Home again, very tired, but not too hungry

 With the EV charged up overnight (at least part of the night) at Billy’s, and a wholesome b’fast plus sandwich for the road (no shortage of eating on this adventure), I set out on the final leg of the experiment in EV performance through the Rockies.  Drive up to Calgary was routine, had identified a Tesla Supercharger

right next to a Co-Op touchless car wash along the Deerfoot enroute to the drop off.  Truro expects the car returned as it was found, so ran it through the wash and vacuumed up the obvious crumbs after a full charge.  Discovered at Ft. MacLeod and Calgary that the energy charge in Alberta (~70 cents/kWh) is considerably higher than in BC (40-50 cents/kWh).  Must be that cheap coal fired electricity imported into the southern interior of BC from Wyoming/Montana???? Then up to the pick up/drop off spot (Park & Jet at YYC) where K had graciously agreed to come pick me up.  So, after 2,533 km traversed and 354 kWh of power consumed at a total cost of $1,180, we prolly should’ve flown - but that wasn’t the point.  I can’t know for sure whether or not Billy has already ordered his Tesla, but for me, I’ll stick with my ICE for the foreseeable future.  Last thoughts, I am grateful for my friends Billy and Savvy, great hosts to be sure, very much enjoy time spent with these old friends.

The EV adventure continues

 Didn’t post yesterday, it was rather slow.  We did manage to do one task on this cold autumn blustery day,  that was to prepare Savvy’s fantastic 7 pepper Salsa.  It is quite the process trying to keep a large pot of tomato’s, peppers, onions, cilantro, and garlic (lots of garlic) at a rolling boil, outside in a cold wind.  We did it nonetheless and then learned to properly can this delicacy in mason jars.  

Final act was to pick up Miss Lori who arrived via WestJet and YVW, then off to a fancy dinner at Basil and Mint.  Next morning saw us off to an early start with the Tesla fully charged after being plugged in at the winery for two days.  We were off to Revelstoke and recharged for the climb up the pass.  Everything was progressing beautifully until the snow started to fall heavily just before coming to a stop, and waiting…. Two hours passed and word came down that it wasn’t construction, but a serious accident that would have the road completely closed indefinitely.  Back to Revy to reconnoiter the options.  Charged up once more, we took the decision to proceed south along the Arrow lakes back down to Castlegar with uncertain range and Supercharger access.  But not before some anxiety over trying to extend the rental agreement and much uncertainty about recharging strategy.  TURO host was helpful to get us back underway with the phone app working again and contract extended one day.  This route was slow and tortuous, and included a short ferry ride at Shelter Bay.  Got to Castlegar and recharged again, way past dark.  Then on to Cranbrook for another charge with hopes of making it to Ft. MacLeod on a less than full battery (road weariness had begun to take its toll).  Coasted into Ft. MacLeod with very little to spare to take on just enough charge to get us to Billy’s at 03:00h.  Straight to bed without injury (phew).  Should be able to get home with a stop for recharge and car wash, hopefully Chachi will be able to meet me at the Park & Jet and wrap this experiment up.  Because the other anxiety inducing matter, unrelated to the LR EV experiment, has been that Nana’s time on this turbulent earth has come to a close and Karen took the opportunity to blow off some steam with her golf girl friends, she might need some time off!

So, in conclusion, while the Tesla technology is rather impressive, and planning/finding charging spots is pretty good in general, there are a few irritating shortcomings, like you can’t game with the navigation through the app outside of the vehicle, which makes seeking alternative routes/stops challenging.  And, it is far from intuitive on how you might investigate alternative charging strategies versus the one proposed by Elon.  Trip interruptions (like the one we experienced) and rerouting are not at all easy, so winter trips through the Canadian Rockies would not be recommended without plenty of time and resources to get a room if plans change abruptly.  I think I’ll remain happy with the tried and true for a while yet.

Rare slow day at Savard Vines

 Had an unusually late sleep in, with even Billy upright before me. Might’ve had something to do with lessening the remaining stock at the winery.  The road widening was essentially complete prior day, so this day saw me into the Dragonboat for a lunch meeting with old friend and colleague ADL, ever grateful to have good friends. Enjoyed the discussion across a broad range of topics, no surprise there - family, politics, energy, the whole gamut. At the end, made note of a house fire across the Skaha Lake taking out a couple of manufactured homes on the reservation. Huge plumes of smoke and flames clearly visible from afar, local paper later reported no injury/fatality - which was very lucky from our vantage point.  Ran a couple of errands for Savvy to round out supplies for the salsa making project planned for next day.  Then picked up Billy for a quick trip to Summerland to check out the “Flo” generic charging system (leaves much to be desired compared to Musk’s “Supercharger” network).  Back to the vineyard after a fancy coffee and trip to the bakery to shop for some weird flour that cannot be found anywhere else apparently.  Watched a very entertaining two innings of baseball, and a game of crib on the big board put a wrap on the day.

Savard Vines

 After a long day on the road, our task master unveiled his plans.  But not before huevos rancheros to commence a day on the business end of a Mexican drag line.  Seem the “Five Turns” have proved inadequate for service vehicles to ingress/egress the winery and needed to be widened. Not to mention the very un-neighbourly behaviour after the owner’s demise (road blockage).  

