power from the vehicle’s high-voltage battery to regular AC appliances via an in-cabin port or the external adapter that plugs into the charging port). I’ve owned a Hyundai Ioniq previously and was very impressed with the dealer experience (buying and servicing) and the company itself (they give Subaru a good run for the money on giving back to communities in which they sell their cars). Poking around AutoTrader, I found a single SE model for $42,995 in Roanoke, VA. This is one of the most popular cars for sale in the US right now, and dealers have waiting lists (I have a friend who is expecting the Ioniw 5 he ordered a few months ago to arrive in April). I couldn’t find a single used model within 300 miles, also worth noting that the Hyundai does not qualify for the Federal tax credit anymore.

3. Kia Niro EV - 239-miles for $41,285

Next up on my list is the Kia Niro EV. This is another vehicle that I have considered buying for myself. It’s only a 400-volt drivetrain, but it does feature 70kW DC-fast charging and a front-mounted charging port (which is, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best spot for the charging port). Looking at AutoTrader, I found a new 2023 model for $41,295; a Certified 2022 EX model for $41,477; and a used 2022 for $38,391. Again none of these cars will qualify for a tax credit. I also did not dig deep into the feature difference between the new, certified, and used vehicles -- that’s research for the buyer to dig into.

New Vehicle Suggestions -- $30,000-ish

1. Hyundai Kona - 258-miles for $35,295

The Kona and the Niro are sister vehicles, but I find the Kia has more interior room. Like the Niro, it has a 400-volt drivetrain and 70kW DC fast charging capability. Checking AutoTrader I found a used 2021 SEL model for $32,998. None of the new models had prices listed.

2. Chevrolet Bolt EUV - 247-miles for $34,495

The Chevrolet Bolt’s big brother - the Bolt EUV - is a new model that seems to have addressed many of the gripes that the Bolt had, namely, the seats don’t suck (as much). I like the taller stance of this vehicle, especially after seeing a few of them on the local roads. The downside to this car, which really doesn’t apply in this scenario, is that it only has a 50kW DC Fast charging capability, meaning it’ll be at least 45 minutes to 80% state of charge. That said, as a commuter, this is a pretty good option. AutoTrader tells me that there’s a new 2023 model in Raleigh for less than $30,000 - which is a pretty decent deal. There’s no shortage of these cars for sale within 200 miles of my friend’s zipcode, many of them at or below the MSRP of $35k.

3. Chevrolet Bolt EV - 259-miles for $32,495

The Bolt has been around since 2017 and, frankly, it’s a solid vehicle. I know a lot of folks with this car, and if you can get past the atrocious seats (which apparently can be improved by adding more foam to the seats - the covers come off shockly easily), it’s just a trooper. Being a small hatchback it’s the closest bodystyle to my friend’s mom’s GTI, and with 200hp on tap, it’s no slouch. Some of these cars can be had used for decent prices (to me that’s under $17k with a replaced battery pack). Checking AutoTrader I found several in Raleigh for under $30,000, this particular LT model is only $26,330. On the used front, I found a 2017 for $21,290 -- a hard price for me to swallow. For $16k? Sure. But not $21k when I can get a brand new one for less just a hundred miles away...

4. Nissan LEAF Plus - 226 miles for $36,040

Ah, the Leaf... one of the earliest Battery-electric vehicles to be sold in the US. I am a fan of the second generation styling, but the non-cooled battery pack and obsoleted rapid charging port are hard no’s from me. However as a commuter that’s only plugged in at home? It’s actually one of the first car I’d recommend because outside early pack degradation, these things are Energizer Bunnies. I’ve put a number of folks in Leafs, and my first EV experience was with a 2012 Leaf and I still have fond memories of that bug-eyed car. AutoTrader tells me that there is a new 2022 for $37,290, a Certified 2020 for $32,788, and a used 2019 for $25,900. Because these cars are assembled in Tennessee, I do think that new models qualify for the tax credit.

Other Suggestions

1. BMW i3 (2019+ with Range Extender)

I loved this car to much. The 2019-2012 models of this Carbon Fiber city car models have 126-miles of battery range and an additional 80-ish miles of range from the 2-gallon on-board gasoline generator. Make no mistake this is a Battery-electric vehicle with an engine that could be physically removed and the car wouldn’t care (unlike other Plug-in Hybrids). The cheapest one I could find was $33,499 in Charlottesville VA. It’s really hard to truly suggest this vehicle compared to many others in this list, but, it is a cool car and if you keep your eye out you might be able to score one for under $30k (which I think the car is 100% worth). 

2. Some Tesla....

My 94-year old grandfather was a World War II veteran, retired Greyhound mechanic, father of 5, grandfather of 4, great-grandfather to 6, and a widower since 1990. Always quick to share a story, he was known for his famous cracklin cornbread and drinking cold coffee. He loved his cats, turnip greens, and hearing about his sons hunting trips.

