Electric car rental report
Feb. 16th, 2024 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nosrednaydujI went skiing! I drove an electric car more than 200 miles to do it!
It was kind of an adventure. Specifically, when I checked the weather Tuesday morning, there wasn't any serious snow forecast. However, in the event, there was a lot of snow overnight, and it was still coming down in the morning on Thursday. Which means, when you're in California, you need to have tire chains, or, four-wheel-drive with snow tires. Well, do I have any of those things in my rental car? No! So, there are people who help you out with this problem for money. This is the second time that I have purchased a set of tire chains (which are really cables) on the mountain. Then, I abandon them in Chico when I leave because, am I really going to take this piece of equipment back home in my carry-on? Also, in Massachusetts we don't do tire chains. I think it's probably because we don't get the quantity of snow that they get in the Sierra on a regular basis, and our towns are all close together, so you don't have these hundreds of miles of roads going through unpopulated areas. So, they are useless objects at home. This time, I abandoned them with my stepbrother, who will probably actually either use them or give them away. The previous set I abandoned with my stepsister, who probably just threw them out when she moved.
Anyway, this made travel much slower when we actually got about 5000 feet. Also, I dawdled in the morning hoping that chain control would be done by the time I got there, since the storm was predicted to be done late morning. Alas, that was not to be. So I got to skiing kind of late.
Charging the car was a bit of an adventure as well. I had identified two charging stations that could be used; one of them was fairly close to the ski area, so it could be used either on the way up or on the way back. Of course, on the way back means making sure to leave enough time to charge, though on the way up means that the battery is a little bit fuller and therefore it's harder to push the charge in. Either of them cuts into your ski time.
So, I stopped "on the way up". Well, there had been snow. A snow plow was making laps around the parking lot making sure that the gas station was available, but it was piling up the snow in front of all of the charging stations, both CCS/CHAdeMO and Tesla. So I tried stopping again on the way back after the snow was over, and one of the CCS charging stations had been unblocked, but there was somebody charging in it, and the other one still had snow piled in front. Well, it didn't have time to wait for somebody else to charge and then charge myself. So, cross fingers that the station at it grocery store in Grass Valley (40 more miles on) actually existed and worked. Because the other choice was 20 miles out of the way in Yuba City.
In fact, probably I could've just made it. Because, it was all downhill and boy did I get miles back! When I arrived at the ski area the guess-o-meter had said 99 miles remaining, and I needed to go about 130. By the time I got to Grass Valley, I had gone about 50 miles, and the guess-o-meter was reading 110, which was more than the about 80 that I still had to go. But, by this time I kind of needed a restroom and some snacks, so I charged for 20 minutes, getting back another 30 miles, and headed on down the road.
The Bolt has morals about how fast you should go. It puts the speedometer in a green circle if you are going 65 or less. If you are going more than 65, it puts the speedometer in an orange circle. Even if you are currently using regenerative braking in order to hold your speed at 70. I think that if I'm getting miles back, I ought to get a green circle no matter how fast I'm going. I'm curious, but not curious enough to find out, how fast you have to go to get a red circle around your speedometer.
Oh, and skiing was good, even though I really only did it for about three hours. I was actually pretty tired, because there wasn't hardly anybody else up there so there were no lift lines. The conditions were somewhat difficult, because the powder was a little bit compressed to really act like powder, and the groomed areas had had a little bit too much snow fall on it after grooming to really act like groomed areas. The fact that I've forgotten how to ski in those conditions made it challenging at the beginning, especially because there was limited visibility due to the snow. Visibility improved after the first half-hour, and that helped a lot with planning turns, you could actually see the snow you were aiming for so you had a better expectation about what would happen when you made a turn. So, by the end, I was feeling much more competent. But I'm probably glad I quit when I did because I was pretty tired and it's always that one last run you shouldn't have taken where you bust up your knee.
I made it back to Chico in time for my planned dinner date despite an additional 15 minute slowdown from a big accident on the way. The restaurant had a level 2 charger, so I plugged in. And now I am plugged in to the level 2 charger at the hotel, so I should be all set to go to the airport tomorrow.
