OH – My ActiveE Made Me Accidentally Environmental

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 19

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the nineteenth in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 18, click here.

Day 19 – Drive on Wednesday, May 20, 2015

As we discussed on our previous post, we decided to take a different route back West (I-70 as opposed to I-80/I-90.) From West Virginia, we were looking at going through Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, then Colorado. That’s a long drive with parts that are through “Tornado Alley.” Though to be fair, it would seem that I-80/I-90 is not spared of tornado activity either. Being, Southern Californians, we’ve grown with the expectation that earthquakes, tsunamis or the like are the “normal” things to fear from nature. However, as the weather warms up, the chances of tornado warnings seem to increase. Now it wasn’t just Deer, Moose, or Bears to worry about, I’m wondering about tornadoes.

With that in mind, today’s goal is to drive as far as we can West, and stop at whatever may be interesting along the way. We reached out to John, a high school friend, who lives near Dayton, OH, to see if he and his family can meet up for lunch or something.

Hampton Inn & Suites, Triadelphia

After arriving in Triadelphia, WV in the evening, we noticed lights below the hill that the hotel and supercharger is located in. The view from the hill looks like clouds and colder weather today. Not great for sunset pictures, but good to keep in mind when worrying about tornadoes, at least that’s what I tell myself is the upside to such days. (Another bonus, TWO water towers.)

Walking out of the hotel lobby, the superchargers are at the far right corner of the photograph.

We parked at a regular spot in the evening with the plan to move the car to the supercharger while we get ready to check out. This way, we’re able to maximize our time. As with any plan to charge away from the car, we’ve decided to use our handy dandy EVcard from Plug In America.

We lost 3 miles overnight. But we’re at the hotel with the supercharger, so it’s no big deal. Especially since the supercharger will fill it back in no time.

I moved the car to the supercharger, put the EV Card on the dash and started charging.

Triadelphia Supercharger

As we were leaving the superchargers another Model S with Virginia plates drove up to the superchargers. We acknowledged the other car, but we were unplugged and rolling out, so we didn’t make conversation.

We started on the way to Grove City, OH.

It was a quick drive from the Triadelphia Supercharger that just like that, we’re back in the state of Ohio.

Since we’ve decided to take I-70 West. As I previously mentioned, this route just became viable when Tesla opened its supercharger in St Charles, Missouri. So we decided to try it out. Besides, I was pretty sure that no one else has checked into those chargers on the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS at the routes along I-70.

Grove City Supercharger

The Grove City, OH supercharger is located on the rear/side of the shops. Hard to explain why I used the term rear/side it’s because the shops are in a curve and the SCs are technically at the side of the Giant Eagle, but in the rear of the other shops in the center.

The Giant Eagle is not directly adjacent to the stalls, it just happens to be open 24 hours and available for any traveler through this location that may need to use it. It’s a pretty full supermarket.

The supercharger is a very large installation with eight charging stalls. People coming to supercharge at this location need to be wary of the big dip in between the charging stalls. Either drive slowly when crossing them, or enter the charging area from the other side.

The drive to Dayton was quite EVentful. We saw London, but not THAT London ;-).

We were entertained by the “little things”, like this bird that we saw at a highway rest stop.

Additionally, we passed a truck half-full of Mini Coopers.

Which led me to three different EV thoughts.

1) The Mini E folks.

Before the Active E program that I participated in was launched, there were a few hundred folks that provided the phase 1 to the BMW electrification program. They all drove Mini Coopers that were all electric. Most Mini E drivers loved their cars, even though the fit and finish was nowhere near its descendants, the Active E and BMW i3.

2) Paul at SpeakEV.com

Paul, the owner and operator for SpeakEV.com is a “Mini Guy”. Apparently before he founded SpeakEV.com he owned and ran some of the more popular Mini focused Internet forums.

3) The Mini Superleggera.

The Mini Superleggera is BMW’s vision for an electrified Mini platform. It’s a very attractive little Roadster that has found itself in Go/No Go status over the past few months.

Either way, passing a truck full of ICE Minis make me think of the missed opportunity that BMW has in making a really awesome EV.

BMW should electrify the Mini, any of them. The Superleggera is plenty awesome, but an electrified Mini Cooper is ideal.