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

It was my first day back at work after coming home from the Southern GA campground (which was not the pleasant 4th of July we'd hoped for given a camper unrelated to our clan died in the wee hours of July 4). My dad called me and told me Grandpa was back in the hospital with an infected toe. This is the second time he's been admitted to the hospital, the first time was the last week of June for high potassium -- he was discharged the Friday we left to go camping. My dad sounded concerned and said he'd have an update tomorrow.

Thursday, July 7, 2022

My dad called and said that the infection was in his bones. They may have to amputate the left leg below the knee. He said if I could, I needed to come say goodbye to him because he likely wouldn't survive the surgery. I frantically re-packed my bags with the expectation to stay two weeks in the Memphis area. He was hospitalized in Oxford, MS - a good 1.5 hour drive away from Memphis - so I was going to have to drive to/from the hospital to see him. As I am loading the car I realize the rear tires are showing a cord. They need to be replaced immediately. My husband places the order thru his work and says I'll need to go get them from the distributer at 9am Friday and his work will put them on for me. I move around my work cases to other team members and lay down for a fitful nights sleep.

Friday, July 8, 2022

I went to the gym at 7 and did some lifting to help calm me down. I had no less than four meetings via Zoom to attend or host. I also have a strained relationship with my family, and I'm one to fret - so this wasn't going to be an easy day to keep my emotions in check. After the gym I went to the tire distributer and picked up the tires, then beelined to my husband's BMW dealership to have them installed. Our friend who is a service writer greeted me with a hug and said they'd get it worked in as soon as possible. He asked if I wanted to have the shuttle take me home, and I was OK to sit in the waiting area but my husband came around the corner and said to take his car home. So I did, and I was reminded how much I can't stand the lowering springs impact on the already harsh suspension of an electric Smart car.

About an hour or so later they called me and said the Audi was ready. I drove the Smart back up and plugged it into the public charger outside the dealership. Our friend the service advisor brought my car around and gave me another hug and told me to text him when I made it. I said I would, jumped in the car, and headed west. My first stop was the Electrify America in Statesville, NC which took me around 2.5 hours with traffic.

I managed to time it so that my first three meetings started right as I got in the car and during my charge at the Statesville station. The car finished charging before the meeting ended, and I had ample time to run into the McDonald's for a bathroom break and a burger since the next meeting wouldn't be for an hour. As I left the McDonalds, it began to rain. This would add a solid half hour delay in reaching the Asheville charger, but thankfully I was only there 10 minutes. My next long charge would be in Kodak, TN - which the rain added another half hour delay prior to arrival. The rain did let up just enough for me to plug in without getting wet.

Saturday, July 9, 2022

My next stop would be Cookeville, which is the half-way point give or take and where I go back in time as I enter the Central Time Zone. From there I stopped in Franklin (as Nashville was one solid red line on the map due to traffic), and then Jackson - which is where the rain finally stopped. I rolled into the Electrify America in Memphis just after 2am and made it to my friends house around 3:20am. I don't remember unpacking the car, I just crawled into bed and crashed hard. But it was short lived, I was back up by 8am to get back on the road to visit Papaw in the Rehab center of Oxford, Mississippi.

Sleep was deep but short. I was meeting my uncle David, his wife, my Aunt Louise, and her daughter Shannon at the rehab center at 11. Since I woke up so early, I drove down to Southaven Mississippi's Harley dealer and used the low-speed 24kW DC ChargePoint station there. It's off-network, but it works. I charged to around 90% and headed down to Oxford's McDonalds. The McDonald's has a 10kW Level 2 Blink station, I charged at it while I had breakfast for about 45 minutes before the family let me know they were close by. I drove the 2 miles to the rehab center and snagged one of the last two parking spaces -- the other taken by my family moments after I arrived. I haven't seen my aunt or her daughter in over 10 years, so there were hugs and light conversation about fostering dogs and foster failures (where you start fostering and then adopt the dog) as we made our way inside. We all masked up, washed our hands, entered our information into the computer and were given the 4-digit code to unlock all the doors of the facility. My other uncle, Barry, made it up about an hour after we got there.

We wandered down the hallway and found him laying in bed in his room. I suppose you should know that he'd been in the VA Home for about a year and in the first two weeks he fell and broke his hip. He has largely been bed or chair bound ever since that surgery. Boy did he light up when I walked in the room. As I'd find out later, this was one of his sharper days. He knew who everyone was, and his stories were coherent. We fed him lunch, and stayed with him as he slept and we told stories of our memories with him. We stayed up there 5 or 6 hours, and I hadn't eaten since I got to the McDonald's. Everyone decided to go to Olympic Steak and Pizza in Arlington, TN for dinner. Uncle David's wife rode with me, while David took Louise back to her house to let her dog out.

