Trip Report Yosemite/Tahoe #1 Tue 8/11/98 217 miles Well, I'm sitting here at the Bakersfield PG&E facility waiting for the next news guy to come by so I might as well start the trip reports. Bob Riding of PG&E has done a great job of lining up interviews for me on radio and TV here in Bakersfield and Fresno. I'm a little worried about the state of charge, we haven't been able to charge to 100% in the last 24 hours and I'm not completely sure I can tonight. Anyway.. Got out of the house around 11:15 and had to run some errands before reaching the traffic (argh) of Los Angeles. I got a quick charge (9%) at the Texaco off Artesia and the 5, but that was probably a complete waste of time. I met Bill Korthof at Universal Citywalk for a bite to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. I arrived with 30% (53.3mi) so the Texaco stop turned out to be a complete waste of time...I probably wasted 4 or 5% just starting and stopping (and re-cooling the car). After 1:50 minutes I was up to 91% and ready to head out. The covered parking at Universal was nice.. It's been a hot trip so far and I'm not looking forward to Fresno. Charged at Texaco off the 14 for 50 minutes. 77.7mi.. 57%->84% SOC. Charged at Lancaster Valley Center mall for 1:40 mins. 116.7mi. 28%->69% Bob Riding was on a side trip to Edwards Air Force base in his CNG Honda so he came down to meet me while I charged (I knew I only needed about 60% to get to Burt Rutan's place so I wasn't concerned about the charge). The plan was to drive up to Mojave, plug in at Burt's place then go out for dinner with Bob, Burt and Burt's wife Tonya. The weather had been rather odd, Bob said there was rain at Edwards and we could see the clouds (and lightning!) from Lancaster. Ok.. now somewhere between Lancaster and Mojave Burt calls on the cell phone and says "I've got good news and bad news".. ok, gimme the bad news... "Well... uhm... the good news is that we're all here and ready to go for dinner as soon as you get here... the bad news is that the power has gone out in Mojave and so we can't charge you up (or eat at any place in Mojave!!). Plan B: Bob and I drive back to the town of Rosamond that still had power... Burt and the gang will come down and join us for dinner in Rosamond. Burt's posse had grown to include an airplane photographer and the CEO of a telecom company that is using Burt's new plane (The Proteus was to fly the next morning at sunrise for some great in-flight photo-ops). Bob and I drive around looking for a place to plug in... we check the local fire department and they call Don Mischka at the Community service center and he offers to let us plug in at the city yard. cool. Charged at Rosamond 1:36 mins 136.8mi. 42%->87% We head off to meet Burt's gang at a Mexican place... oops no power there. We head back into town and find a Chinese place where we finally grab some food. During dinner we call and find out that Mojave is back online so after dinner we grab Joulee (still working on a name for my EV1.. Burt's is called Sparky). Drive back to Mojave where I plug in a little more just to be sure I've got enough charge for the Tehachapi pass. Bob tries to call in to see if the Bakersfield PG&E yard can be kept open a bit past 11pm so we can sneak in and plug in the 6kw overnight.. the union guy on the other end of the phone didn't seem to want to help.. suck. The storm from Mojave was now hitting Bakersfield and Bob was needed by the local PG&E folks so he had to head back early. I went to Burt's place for an hour to grab a few more kwhs. Charged at Burt's 1 hour, 151.5mi. 67%->88% Burt wasn't sure I could make it over to bakersfield with 88% but I didn't feel like waiting longer for charge so I headed out and as it turned out I never dropped below 45% until near the end of the drive in Bakersfield. Basically, no problem... I pulled into the Radison where Bob and I had reservations and we plugged in the 1kw charger. After a quick snack I was finally off to bed... 1am. Wed 8/12/98 187.2 miles. Charged on 110 at the Radison 6:45 hrs 217.0 miles 38%->78% reset to 0 miles. Had to get up early (for me) because Bob had lined up a radio interview and a few local TV stations to come out and see us charge at the PG&E facility... All went well and I took the NBC guy out for a drive. Stopped by to say hi to the