With those thoughts, I was distracted by…

Ooh a barn.

No, not the barn, I was distracted by spotting a very familiar headlight behind us.

An Ohio white Tesla Model S was behind us. As the car neared us, we were able to read the license plate 1STESLA. This Model S stayed with us all the way to the exit for the Dayton Supercharger.

As we were making our way to the Dayton Supercharger, I expected the OH 1STESLA to join us as we charged. It didn’t the White Model S continued driving away on its way after exiting at the same exit as the Dayton Supercharger.

Dayton Supercharger

The Dayton supercharger is located at another shopping complex. The Meijer store in Dayton looks like it’s in the middle of some construction. Just in front of the superchargers is a Chipotle, but we were not hungry for Mexican food.

As we previously mentioned, before we left for Dayton, I reached out to John, a high school friend, who lives near Dayton to see if he and his family can meet up with us for lunch. Aside from the fact that we arrived later in the afternoon, he was in the middle of a contract negotiations and couldn’t pull away to meet up.

A few years before, we had dinner with him and his family at this sushi bar (yes, you read correctly, a sushi bar in Ohio) in Troy, OH that was very good. So, I made sure to get the name of the location from him.

Sakai is located at 2303 W. Main Street, Troy, OH 45373.

After completing our charge, we proceeded to Sakai for dinner. The quality of the sushi and cooked Asian food is very good. Though we broke our usual rule regarding sushi restaurants (ocean adjacent AND/OR near a major airport (i.e. direct flight from the ocean)) we welcomed the meal.

The bibimbap was delicious and welcome on such a cool, cloudy day. After 19 days on the road, we were starting to miss home. And if there’s anything that Southern California does well it’s Asian food.

So, if you find yourself with a craving for very good Asian cooking near Dayton, OH, take the detour to Troy and hit Sakai. We’re glad that we did.

Can’t you tell by the photo below?

We didn’t catch the state line marker from Indiana, but did catch Ohio saying goodbye to us.

The drive to Indianapolis was uneventful.

Indianapolis Supercharger

The superchargers are located at a La Quinta Hotel.

The La Quinta hosting the supercharger in Indianapolis seemed like a “nice enough” hotel for a stop for the evening, except it was still rather early (around 8pm) when we got there and we wanted to have this be a “drive far” day, so we opted to see what was along the way to the St Charles, MO supercharger before we make the cross to Independence, MO.

The supercharger has eight stalls at this location. I wonder if there’s a large community of Teslas in Indianapolis or if it’s because these superchargers are at a major intersection of travel routes.

While we were parked and charging at the Indianapolis supercharger, I started doing searches for hotels along I-70. As I was fine tuning selections, I stumbled across a seemingly well priced lodging offer at Terre Haute, IN.

I proceeded to look at bookings and went to discuss this with my wife. Luckily she did a few things that brought about a new lesson learned from the trip. Just like universities (South Bend, IN) and major medical centers (Rochester, MN,) large federal correctional (i.e. prison) facilities are prone to have a good cluster of hotels near them. So, it’s a good idea to research why there are a lot of hotels before booking a hotel for the night.

I looked elsewhere for our lodging for the evening.

It turned out the Holiday Inn near the Effingham Supercharger was available. It was about double the price of the “deal” at Terre Haute, IN. I’m sure Terre Haute is a lovely place, but like they say is the three rules of real estate, “Location. Location. Location.” We opted to stay AWAY from the prison and book at the bargain 2x hotel near the Effingham Supercharger.

Effingham Supercharger

Don’t adjust your dial.

Boy was I glad to make that drive. Aside from being “prison-free”, Effingham, IL was located at the best place of all for a supercharger.

It was at the parking lot of a gasoline station.

The photo opportunities at night were plentiful.

We arrived at the supercharger after 518 miles of driving. The supercharger is less than a mile away from our lodging for the night. Not quite as convenient as this morning’s Triadelphia supercharger, but the juxtaposition of Tesla with BP is priceless.