The ride to the restaurant was over an hour away, and we talked a lot about my relationship with my family along the way. It was really cathartic, in some ways, but it also made me feel like I'd missed out on so much too. Uncle Barry beat us to the restaurant and got a table, and shortly after we arrived David and Louise arrived -- Shannon needed to go home to tend to her own pets so she skipped dinner. The conversation was lighthearted, with everyone asking about my husband and my job and thankfully avoided topics like politics or vaccinations. After dinner we all hugged and said we'd see each other next week. I headed back to Wolfchase where I charged my car from 22-100% and then drove back to Midtown to hang out with my friends I was staying with. I was going to be spending a lot of time at Wolfchase, as I couldn’t even Level 1 charge the Audi at my friend’s home and the closest Level 2 was more than a mile away and always in use it seemed.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

I took my eldest cousin, Kristen, to see grandpa today. She’s not speaking with her dad (Uncle David) right now, and because she’s had so many not-at-fault accidents on the highway, she won’t drive long distances. I started the day out at the Whole Foods, hoping to top off my car and have breakfast. Their charger was powered off, I had to ask the lady at the front desk to throw the breaker for it. She did, and it powered up and I was able to charge at 6kW just fine. As I was getting plugged in, a retired police officer stopped and started talking to me about the car. He said his wife just got a Q7 and if they’d know these were a thing they’d have really considered it. After this conversation, I popped into the store to find a very sad breakfast buffet. I paid way too much for way too mediocre food, but I really wasn’t in the mood to eat so it was fine. After I ate I left and picked up my cousin from her apartment near Memphis State University (now called University of Memphis, but it’ll always be Memphis State to me). I told her we were going to stop at a Walmart in Collierville so we could get grandpa some deodorant and snacks.

We stopped at the walmart and we did get him deodorant, a table lamp, and some food -- mostly heat and eat “soup at hand” stuff, but I wanted him to try something new so I picked up some hummus (he hated it, but was really polite about not liking it). Grandpa was in good spirits today, his memory was better than the day before. He told Kristen that her sister was coming to see him and she’d been by a few days before. While we were there the nurse came in with his actual lunch, so we took turns feeding him. After lunch and watching some TV, Kristen and I decided we should go get our own lunch and head back to Memphis.

We ate at McAlister’s Deli -- which started in Oxford, MS -- and we had a pretty involved conversation about all the topics I don’t like: guns, government regulation, and conspiracies. At one point during the conversation I thought a guy in camo a few booths away was going to say something. I’ve never felt like I fit into this part of the world, not since I was a little child. Moments like this only reinforced that feeling. After lunch, we took the non-highway route back to her apartment and I dropped her off. She thanked me for taking her to see grandpa in my “fancy space car. “ I gave her a hug and I headed back out to Germantown to charge the car, again. 

I used to work at the Best Buy that is in the parking lot next to where the Electrify America DC fast chargers are located. It was nostalgic to sit in a parking spot I used to park my Ford Taurus to eat lunch when I didn’t want to be in the breakroom some 20 years prior. Only two of the four stations at this location worked 100% of the time. One was always down, one worked some days with a phone tap and others it said available but didn’t recognize your phone or respond to a start request from the mobile app. Nobody else was at the charger this day, and my 40 minutes flew by. I stopped by Exlines Pizza and got myself “the best pizza in town,” then went back to my friend Jeremy’s home and settled in, preparing for the week ahead.

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

My grandpa had said that he wanted a slugburger -- a wartime era soy and hamburger or pork mixed burger that is a staple to northern Mississippi -- from the White Trolley in Corinth, Mississippi (where his sister lived). I decided that today I was going to work remotely from his room and get him that slugburger. So I left midtown Memphis and drove to Wolfchase Commons in Germantown to charge, then drove 90-miles to the White Trolley in Corinth, Mississippi for his burgers, drove 90 miles back to the chargers at Wolfchase, and finally drove down to Oxford to see him.

He never at the burgers. When I got into the patient area, his nurse stopped me in the hall and said “he’s in rare form today.” The lady in the room across from him closed her door, he’d apparently been yelling at her all morning. What I witnessed in the room this day broke me. He was having hallucinations, asking me if I’d seen the little grey kitten with the striped tail. He was holding a full on conversation with my grandmother who died over 30 years ago. He kept trying to stand up -- which he cannot -- and I had to sooth him back into his bed. I didn’t get much work done, I tried to do a troubleshooting session and one of the engineers didn’t show up and the one who did told me that he was going to pray for me and that (based on what he overheard as I was trying to clam grandpa down during our meeting) I should spend as much time with my grandpa as I could.