local Saturn dealer. Unfortunately I had still not charged the car to 100% during the last 24hrs so the ramp down was happening early not to mention it was HOT so sometimes I could only get 5kw or (ack! 3.3kw!) Charged (on and off) at Bakersfield PG&E from 64%->86% (7.4 to 11.9 mi.) On the way out of town we stopped by another radio station for one more interview then I was on my way to the Sun&Fun RV park in Tulare... Bob would meet me at C.S. Fresno where we had a charge stop and more PR setup. Ok, now as if lightning storms and power outages were not enough... now it looks like Caltrans is out to get me also. Of all the off-ramps to have closed for construction, of course it was the one I needed... couldn't find a street back so I decided to get on the freeway and try the other direction.. no dice.. passing it yet again I get off the freeway and try a different street up. Ok, finally at Sun&Fun I find a 14-50 plug and hook up then go to see Edie at the office to let her know I had arrived. It's 99 degrees outside and the RV park had a swimming pool... aahhhh much better. I soak my EV1 CLUB T-shirt to keep me cool after swimming. I grab a quick bite to eat at the local cafe and then as I'm getting ready to leave I get bombarded by phone calls about interviews in Fresno. 81%, just enough to start Pre-conditioning. charged at Tulare Fun&Sun RV for 2:30 hrs 82.9 mi. 14%->83% Soon I'm on the road again heading towards Fresno and I arrive just after 4:30 to find Dick Smith (the CS Fresno contact) and a team of TV and newspaper reporters waiting to talk to me! gads.. We do the whole info/interview routine then we go around back to plug in. This time (after many partial charges in hot weather) the car will only charge at 3.3kw (6 bars).. 7hrs 45mins estimated to charge (WOW!) Bob and Dick and I head out for drinks and later Bob and I come back to try to trick the car into charging faster (disconnect, drive around the block, re-connect) no luck. So here it is around 8pm and I'm in the C.S. Fresno student union writing about my trip... time to go check on the car. Charged at C.S. Fresno for 3:15hrs 142.0 mi. 20%->83% Ok, I'm writing this last section from Yosemite.. Hopefully I can upload this for you all soon. Soon after dark I headed out for route 41 North towards Oakhurst. As with most legs of this trip, I had the AC running in this case just on setting 1. Usually I keep it between 50 and 55 with a few exceptions: Running through Fresno to meet the reporters at 70mph, through the foothills at 35-45 as the curves allow. A pleasant drive and I'm watching the PDT closely to see if I'll have to stop in Coursegold and bum some 110. Turns out I can make it fine although I was at 2 bars. Gilbert at the Best Western Yosemite Gateway does his best to find 240V for me but we have no luck.. I plug into 110 right alongside their utility golf carts. Ok, now we all know now that the car charges slower when the pack is hot... at times it may START charging at 3.3kw (6 bars). But when we plug in the 110 charger we would expect it to run at full blast since we know it can't put out more than 1kw (I've never seen more than .7kw) But Noooooo.. for some reason the car requests 6 bars (no surprise on the 6.6kw charger) but I'm on the 110 charger so I get 0.3kw !!!!!!! That's just no good.. estimated time to charge 28:45 hours. This MUST be a software bug.. right??!?!? Not being the type to give up easily I head out into town on foot 9:30 pm and it's still HOT outside. No luck at the local laundromat, but there is a mystery RV place down the street so I walk down the hill to check it out.. Ta-Da! NEMA 14-50 jacks (that's 50A service in RV-speak) I run (walk quickly) back up hill to get the car. I leave the 110 charger locked to a handrail at the Best Western and drive back down to the RV place. The spot I was looking at has JUST been filled.. panic.. I look around and none of the other spots have 50A. It turns out there was one last space crammed between two others so thankfully I was able to plug in. It was going 1/2 speed and said 8 hrs to fill. I walked up the hill to Burger King just before they closed and had the most grotesque chicken thing.. ugh, no more BK for me. Meanwhile back down at the RV park it seems the charger has kicked up to full speed (!) I guess the batteries had cooled to