Aside from the picture taking, for a good portion of time that we spent supercharging, a local young man (accompanied by his very understanding girlfriend), approached us and spent quite a bit of time talking to us about the car and Tesla and the future. It was reminiscent of the conversation we had with the group of young people at Rita’s in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. We spent a while talking to him (which is why I mentioned that the girlfriend was understanding) and made sure that we left a good impression to him about those of us who are lucky enough to be driving Model S.

To give us maximum flexibility for the next day, we supercharged close to full and headed to our hotel.

Holiday Inn Effingham

The Holiday Inn at Effingham was clean, comfortable, and provided a very good Internet connection. We didn’t choose the hotel for anything else other than that and were very happy with the location. (i.e. farther away from a prison than our choices in Terre Haute, IN.) With that, we went to bed and to plan the next day’s I-70 Missouri crossing.

Go on to Day 20. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 09

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the ninth in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 8, click here.

Day 9 – Drive on Sunday, May 10, 2015

Happy Mothers’ Day. Today’s goal is to make it to my other cousin’s home at Randolph, NJ, however, we had too much fun visiting my cousin in Ohio that we got a late start to the day.

Copley, OH

My cousin finally got to take a spin in the the Model S before we rolled out for our trip today. Needless to say, he was floored. I reminded him that we have an S85 and not the P85D, and that the acceleration and torque that he experienced is more “reserved” than the top of the line Model S. I even reminded him that the Cleveland-Lyndhurst Sales and Service Center that we went to a few days before had an abundance of CPO Model S in stock, ready for delivery. So, here’s to hoping that another Model S joins the extended family.

For some reason, we reset the start of day mileage. Mental error, I guess.

One thing that stands out to this California driver, since Illinois, is the abundance of toll roads that one needs to traverse through to get from point A to point B (and many points in between.) Growing up in Southern California, tolls are the exception and not the rule. Additionally, most locations in Southern California now do not take cash for the toll roads. One must use the transponders to use these toll roads. In the East, it seems that most of the toll roads still take cash, and we opted NOT to sign up for any of the toll transponders as we didn’t know where to get it, nor how to refill and the like. Some states toll authority allowed credit cards, while others were cash only. So, I would suggest that California (or other Western drivers who are traveling East from Illinois onward) carry sufficient cash to cover the toll roads.

After driving over 2,500 miles in a few days, the drive of less than a hundred miles seems rather quick. So quick that just like that, we’re almost at the PA border.

Cranberry Supercharger

The Cranberry Supercharger was a bit of a distance from the Turnpike. I would surmise that we drove a few miles away from the exit to get to the supercharger. Followed the Navigation to the supercharger but it was sending us to the wrong side of the street. It’s way in the back of the Residence Inn. The last supercharger was blocked by some containers that the hotel seems to be using. It doesn’t seem to be a permanent installation, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

I didn’t know what to expect to the Somerset Supercharger, so we went back to our baseline for the trip to add at least 100 miles on top of the minimum required to reach the next charger, at Somerset, PA.

On the way to the Somerset Supercharger, I was pleasantly surprised by a familiar site – a 30A Blink Network Charger at the Oakmont Plum Rest Area.

Now, this was a stop we made because I had a craving for coffee, and this location had a Starbucks, so it was a pleasant coincidence that there was an EV charger on the Turnpike. We didn’t “need” a charge, so we didn’t plug in.

Good for you Pennsylvania.

Somerset Supercharger

This was a supercharger that required an exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The location was close to the exit and by the Wendy’s. Since we were a stop away from Maryland, I thought to send a few tweets to some of my EV contacts from Twitter to see if they wanted to meet-up at Hagerstown. Since it was Mother’s Day, I figured that the chances were slim to none, but decided to give it a try anyway.

If your car is dirty from the trip, beside the supercharger is a car wash.

This location might be a good place to clean the car, if you’re on a long roadtrip. On the drive to Hagerstown, MD, we saw a cluster of windmills. So, good for you for that Pennsylvania.

After leaving the Somerset, PA supercharger, on the way to Hagerstown, MD we reached 38,000 miles on this drive.

Longtime readers know how much I enjoy posting about Significant Mileage.

I made a mental note that “you know that you’re East when a few hundred miles of the drive has you going through several states,” as we pass the border into Maryland.