When I left I sat in the car and cried for a while. Finally I started the car and drove back up to Wolfchase to charge. There was a Rivian truck charging when I got there, but the other station was open for me to use. After charging I went to my friend’s house and went to bed, crying myself to sleep.

Saturday, July 16, 2022

It was Saturday, which meant “the family” (sans my parents who visited him M-F and took Sat and Sun off - in part because of tensions within the family about my parents care decisions, but I won’t go there) was going to visit him again. This time my younger cousin Stephanie, her husband and their three kids would be coming. I haven’t seen Steph in quite a while and was really looking forward to giving her a hug and seeing her youngest child for the first time.

They got there late, they live in Arkansas and had a lot of traffic on the way in. When they arrived, they brought Krystal burgers and my grandpa happily ate as many as Steph would feed him. Grandpa loved his grand kids and he loved his great grand kids even more -- when he could remember them. Dementia is cruel, erasing the youngest great-grands from his memory first. It was hard when he couldn’t recognize his adult kids, it was harder to see him not fully remember who is great-grandson was.

After our visit, we all went back to the restaurant we ate at the week prior. I asked if anyone wanted to ride with me to the restaurant, and Steph’s two girls yelled “WE DO” as they bolted for my Audi. I’d not spent a lot of time with these two since my mom had her hysterectomy in 2014 and I took FMLA to help care for her since dad was still working and messed up the days off for the surgery. The younger daughter fell asleep in the back of the car before we got off the highway that leads into Oxford, but the eldest sat up front with me and talked the entire hour-plus drive to the restaurant. I didn’t mind, she reminded me a lot of myself and I enjoyed listening to someone who had such enthusiasm and joy in their voice. After we ate at the restaurant, we all said our good-byes and I once again headed back to Wolfchase to recharge my Audi.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

I called an old High School friend and she said to come pick her up and we’d wander the city and talk. We ended up stopping by our old high school, which is now a church, and they let us wander around the place. We actually snuck into the closed-off portion of the place, what used to be the high school wing, via the unlocked door on the upper level of bleachers. The tenant before the Church was a college, and they’d done some big renovations to what were once good sized class rooms. It was incredibly nostalgic, and hard to believe it was the same place we spent more than half our school life in.

Afterward, we went shopping at the discount and outlet stores that were open. After several hours, we stopped at McAlister’s near her house for dinner. When we got to her house, I then got into a several-hours-long conversation with her husband about EVs, tech in general, and their camping adventures. I needed this day, it recharged my soul -- and I reflected on how thankful I was to still have friends in a city I’d not lived in for over 20 years as I recharged the car back at Wolfchase before heading to my friend’s for the night.

Monday, July 18, 2022

This would be the last time that I’d see my grandfather alive. I woke up early and headed to Oxford. Today the family was meeting with the doctors/nurses to discuss the long-term plan for Grandpa. I got there early enough to fully charge the battery from 59% to 100%. This was the first time I’d seen my dad this entire trip, but he and my mother had been on the phone a fair amount. Wounds weren’t healed, but we had a mutual situation to contend with. While waiting for the staff to arrive, I got an earful about “I wish I could fly, but they require you to be vaccinated and you can’t make me.” I decided right then and there that I’d had enough of my family and was going to go home on Wednesday.

The nurses finally met with us and basically said that they were going to try and give him a heavy antibiotic treatment to try and kill the bacteria infection in the bone of his toe. They stressed that if they didn’t see any response to the treatment within two weeks that they advised we set up hospice. We left the hospital going our separate ways and I called my mother-in-law for a shoulder to process this heavy information. We talked the hour or so it took to get to the charging station, where I charged up and then picked up another Exlines pizza and headed to my friend Ann’s house for dinner. 

Ann is a dear and beloved family friend who I’ve known since seemingly forever. Her son and my Uncle (on my mom’s side) were best friends and went to school together. Ann and my Grandma (mom’s side) were close friends for a long time. Ann was like another mother to me, and I always make a point to see her if I can when I visit the city. Ann let me plug the car into her garage outlet (120v), so the car could top off a little bit while we hung out. I got her caught up on the drama of work, grandpa, my family, and life in general while we munched on the best pizza in town and polished off a bottle of wine. Again, this was much needed comfort during a tumultuous time.

Tuesday, July 18, 2022

While handling my work related meetings and situations, I kept looking at Petfinder in hopes I’d find a Siamese cat that could take the place of my beloved blind Flame Point Siamese who passed away in March. I got lucky, there was a Siamese cat in Senatobia, Mississippi. I called and the cat was still available, so I jumped in the car and went down there. I was told the cat was female and declawed, but the cat I met was male and fully clawed. Given the 45 minute drive, and the fact that the lady was like “the fact he’s a boy doesn’t change your interest does it?” I felt like if I didn’t take him, he’d be euthanized. So I adopted him.

