April 28, 2023 Trip to Hanford/The Ridge Tahoe

We decided to test our new electric car on this trip.  Straight distance would not have been a problem, but the Grapevine caused a significant issue. The car has a mapping system that plans the route and inserts the charging stations you need to hit for the planned trip. Well first stop was scheduled for Los Angles at a Nissan Dealership.  When we got there all four chargers were in use and none of the drivers in sight.  You can't tell how long they will remain charging or where they are! We had to move on in search on other chargers. The car has a system that will find the next closest chargers to your location.  Bottom line- we spent 3 hours chasing chargers that didn't work, not available even though the system said available, or when we got to the location.  We finally found one that worked and had to wait 40 minutes for the person on the charger to finish.  3 hours and 40 minutes behind scheedule we head over the grapevine which sucked 40% of our battery life.  Next stop was Bakers field, found a charger next to a Panera Bread, 30 minutes later we are off again to Kevin and Ellens for some much needed rest. 6.5 hour normal trip took us 11 hours. We'll do better going home.  We found some good stations in Lemoore and Hanford for future reference.

It is always so good to see Kevin, Ellen and Jenna again. You never know what Kevis has in store for Rick when we get there. This time, after Kevin sold his trailer to tow and a half men from Iowa, who drove down, paid cash and headed to Las Vegas, Kevin wanted to check on his pump by the river (at night, lots of bugs), due to the rising Kings River behind his house.  The pump