Hagerstown Supercharger

This supercharger is located in an outlet mall. When we pulled into the supercharger, I checked Twitter, and, as expected folks had prior engagements in Maryland. I’ll just reach out again the next time we’re back through here.

Arriving here around dinner time had us look for what our dining options are. We opted to go to the Longhorn Steakhouse at the entrance of the Hagerstown Outlet Mall, not quite the Maryland crab cakes I was hoping to have, but sustenance nonetheless.

With a full car and full driver, we headed out of Hagerstown, MD for the next stop on our drive. The next supercharger in Maryland is in Bethesda, MD, however, we’re on our way to New Jersey and could get to the Newark, DE supercharger without a stop in Bethesda. So, we went toward Newark, DE.

You know what time it is when state line crossings end up looking blurry. My cousin in New Jersey and his wife will have to be at work on Monday and based on the time we’re crossing into Delaware, it will be too late to get to his home, so we contacted him and told him that we’ll be there on Monday night instead. Besides, we’ve never slept in Delaware before. Delaware has always been one of those states that I’ve driven through, because the crossing from New Jersey to Maryland is so quick, until now.

Newark Supercharger

The Newark superchargers are at the Delaware Welcome Center. We drove in with another Model S. As we entered the Delaware Welcome Center and drove toward the superchargers a white Model S was following us. The White Model S driver must’ve been experienced because they didn’t split the circuit with us. We took one supercharger and the other Model S took the other supercharger, we didn’t speak to the other Model S, so aside from it being a white Model S from New Jersey, that was it.

I went inside the Delaware Welcome Center to get a couple of panoramics of the inside of the restaurants for the welcome center for the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS.

There is a Starbucks in the middle of the welcome center. Additionally, there is a SECOND Starbucks counter to the far left and off the picture (and the far left to the entrance closest to the superchargers.)

The only restaurant that was blocked by this panoramic was a Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen.

In reading plugshare for the welcome center location, it is interesting to note for Roadster drivers that the J1772 charger at this same location is 18kW. That’s a full Roadster speed charge (based on my estimate.) [Of course, based on how the “universe” works, if one were to show up with a Roadster to plug at that location, it would probably be used by a 2011-2012 Leaf or a Chevy Volt that is drawing a 3.3kW at the maximum. But I could just be cynical. ;-)]

Hampton Inn and Suites Christiana Newark

We decided to stay in Delaware as we’ve never slept in this state before. We found a Hampton Inn the next exit North from the Delaware Welcome Center.

Looks like we didn’t make it to New Jersey this Sunday, but, on the plus side, we finally found “reason” to sleep in Delaware. With 214 Miles of Rated Range left, we parked the car for the night and headed in. The superchargers in New Jersey are quite close to each other.

Go on to Day 10. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 08

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the eighth in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 7, click here.

Day 8 – Hanging out in Akron, Cleveland, Copley, and Cuyahoga Falls Area on Saturday, May 9, 2015

Saturday, May 9 was our day to spend with our family in Copley. Today’s activities were spread out for things in the local area.

Westside Market

Our first stop in the morning was the Westside Market in Cleveland, OH.

The Westside Market reminds me of the excellent food halls in Europe. The Grand Central Market in Los Angeles is a good example of one that is similar in Southern California, but rarely do I find myself at these type of places when I’m home. Food halls are just one of those places that I love to go to when I’m on a trip. Food halls often provide me a sense of “adventure.” The Westside Market is quite fun, it’s no KaDeWe in Berlin or the Harrod’s Food Halls, but it holds its own.

Picked up some cannolis here. It’s always a good idea to get some food at these sort of places when one is gallivanting about for the day.

Some cheese, perhaps?

Some bread?

Or some healthy fruit options?

I was surprised to see star fruit. As warm as the day is in Cleveland, it was quite surprising to see something tropical fruit, in decisively non-tropical Cleveland.

We picked some up for the younger members of the family to try. I don’t really like star fruit. It’s them, not me. 😉

Glass Bubble Project

Adjacent to the Westside Market is a fun activity called the Glass Bubble Project.

The Glass Bubble Project allows participants to gain instruction in AND have the opportunity to blow two pieces of glass. We were observers as younger members of our family took the opportunity to take instruction and craft their own glass pieces.