Digger the cat would turn out to be one of my bigger regrets during this trip, but I didn’t know that he was going to mark territory despite being neutered because our ancient Lilac-point Siamese chases him out of “her rooms.” I digress, I did clear it with my friends that I could board a cat at their house for the day, and they agreed. I let Digger out of his carrier and he hid under their king sized bed in the spare room. I left him be to settle and my friends took me to the Midtown Concourse for drinks.

Wednesday, July 19, 2022

The Museum of Science and History (formerly the Pink Palace Museum) was hosting a show called “Rise UP” about the Stonewall riots and LGBTQ rights. I called a friend of mine who lives in Chattanooga and he said he’d love to see it, but he could only make the trip on Wednesday. So he drove in to town (Tuesday night actually, he stayed at an Airstream on Airbnb not far from where my friends house is), and we went to the exhibit.

The exhibit also had an incomplete history of LGBTQ Memphis -- which brought me to tears. They had shirts from MAGY (Memphis Area Gay Youth), and habits from the local order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, along with a complete list of defunct Gay Bars from years gone by. 

I couldn’t tell you how long we spent in the museum. We had to stop and I needed to sit to dry my eyes. For the first time in my life I saw my culture’s history on display in a positive light. I watched as parents - heterosexual parents - walk their children through the exhibit and explain things to them. Not even my friend from Chattanooga could keep his eyes dry during the tour.

After thoroughly crying and releasing a ton of endorphins, we hit up the gift shop where I bought a ton of stuff and had a very fun interaction with a Millennial and GenZ worker about AOL Instant Messenger.

Once we left the museum, I went back to my friend’s home to pack up my stuff as I was following my Chattanooga friend back to his house for the night before I drove the rest of the way home on Thursday. Digger the cat was not about to go back in his carrier. I spent the better part of 45 minutes pulling apart the bed and chasing him around the room before I finally managed to catch him (and get scratched to high hell) and get him in the carrier. My friend’s girlfriend told me that she almost came in the room to check on me given the commotion but said she didn’t because the last thing any of us needed was to lose the cat in another part of the house. After hugging everyone goodbye, we headed east towards Chattanooga.

My Chattanoogan friend drives a Chevy Bolt, so both of us had to stop and charge to get to his house. We stopped in Jackson, TN and then in Franklin TN and finally in Manchester before getting to his home. The stop in Franklin was at Nissan North America’s Headquarters, where we saw a Nissan Ariya SUV sitting at one of their charging stations. I didn’t add a lot of charge here, but this stop was mainly for the Bolt. I topped off to 95% in Manchester, arriving in Chattanooga with 66%.

My friend had to back the car down his extremely steep driveway. I’ve taken my Enegica motorcycle up and down this driveway several times over the years, but I just couldn’t seem to get the Audi down it... or back out of it. I had Tyler do that for me both times.

Thursday, July 20, 2022

I worked until 4pm and then packed up and headed the rest of the way home via Atlanta -- I did not have it in me to contend with the mountains and rain. I got home at 11pm and went straight to bed.

Wedsday, July 27, 2022

My dad called me and said that the doctors have advised that we transition grandpa into hospice. They said that he is in such bad shape they can’t move him from his bed or it will kill him. Any hope we had of hospice at home was dashed, he was going to take his last breath at the hospital. I was told that I needed to get ready to come back for the funeral -- they estimated 48 hours before he would be gone.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

I’d taken the Audi back to the dealer to have the rear cupholder replaced (out of pocket since they told me, only after they ordered the part, that the CPO warranty didn’t cover it). This was an in-and-out service, but they did was and vacuum the car for me. When they brought it up, I locked the car and then tried to unlock it with the remote so I could pick my driver profile and get the seats and mirrors set back to my settings. The car wouldn’t unlock. The battery in the keyfob had died once again. The service advisor replaced the battery on the spot -- making me take the key out of the rubber cover I keep it in -- and a new battery was put in. Once I got in the car, I noticed that the front arm rest was broken. This was salt in the wound for me emotionally. They got it fixed up quickly, and I headed home waiting for the inevitable news.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Before my dad called to tell me grandpa had passed, I started getting bombarded with pictures in text messages from everyone in the family. That’s when I knew he’d passed, and the call from dad confirmed it. Dad said that his older brother was driving down on Saturday from Iowa because he was about to have dental surgery when my dad called him. I was then informed that I was responsible for making the memorial slideshow/video that would play during the funeral and that everyone was going to send me pictures. There was no “do you mind,” this was an assignment and I was not thrilled with it.