It was kind of an adventure. Specifically, when I checked the weather Tuesday morning, there wasn't any serious snow forecast. However, in the event, there was a lot of snow overnight, and it was still coming down in the morning on Thursday. Which means, when you're in California, you need to have tire chains, or, four-wheel-drive with snow tires. Well, do I have any of those things in my rental car? No! So, there are people who help you out with this problem for money. This is the second time that I have purchased a set of tire chains (which are really cables) on the mountain. Then, I abandon them in Chico when I leave because, am I really going to take this piece of equipment back home in my carry-on? Also, in Massachusetts we don't do tire chains. I think it's probably because we don't get the quantity of snow that they get in the Sierra on a regular basis, and our towns are all close together, so you don't have these hundreds of miles of roads going through unpopulated areas. So, they are useless objects at home. This time, I abandoned them with my stepbrother, who will probably actually either use them or give them away. The previous set I abandoned with my stepsister, who probably just threw them out when she moved.
Anyway, this made travel much slower when we actually got about 5000 feet. Also, I dawdled in the morning hoping that chain control would be done by the time I got there, since the storm was predicted to be done late morning. Alas, that was not to be. So I got to skiing kind of late.
Charging the car was a bit of an adventure as well. I had identified two charging stations that could be used; one of them was fairly close to the ski area, so it could be used either on the way up or on the way back. Of course, on the way back means making sure to leave enough time to charge, though on the way up means that the battery is a little bit fuller and therefore it's harder to push the charge in. Either of them cuts into your ski time.
So, I stopped "on the way up". Well, there had been snow. A snow plow was making laps around the parking lot making sure that the gas station was available, but it was piling up the snow in front of all of the charging stations, both CCS/CHAdeMO and Tesla. So I tried stopping again on the way back after the snow was over, and one of the CCS charging stations had been unblocked, but there was somebody charging in it, and the other one still had snow piled in front. Well, it didn't have time to wait for somebody else to charge and then charge myself. So, cross fingers that the station at it grocery store in Grass Valley (40 more miles on) actually existed and worked. Because the other choice was 20 miles out of the way in Yuba City.
In fact, probably I could've just made it. Because, it was all downhill and boy did I get miles back! When I arrived at the ski area the guess-o-meter had said 99 miles remaining, and I needed to go about 130. By the time I got to Grass Valley, I had gone about 50 miles, and the guess-o-meter was reading 110, which was more than the about 80 that I still had to go. But, by this time I kind of needed a restroom and some snacks, so I charged for 20 minutes, getting back another 30 miles, and headed on down the road.
The Bolt has morals about how fast you should go. It puts the speedometer in a green circle if you are going 65 or less. If you are going more than 65, it puts the speedometer in an orange circle. Even if you are currently using regenerative braking in order to hold your speed at 70. I think that if I'm getting miles back, I ought to get a green circle no matter how fast I'm going. I'm curious, but not curious enough to find out, how fast you have to go to get a red circle around your speedometer.
Oh, and skiing was good, even though I really only did it for about three hours. I was actually pretty tired, because there wasn't hardly anybody else up there so there were no lift lines. The conditions were somewhat difficult, because the powder was a little bit compressed to really act like powder, and the groomed areas had had a little bit too much snow fall on it after grooming to really act like groomed areas. The fact that I've forgotten how to ski in those conditions made it challenging at the beginning, especially because there was limited visibility due to the snow. Visibility improved after the first half-hour, and that helped a lot with planning turns, you could actually see the snow you were aiming for so you had a better expectation about what would happen when you made a turn. So, by the end, I was feeling much more competent. But I'm probably glad I quit when I did because I was pretty tired and it's always that one last run you shouldn't have taken where you bust up your knee.
I made it back to Chico in time for my planned dinner date despite an additional 15 minute slowdown from a big accident on the way. The restaurant had a level 2 charger, so I plugged in. And now I am plugged in to the level 2 charger at the hotel, so I should be all set to go to the airport tomorrow.