This is a picture of the oven where the artist “gathers” the molten glass.

And uses the molten glass to pick up whatever colors they want to mix in with the piece. The glass in this picture is glowing red from heat. There are no red colors in any of the pieces that were crafted by our younger family members that day.

The next series of photographs are of the molten glass being being melted to the colored glass in the kiln. My wife got some really great pictures of the piece in there.

We spoke with the proprietor and were delighted to hear that at least 95% of the glass used at the glass bubble project are from recycled glass.

The Glass Bubble Project folks also had a shop for some of the glasswork that artists were selling at the location as well. The Glass and Metal Swordfish on the picture below was headed in the opposite direction of our travel. We were told by the proprietor that it was sold to a restaurant in California and will be adorning their dining room.

Here is a picture of some of the molten glass being shaped by our family members

This next piece is a bowl being made.

The same bowl in the kiln being heated up again.

[WHOOSH… Time warp to the future]

Here are the finished pieces from later in the week (we were already onto other destinations when these pieces cooled and arrived at my cousin’s home.)

[WHOOSH… Back to Day 8]

What is it with Cleveland businesses and using birds for mascots.

Yesterday’s visit to the Tesla Lyndhurst Sales and Service Center had the Canada Goose.

The Glass Bubble Project have a Rooster as its “Marketing Director.” Apparently Morty the Rooster, the mascot/”Marketing Director” for the Glass Bubble Project has more Instagram followers than the Glass Bubble Project itself.

Needless to say, we had a pretty full morning. We took the opportunity to go grab some lunch at a fun little restaurant at Cuyahoga Falls.

Cuyahoga Falls

We proceeded to Cuyahoga Falls for lunch at the Blue Door Cafe and Bakery. I would’ve had dessert there as well, but we promised our younger family members that we would go to Rita’s for dessert.

It turns out that Rita’s dessert is Frozen Custard. So, I had my second Frozen Custard (or as they call it here, Ice Custard.) As we finished ordering our dessert here, a couple of local young adults asked if we were the ones that drove up in the Model S.

We took the opportunity to discuss the Model S and electric vehicle travel from California to Ohio. We showed them the car and its various features and the discussion with these young adults has led me to be hopeful for the future generation. I sure am glad that we had the car washed the day before as the car does show off better when it is clean than when it is littered with many dead bugs on it.

One of the things that we discussed and carry in the car, is an example of the battery for the Model S. As previously reported, Tesla’s battery sheets are made from off-the shelf Panasonic 18650 cells. So, when we first got our Roadster, we bought two of the 18650 from Amazon to show the type of battery that comprises Tesla’s battery sheets to people. So, whenever we talk about the car to people, we like to pull out the battery below for demonstration purposes.

[picture replaced 2015-06-07 at 11:12 PM PDT]

Here is a better picture with a AA and AAA for comparison as well as the pen. [picture added 2015-06-07 at 11:12 PM PDT]

Palladian Palette

We spent the afternoon going to the Palladian Palette in Akron, OH. Rather than explore the city, we explored our artistic talents.

I’m a rather practical sort, and I was trying to figure out what to paint. Aside from Ice Cream (or now Ice/Frozen Custard), I have a weakness for coffee. I like coffee. So, I was attracted to the picture of some coffee cups that I saw in the “inspiration book” that the good folk at Palladian Palette provided for us to draw inspiration from.

So, draw I did. It’s been decades since I’ve picked up a paintbrush or drawn anything, so I figured that something less “realistic” would probably suit me well.

I guess my free-hand and pencil isn’t so bad. I think I did a good job of mimicking the picture that was provided.

After drawing it, one had to go through the multitude of colored paint that was provided for us to use.

And there brushes of all sorts.

I opted for a light “mocha” color for the white-space in the work. I figure that it would be less likely that I would “mess up” that part of the painting before I filled it in.

A picture of another work of art parked outside for the afternoon.

So, I finished the work.

And the last piece that I always remembered from art class, was to sign and date my work. It’s no Picasso or Van Gogh, but it’s mine.

While I was busy painting coffee cups to go beside our coffee machine at home, my better half was busy painting a nice romantic scene.