Then came the argument in the group text about when the funeral would be. Many wanted to do it Sunday, and I refused. I had pushed off a tattoo session for over a month now, and I was going to get inked on Saturday and we would show up to Memphis sometime Sunday. They agreed Monday, then Tuesday, then Monday was set in stone. I dug out the old MacBook and began to use iMovie to make a slide show of the photos everyone sent me.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

I drove my Smart car (Gopher) to my tattoo appointment. Kelli worked quickly as she knew we needed to hit the road as soon as this was over. I really don’t like traveling with fresh ink, but I didn’t have much choice. 

We were on the road by 2:30pm. We planned to drive until we got to the Cookeville TN area and then we’d get a hotel for the night. During my 3,700-mile motorcycle trip, I stayed at the La Quinta in Cookeville and we’d intended to stay there... except they had no vacancy. John found another hotel with a Level 2 charger near by, and we stayed there for the night. The ChargePoint charger was unable to connect to the network, but it worked with a tap of my phone and didn’t bill us for the charge.

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Before we went to bed I attempted to burn the slideshow to a DVD for the funeral home and the disc burner I had wasn’t working anymore. It was easily a decade or more old, so I placed a pick up order at the Walmart next door for a brand new DVD burner. We picked up the burner and some breakfast, then headed on towards Memphis while I burned DVDs in widescreen and 4:3 aspect ratios.

We stopped by the funeral home and dropped off the DVD. The guy said he’d call me if he had any problems with it -- thankfully he did not. After charging the car at Wolfchase, we stopped by my friend Michael’s home to pick up the floral arrangement his wife had made for us. She makes the most beautiful arrangements, and it made the car smell so nice.

After we got the flowers, we headed to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Why are we staying here? Well, my husband’s family has a Wildlife trust fund, and the hotel stay for this trip was being covered by the trust. We had arranged to meet with the Memphis Zoo on Tuesday to discuss funding part of their reptile cryogenics program - it was the highlight of the trip that I looked forward to since the Museum of Science and History wasn’t open on Monday or Tuesday so I couldn’t take my husband to see the Stonewall exhibit. My husband ordered the Jack Daniels package, which included a keep-sake cookbook.

After unpacking, we cashed in on the free charcuterie board and had a drink before my mom called and asked if we’d bring the flowers down to them and visit with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins from Iowa. So we drove down to their home in Byhalia, Mississippi and hung out for a few hours eating leftovers and sharing stories of years gone by. This was the first time anyone other than my parents had met my husband, and I’m happy that it went over much better than I expected. Around 11pm we headed back to the hotel for the night and to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

Monday, August 1, 2022

We woke up before 7am and were on the road by 7:30am to Corinth for the funeral. The memorial/viewing was to be held at the funeral home there, then we would drive to Pickwick, TN to bury him next to my granny. We stopped by Casey Jones Village in Jackson, TN for breakfast -- and I cried the entire way there. Casey Jones Village place holds a special place in my heart, it was one of my favorite places to visit as a child. Unfortunately, some things don’t age well: the breakfast was terrible, but not overpriced. The menu was extremely simple and nothing like I remember. The general store itself seemed to be less than half the size of what I remembered. They did have Level 2 chargers, which was a bonus, but we still ended up at the Walmart down the street to fully charge the car.

After leaving Jackson we made it to the funeral home. I was not exactly nervous about the state of charge and the driving I knew we had to do, but I would have felt better if we could have added some more range to the car while we spent half the day at the funeral home. 

The service was great, lots and lots of great stories were told and all the flowers were beautiful. Everyone, and I mean everyone, met my husband. My mother, surprisingly, had no problem calling him “Chris’s husband,” where my sweet Aunt would stammer and say “Chris’s spouse” finally. Nobody made a scene about it. I got a lot of compliments on the video I made, and the staff at the funeral home thanked me for making a DVD that played.

We all loaded up into our cars and rode in procession from Corinth to Pickwick, about 25 miles, at a very slow pace. I was able to use my regen paddles to add a little bit of range back to the car. The grave side Military service was short and sweet, which was thankful given it was a very hot August day. Afterward, most everyone headed back to my parent’s home for dinner. John and I said we needed to go charge the car (since we had no way to do it at their house -- despite my dad being a welder, he doesn’t have a single 240v outlet we could plug into anywhere on the property). 

The drive back to Wolfchase in Germantown was... stressful. There was a really, really strong headwind and I watched a 25 mile buffer drop to 10 miles in a short span of time. I ticked “avoid highways” on the nav system and that got us away from the highway with the headwind and we wound our way around western TN passing by the area my mom’s mother lived at for many years. We got on 64 (Summer Ave) and we hit turtle mode about two lights before the shopping center with the chargers. There was one other car at the charger, and we plugged in. I called my cousin and asked if her sister would stop and let me copy the video she took of the grave side service, but they were pressed for time and couldn’t. Ultimately I got that video from her via a shared Google Drive link and made a memorial DVD that I mailed out to all the surviving family.