So with several loads of relatively large pit run gravel precariously dumped along the road, Billy and I smoothed and contoured gravel onto the recently opened shoulders of unstable clay/silt.  My supply of Aleve was lessened at the end of the day.  Meanwhile, we left our Tesla plugged into the domestic wall outlet in the winery and made note of the trickle charge (after 36 hours, approaching 70% from about 15%).  Savvy’s acumen operating the skid steer to move the gravel around noticeably improved as the day wore on.  Quitting time arrived and a cold beverage was consumed before a light dinner and much political discourse along predictable lines.  Some nice red wine helped animate the conversation, leading to a relatively ETB for me.

Yippee I O EV!?

 As harvest time rolled in the annual junket out to Savard Vines beckoned, but this year, my old friend Dick Doc Billy had a hankering to check out shoulder season long range mountain travel in an EV.  So rather than taking the logical choice to hop on the 45 minute flight from YYC to YYF for a pittance, why not rent a Tesla?  With all the Tesla Superchargers strategically located throughout AB & BC, it would be a breeze, right?  So, I checked the regular rental agencies, but found the rental charge prohibitive, but wait - there is the VRBO equivalent for cars - TURO. So I set up an account, and found a vehicle at a much more reasonable price.  Hold on, we need winter gear for driving in BC after October 1.  Re-start.  Another Tesla option on TURO assured me that the requisite M+S winter tires would be installed.  

So the trip was booked to follow Canadian Thanksgiving for just a few days of hard labour in the vines.  Mid October.  The last time we drove together a few years back, I had recollections of it being cold and very snowy at Trail, BC.  That year, we did follow a similar route where I departed home early and drove to Lethbridge to pick up Billy and drive the Crowsnest across the southern route to Osoyoos and up to Summerland - through windy narrow roads and over mountain passes.  The recollection of that trip gave me some range anxiety, in spite of the internet research that indicated the trip in a Tesla would be no problem, until you try, it is hard to know.  The TURO app proved to be very good with a responsive and helpful host, Francois, albeit with some counter intuitive issues with where/how to pick up the vehicle.  One useful thing was that he provided a YouTube video on how to operate a Tesla, very helpful.  That wound up being seamless with the car parked at the Park & Jet lot at the airport, and access very easy utilizing a combination of the Tesla App and the TURO App.  One does need to have some comfort and familiarity with smart phone apps, sometimes not entirely intuitive for the ancient.  Nonetheless, after getting K to drop me off (did I mention she was none too keen about trying this experiment, leaving her stewing with anxiety that we’d get stranded high in the Rockies), I stumbled and fumbled through the start up procedure which turned out to be very easy, in hindsight.  Had to pull over after departing the parking lot to complete the check in with roadside photos of the car to document body condition, which in my discombobulation getting in, I had neglected to do.  That even though I had waited for daylight to pick up in order to get some photos, which is a feature of the TURO App, thorough!  That part precipitated a later start and as such, arrival at Billy’s house was a bit later than optimal.  But otherwise, smooth sailing.  After pick up, next stop Fort McLeod at the Supercharger.  The Navigation feature in the vehicle was very useful for planning the trip by identifying locations of charging stations and optimizing where to charge and for how long in order to get from A to B.  Great feature.  The charging has the fringe benefit of creating a stop to stretch and switch drivers, albeit a bit lengthy, in our case about 20 minutes per stop.  Here again, the Tesla App is well designed and once plugged in, the vehicle is identified and energy charge billed directly to the owner for eventual final billing by the owner to the client.  The App is very well designed, but feels a lot like Big Brother watching.  Seems a lot is Orwellian these days.  From Ft. McLeod, we made our way to Cranbrook for charge #2 and had a late picnic in the Canadian Tire parking lot.  Then we were off to Castlegar (hadn’t been through that spot in a very long time) all the while watching the battery discharge nervously.  I do have to say that the technology is impressive with distance and elevation factored into the range estimations.  Not sure quite how temperature is accounted for, but not a problem on this beautiful autumn day to make this drive.  It turned out that the only real reason for any anxiety at all, was the very last couple of hours in the dark, with rain, on newly paved (unmarked), or poorly marked roads.  The wiper set up was completely non-intuitive to me, so it was a bit darkly comical trying to figure out how to operate that feature, good to have a co-pilot in ones first experience in a Tesla (an actual co-pilot, not the AI version, which would be not that helpful).  In the end, we made the destination late in the evening, but remarkably close to the ETA calculated by the Navigation App, once more impressed by the technology.  It was a rather long day for me, having left home at a bit after 07:00 MST and getting to Savard Vines at 21:00 PST (15 hrs on the road for me).  Thankfully, Savvy was on hand to get us fed and watered before wrapping up a successful adventure with 21st century transport tech.  The future is here apparently??  Oh, did I mention - the grape harvest was already done after a bitter cold snap last winter killed all the buds, leaving only a small harvest at Savard Vines, so we will be in for some laborious farm work this trip methinks.