The cannolis from earlier in the day came in handy while we waited for the “paint to dry.”

Her painting came out nicer than mine.

Macedonia Supercharger

The Macedonia Supercharger was about 20 miles away from my cousin’s home in Copley, OH. We were planning on driving toward New Jersey on Day 9, Sunday and to make sure that we were not heading backward as we headed toward Pittsburgh (and the Cranberry, PA supercharger) we decided to go get a supercharge before we plug in at my cousin’s house at 110V.

It was raining lightly while we were on the way to the supercharger and the rain picked up while we were there. As we supercharged at the location, we had several cars drive by. A gentleman with his daughter stopped by and conversed with us. He apparently works with GM on the Volt and has never seen anyone use the supercharger. He asked whether the car was a hybrid, like the Volt and I proceeded to communicate what made the Model S different from the Volt.

Copley, OH

The rain got stronger as we headed back to Copley, so we didn’t plug the car back in when we got back from Macedonia. The 110V installation outdoors would’ve gotten wet as it was raining, and we just got a full supercharge, so we figured to just leave the car unplugged. Between the 21 mile difference from Macedonia and my cousin’s home in Copley, we could afford the “up-to” ten mile loss that we’ve experienced in the past. Our distance to Cranberry, PA Supercharger from Copley, OH is approximately 100 miles away anyway, so we have enough range to work with.

Didn’t take a photo of the mileage that night nor did we log the overnight miles.

Go on to Day 9. Click here.

We’ve decided to overlay yellow lines for marking the return journey from the supercharger. When we reach the Easternmost portion of the journey, we intend on overlaying yellow for the route back West.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 07

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the seventh in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 6, click here.

Day 7 – Visiting Copley, OH and Tesla Activities on Friday, May 8, 2015

We’re spending the day with family this Friday. Granted the kids are in school and the adults are at work, so it’s a “free” day.

We charged the car at my cousin’s house overnight and we rolled out at 130 miles of Rated Range. This means that we added 55 miles in 14 hours and 45 minutes. That’s an average of 3.7 rated miles per hour that was added since the previous evening’s arrival.

Having traveled close to 2,500 miles over the course of the last week, it might behoove us to have the car “looked” over and possibly washed again, so we contacted the Tesla Motors Service Center in OH Cleveland Lyndhurst Sales and Service Center. When we purchased our spare wheel and tire in preparation for the trip, our “regular” service center installed the rear passenger’s side wheel with a new tire on the rear driver’s side. This would’ve been fine, except our passenger side wheels both have a “rash” from the nearly 35,000 miles of driving and that we did since the factory. So, I requested that the Lyndhurst Service Center swap the two wheels so that all the “rashed” wheels are once again on the passenger’s side.

Visiting the Service Center at this location also gave us the opportunity to fill in information on the service center for the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS. The App not only provides for feedback to Tesla owners on superchargers, but on Destination Chargers, Service Centers, and Sales Centers. So, we were able to do “something” today for Teslarati.

Understanding that we were long distance travelers and to save us the time of having to stop of at Macedonia for a charge, the Service Center topped us up with their in-service center supercharger. Apparently, this location is not only a Sales and Service Center, but also has a supercharger within the service area. This means that the supercharger is not necessarily for “heavy” use, it could only be accessed “during hours” by cars that are being “serviced.” Current hours in May 2015 are M-F 8-6 for Service and M-F 10-6 for Sales.

Pictured below and looking like refrigerators is the in-service center version of the supercharger that the Cleveland-Lyndurst Sales and Service Center has in the back (service area). It is within the service center and thus subject to the service center hours.

The Sales Center part of the location had many CPO Model S in stock. It seems to be the main distribution point for CPO in this part of the country. As with most CPOs, check the website for what is offered. Though based on what was online versus what was at the site, I would surmise that it would behoove interested parties to talk to a sales center to get a more accurate inventory of CPO cars.

A picture of the Service Center part of the location. It was nice to see a couple of Roadsters in the Service Center. I wonder how often folks that experience winter drive their Roadsters. I know of at least one that used to drive in all sorts of weather, but we tend to be the sort to drive ours in “better” weather, the luxury of being Southern California based.