We did not make it back to my parents house, instead we got dinner at the hotel (with a really cute chocolate duck dessert) and went to bed. It was a long, emotional day and I was ready to rest.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

After a leisurely breakfast at the Peabody Hotel, my husband and I arrived at the Memphis Zoo around 11am and met with the head of the cryogenics department. They fed us a really great deli lunch while going over their program and its history in a PowerPoint. Afterward, we got a very cool tour of the zoo and saw the cryogenic lab. 

The Zoo is working to restore the natural population of the Louisiana Pine Snake. We got to see the “snake factory” where they captive breed these snakes to release into the wild. I don’t like snakes, but their passion made me love these creatures and respect their place in the ecosystem.

After our visit at the zoo, we went back to the hotel in time to see the Peabody Ducks leave the fountain and march to the elevator to head back up to their roof-top roost for the night. I’m from Memphis and I’d only ever seen this once before. My husband attempted to get me the Duck Master package, which is where you get to lead the ducks, but both slots were already sold out for Tuesday.

Finally, after seeing the ducks do their march, we picked up my friends I’d been staying with and took them with us to dinner with the head of the crogenics program at the Memphis Zoo at the Coastal Fish Company located inside Shelby Farms. We had a wonderful dinner, talked about the Zoo’s work and non-work stuff, and just had a good time. One of my favorite parts of meeting potential grantees is the dinner (and, yes, the trust decided to fund their work).

We dropped my friends back at their house after dinner and returned to the Peabody to enjoy our last night in the South’s Grand Hotel. The Peabody has charging stations, but only the Valet can access -- my husband rode with him to ensure he plugged the car in correctly and left instructions on having to unlock the car and press the release button in the charge port before you can unplug the car.

We left at 9:30am after having one last breakfast at the hotel and stopped in Jackson for our first charge. My beloved husband drove the entire way home, since I’d been doing all the driving up to this point. I managed to sleep a little in the car, waking up at charging stops. There were no hiccups or issues charging on our way home, and we arrived home just after midnight.

Final Thoughts

Service Stats

In Service Date: 2/6/2022 In Service Mileage: 195,455 Out of Service Date: 6/19/2022 Out of Service Mileage: 201,200 Service Life: 5 months,  5,745 miles

The History & Story

This car was owned by my friend Tyler in Chattanooga. He replaced it with a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, and offered it to me for the incredibly low price of $1500. My intention was to fix the car up so it’d pass NC inspection (it had a MIL) and sell it to a friend of mine. Getting this thing fixed up was going to break me of ever touching anything with an internal combustion engine again.

Tyler was up front about the MIL, the non functional parking sensors, the body damage, cracked/leaking tail light, and the crack in the windshield. This car had been pretty much abused its whole life -- Tyler was the 4th or 5th owner, and he said the guy he bought it off of (something like 4 or 5 years ago) had never once plugged it in to charge. Despite that, if driven conservatively without climate control, you could pull 32 miles out of the originally rated 36 mile battery. Even to this day the car is able to make the drive from its new home in Durham to my home in Raleigh on just battery power.

So what all was triggering the MIL? Well, we had the P0CE0 code - which meant one of the coolant pumps was acting up, We also had a P0420 - catalyst below threshold (possible bad catalytic converter), codes for misfires, and a few other things. I called a local shop that specializes in hybrids and they agreed to look at it. Ultimately they said they weren’t comfortable working on the Chevy hybrid system and that if I could resolve the battery-related code (P0CE0) that they could work on the traditional engine-related stuff. Ok, off the Sir Walter Chevrolet we go...

I dropped the car off and had Brad drive me home on his lunch break (he worked for Team PowerSports down the street at the time). They told me it needed a catalytic converter, a battery cooling pump, they recommended spark plugs and a transmission fluid change. I approved replacing the coolant pump and nothing else, because they had a near $3000 repair order and I had a feeling that the catalytic converter wasn’t gone on this car. Sir Walter replaced the pump -- or so we thought -- for over $1000 cost and I then took it back to Torque to have the spark plugs replaced, transmission fluid changed, and to check the exhaust system and tell me if the car really needed a new catalytic converter.

Wouldn’t you know that my hunch paid off? The secondary air injection pump was leaking, if this pump malfunctions the system can’t properly check the catalytic converter’s exhaust to ensure it is meeting the targets. The SAI pump is integrated into the valve cover of the car and wasn’t an expensive part. They had to remove the valve cover anyway to do the spark plugs, so that saved a little labor costs. $900 later, the car is back with a warning. They drove it 30 miles but they can’t get the readiness to set -- the MIL is off, but it won’t pass inspection until the readiness registers are all set.