some magic level that made the charger change speed in mid pace (I didn't know it could do that.. speed up that is). Rather than coming back in the morning, I can now come back in an hour or 90 mins and get the car with 80-something percent (to be finished off at 110 while I sleep at Best Western). I go back and watch Leno and Conan, grab a much needed shower then go back to pick up the car. In the morning at BW the 110 charger had filled the car to 100%... this is the FIRST full charge of the trip. Thu 8/13/98 96.1miles Charged at Oakhurst Best Western + RV park to 100% 187.2 miles Start with a full charge and head out of Oakhurst a little after 10am. The drive up to the South entrance turns out to take less than 50% of the power then I glide down the remaining 4 or so miles into Wawona. Keith Clark (head electrical dude for the park) has done a spectacular job of setting up 10-30 electrical dryer receptacles for me throughout the park. This stop was easy though, an existing clothes dryer at the Wawona fire/utility building a short walk from the famous Wawona Hotel (oldest hotel in California or so they say). As I'm setting up the charger I instantly notice something is wrong (wrong? On this trip? no kidding..) I don't seem to have my trusty bag-o-adapters... I search the car but find nothing. This sucks. Fortunately my charger plugged right into the 10-30 socket so I didn't need an adapter, but I know I'll need some of them when I get beyond Yosemite and besides... some of them weren't even mine! (Thanks Bill!) I could picture in my mind the bag sitting by a tree at the Oakhurst RV place.. DOH! Since the car had just been at 100% it was charging up nice and quick and the ramp down probably wouldn't happen till 93% or so. I walk over to the Wawona store and grab a drink and make some phone calls (PCS phone doesn't work up here). When I get back I'm at 95% and I know it'll be easier going back to Oakhurst than it was getting here (Oakhurst 2500ft, South Entrance 5000ft, Wawona 4000ft). Charge at Wawona 1:25hrs 21.2 mi. 50%->95% The trip back to Oakhurst was a breeze, I had some fun driving through the mountain roads. The adapters where sitting right there as I had pictured them. I zip back up the mountain again and get back to Wawona (2nd time) at around 1:35pm... this time the charge isn't so fast (I guess my lead foot driving was heating up the pack). I decide to get the shuttle over to the Mariposa grove of giant sequoia trees. So I hang out with the trees for a while then come back and kick back at the Wawona hotel and read my story in the Fresno paper (front page, business section... way to go Bob!) When I get back to the car hours later it is just barely full. Charge at Wawona 2nd time 3:35hrs 63.8 miles 25%->full. The drive up to glacier point turn off and down into the valley was a breeze. I never even hit 50% during the trip and I probably gained 2500 or more feet. Right after the tunnel when you see the photo-op view of Yosemite valley, I pulled over for pictures with the car.. other people took pictures of the car also. On the way in I snag a few more photos... the sky is partly cloudy (heard some thunder from Wawona) but still warm (high 80s?). Back at Curry village I stand in line for a LONG time to get my room then I unpack and head over to the utility area behind Yosemite Village where there is supposed to be a 10-30 receptacle waiting for me.. I find it and it looks great! Keith really went out of his way to set this up for me and I really appreciate it. Unfortunately (typical on this trip) the receptacle was wired right-side up... but all 10-30 sockets are usually upside down.. Now none of my cables will plug in because the little weather-proof door hinges on the top and there's no room for the cable coming out of the connector!!! argh! Ok, screw this.. I drive back to Curry and drive Joulee right into the cabin area (beyond the parking area).. hey, the gate was open :) Now she's charging up on 110 with a cable hanging out of the bathroom window. I go back to the food area but all that's open is pizza, so pizza it is. Now back at the cabin it's just past midnight and the only sound in the whole village is probably that little 110 charger!! hope the other campers don't mind. Charge up to 100% at Cabin 55A, Camp Curry. 96.1mi. Charger turns off before 5am.