The Delivery Center portion of the Sales and Service Center.

A lucky few look ready for the pickup appointment.

I forgot to take pictures of the waiting area, but I have to complain about the “level” of coffee service at the location. It was at the “standard”/first or K-cup level and not at the premium ones found at the new Costa Mesa and West Los Angeles service center levels.

While we were waiting for the service to be performed on our vehicle, we asked Rudy Graham, the Service Concierge, where the nearest place was for a “meal.” Rather than have us walk to the rather pedestrian choices near the Lyndhurst Sales and Service Center, Rudy was able to provide us with a 70D loaner with the directions to a nearby mall with much better food choices.

The 70D was very new. It only had 43 miles on it. We ended up adding a few miles to the car and I couldn’t tell any difference with the way it drove. It had newer seats and I can tell that Tesla made some changes with the newer seats, namely, it felt “bulkier” with more padding. Additionally, like other recent loaners, the car displays the speed limit of the road on the dashboard as you come up to a speed limit sign.

We were missing “familiar” food to us, so we ended up at the Cheesecake Factory. (Though the chain is nationwide, the chain did start in Southern California.)

Visitors to the center need to be aware of the center’s “mascot” – a goose, we think it’s of the “~~Canadian~~ Canada Goose” variety, but we’re not bird-watchers, or experts in anything “wild.” (Remember our trip acquired Deer Crossing-phobia).

During our entire stay at the service center, this goose was standing watch over the entrance to the service bay area. It was there when we arrived and turned our car in for service and it was there when we did our tour of the facility.

We were so happy with getting our car back in great condition.

What can I say, Tesla Motors Service is awesome, no matter where in the country you go. Rudy did a great job representing Tesla and we were happy with his assistance.

Of course the other benefit to having the car worked on, a clean car after we picked it up (something which we normally opt-out on at home as we wash our own cars as I find it very therapeutic.)

Getting the car back in this condition is a great way to represent Tesla to the folks in Ohio.

We went out to dinner with my cousin and his family for dinner on Friday night. We went to a restaurant called Tre Belle in Bath, OH. The food was good and enjoyable, but the evening was quite memorable (in a “car” sort of way.)

Apparently, the local Porsche club had a meeting at Tre Belle when we pulled in for dinner with our Model S. The valet’s eyes lit up when we pulled in and I handed him the key to take care of the car. I asked for a valet ticket, but he said “I’ll remember you.” And we went in. The valet parked the car in between two Porsche 911 convertibles and seemed to have caused a stir.

However, we were not approached by the Porsche club members, so I hope that they can be convinced to give Tesla a try.

After dinner, we headed back to my cousin’s home.

We parked the car with 200 miles of Rated Range left.

Go on to Day 8. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 06

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the sixth in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 5, click here.

Day 6 – Drive on Thursday, May 7, 2015

Our goal today is to get to Copley, OH. A day earlier than we had adjusted to, but enough time to catch dinner with my cousin and his family. Luckily, we eat dinner late, so that can be a lot later than when other people “usually” have dinner.

Hampton Inn South Bend

We ended the previous evening’s rated range at 79 miles when we parked the car and woke the car up the next morning with 80 miles of rated range. Another one of those days where the mileage went up from when we turned in.

This time, I was able to take a picture.

I remembered to mute the audio before I started the drive to reposition the car to the front of the hotel to make it easier to load it when we drive off for the day. No “Van Halen” surprises this morning.

Mishawaka Supercharger

The Mishawaka Supercharger was about four miles from our hotel. We took surface streets to get there because that’s what the navigation provided us. So, I don’t know how difficult or easy it is to get to this charger from the Interstate/Turnpike.

What’s the difference between an Interstate and a Turnpike anyway? Well… It would seem that the difference is the “toll”. Once we entered Illinois the previous day, they started to charge us for driving on the road. I thought my taxes already covered the highway system, apparently I was wrong. So, have to get used to that and factor that in the drive. So, I guess I should be happy that the navigation took us on a surface street to get to the Mishawaka Supercharger from the hotel.