What are readiness registers, you ask? Your vehicle has 7 checks that must have a passed value in order to pass an OBD inspection. It turns out that the Volt requires a number of different driving cycles in order to set the registers. Driving it for 30 miles on the highway simple won’t set them, unlike most other internal combustion vehicles. I read a post about someone who had over 60,000 miles on their Volt and moved to a new state that required an emission inspection and he had to drive the car with a depleted battery for two days to set the registers. Apparently it needs to see low speed cold driving, highway driving at least 60mph, and a slew of other scenarios -- thankfully this was all well laid out by a forum post.

So over the next few days I drove the car in all the conditions and got the registers to set, except the MIL came back on for P0CE0 -- the HV Battery Cooling Pump. What the hell. So I call Sir Walter and I get the service manager and try to explain the situation, he cuts me off and says that they refuse to service this or any other vehicles that I own and I’m free to take it elsewhere. Apparently being called out for missing a leaking air pump during the 150-point inspection was triggering. I told him if he refused to correct this repair, which carries a year or 12,000 miles of warranty, I would be forced to dispute the charge with my credit card company. He said you’re welcome to do that and hung up on me. Needless to say, I will never patronize nor recommend anyone patronize Sir Walter Chevrolet of Raleigh.

I opened a dispute with Chase and they said they needed a second opinion on the repair. I was advised to take it to another dealership and have them evaluate if the pump in question was replaced. Off to Capital Chevrolet in Wake Forest. These folks were super, super nice and their shop is much cleaner and nicer than Sir Walter’s. I told the service advisor everything that was going on and what I needed, she said no problem we will get the Volt tech to check it out and call you. The next day, or perhaps the day after, I got a call with some fascinating news.

Sir Walter did replace a coolant pump - but they replaced the wrong one. The pump they replaced has two hose connections, the one they should have replaced has three. The best part? The part numbers for these two pumps are one sequential digit apart. Someone likely mistypes 8 instead of 9 and volia...the wrong part is ordered. They confirmed that the pump that circulates the coolant into the cabin heater was the pump replaced, and that the code stored in the ECU was for the battery circulation pump. They quoted me $800 to replace it -- turns out the part is $32 online and it’s mounted right on the passenger side firewall, immediately visible when you open the hood.

I declined the repairs, paid for the diagnostic and requested that they state in the RO that the wrong pump was replaced. They did as I asked, and they had charged the car for me before I picked it up. Super good experience, I will be back if I ever buy a Chevy again. So, now I have the evidence needed to win my dispute with Chase. It took a few weeks, but I did win the dispute and the $1000+ repair charge was refunded. But, we still have a bad pump to contend with...

The other issues this car had were minor. The passenger tail lamp and the reverse lamp needed to be replaced. I managed to score both parts on ebay for cheap, and paid my neighbor to install them for me at his body shop. So long as we could get the MIL to turn off, we could get the car inspected with a new owner (side note: out of state vehicles registered in NC have one year to become inspection compliant upon initial registration). Talking with Tyler, he said that the MIL would go off in the summer but always came back in the winter. He never cared since TN didn’t require an emission inspection.

I tried everything to reprogram the pump, and was about to pull the trigger on a new one when the MIL went out on its own one day. I decided that it was best to sell the car in June/July so that the P0CE0 would self-clear because apparently the pump doesn’t throw the code when it’s warm out (which is weird, but, whatever). So the plan was now to wait and see if the MIL would go out on its own, and if so to get it inspected with the next owner.

Meanwhile, as all this is going on, my tenant’s vehicle died on him. He’d quit his job and was doing DoorDash/Uber Eats/gig work and was in a panic. We lent him the car and he actually drove it past 200,000 miles - he put roughly 3,000 miles on it in less than two months. I didn’t want to hang on to this car forever, so I knew I needed to come up with a plan to enable me to sell it.

I sold the car to my pottery friend Brandon. Brandon already had a MATE ebike, and was fully sold on the idea of an electric car. He had an old, beat up 2006 Kia Sedona minivan that we managed to sell for $800. He agreed to pay the full amount we had in the car (about $2800), and he even had an exterior 120v outlet at his rental house to charge the car with. He got the vehicle titled in his name with a 10-day temporary tag and we took it over to the Volvo dealership by our house for an inspection. There was a moment of panic as the MIL lit up momentarily once it was pulled into the bay, but it went out after a few ignition cycles. Fortunately, it passed inspection and was given a permeant tag.

Brandon is very happy with the car. I think the fuel that was in the car when I sold it to him lasted him almost 4 months before he had to refill the car. He uses it in EV mode almost 100% of the time. The MIL is back on, and if it doesn’t go off when it’s time to renew his plate then we may end up replacing that pump -- I found a radiator shop that seemed open to installing the part after they did some quick research on the car.