If comparing the mileage between the 80 that I had in the morning with the 72 on the dash when we started charging with the 4 or so miles to get there, please note that I remembered to COOL the car down with pre-conditioning as it was a HOT (the temperature at 10:00 am was already 85F/29.4C, without wind) day in South Bend when we decided to pull out of the hotel and I turned the air conditioning on full blast.

When one is traveling on electricity, it’s easy to turn the car on for “convenience” reasons.

Another one of these mall locations that are located at the far edge.

We just hung out at the car for this charge. We get a chance to make calls, check e-mails, and the like when we supercharge the car. That Barnes and Noble looks big and as with most Barnes and Noble offer free wi-fi.

Yes, as usual… a WATER TOWER picture.

Which leads to something that my wife wanted to suggest to the Tesla Supercharger folks. Why not add a LOCATION sign to each supercharger? Whether painted on the supercharger itself or in the location. That way, when one takes a picture of a supercharger, the location is embedded in the photo.

I told her, I didn’t know why, but agreed that this is a good idea.

So, we headed out of Mishawaka on the way to Copley, OH.

The Indiana countryside had a more interesting view.

Before we left Indiana for Ohio, we stopped off at the Angola Supercharger.

Angola Supercharger

We had enough range to skip this supercharger, but we did tell our friends at Teslarati that we would be helping with the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS and post content for the stop, so, we decided to swing by and stop.

We were thrown off by the location of the Angola Supercharger. There is an outlet mall nearly adjacent to the exit from the Turnpike/I-80/I-90, but the supercharger was not located there.

Instead it is located just below a Ramada Hotel a few miles away. This location has a great view of the valley below, but I was concerned that in the winter, with ice and snow, the ascent to the superchargers might be “tough.”

We tried to capture the steepness of the drive into the supercharger location, but we were unable to get it with the photograph.

Our friends from @TeslaRoadtrip stuck a sticker at one of the chargers from their 2014 cross-country trip to TMC Connect 2014. I wonder if they’ll be doing the same thing when they head West from the East Coast for TMC Connect 2015.

Once again, not a necessary stop, but nice views from the supercharger station.

This might be the best way to show how steep it was from the driveway to the supercharger. It’s a view from the base of the driveway toward the superchargers.

We had a quick charge and headed to Ohio, and the short trek through the state to get to Copley, OH.

We had some pretty interesting things that we saw in Ohio, on the way to Maumee Supercharger.

First, we crossed into Ohio.

Some cool Ohio farms.

Some really old barns… (shouldn’t they be demolished if they looked like this.)

It’s interesting to note that folks who live so far apart from their neighbors like they do in the Ohio farm communities.

Probably know their neighbors better than we do in suburban Southern California. At least I would venture to guess that would be the case.

We had SOME excitement on the drive to the Maumee supercharger, we got some confirmation on how they repair such large power lines.

I would be SO freaked out by that, and these guys made it look “easy.”

Maumee Supercharger

The supercharger in Maumee, OH was difficult to find. It was not very close to the highway. It was located toward the back of the road that it was installed in.

Hiding the superchargers from the road were several fast food restaurants in front of chargers.

The Steak Escape was entrepreneurial in that they offer Tesla travelers a discount.

Since we were planning on having dinner with family, we didn’t take them up on their discounted meal for Tesla travelers.

As you can see from the statistics, we could easily have made it here and skipped Angola, but was glad to have stopped there, if anything just to take pictures and make notes.

And with that, we decided to press on. Our original plan was to go to charge at Macedonia, OH as those superchargers are close to Copley. But decided to skip that and just head to my cousin’s house.

More barns on the way to Copley.

Was that hay or a roll of fiber optics?

Sunset over Ohio.

Copley, OH

And with that, we finally made our goal for the next few days. We made it to Copley, OH. To minimize losing the ten miles that we did at our worst stop, we plug at my cousin’s home at 110V and get 12A of charging.

As we used to do with the Active E and to prevent the temptation to steal our really long extension cord, we drive the car on top of the cable so that it can not be taken without rolling the car.

We’re getting three miles per hour on this connection. (It actually speeds up to four miles per hour later in the cycle.) We plugged in the evening with 75 Miles of Rated Range and went in to have dinner with the family.

Go on to Day 7. Click here.