Another 300 mile weekend in the Leaf. Jessica and I took a delayed Valentine's weekend trip to the beach. Word on the street is that the Aerovironment DC chargers will no longer be free starting in April and Jessica loves the ocean, so it seemed like a good excuse to take advantage of another free-to-me roadtrip in the Leaf.
We left Saturday morning with a full charge and a pre-heated car. Our route down went something like this:
Leg 1: Home to Spirit Mountain Casino (65 miles), 15 minute DC fast charge while taking a bathroom break, then a quick trip through the touchless car wash
Leg 2: Spirit Mountain Casino to Baywood Shores Bed and Breakfast (35 miles).
We drove around town with stops at the beach, Humble Pie Pizzaria (tasty!), and back to the bed and breakfast. The beach was really nice, so we spent quite a while there taking advantage of the nice weather.
We charged for 30 minutes at the DC fast charger while waiting on our pizza only two blocks away. Another Leaf rolled in literally as we pulled out, perfect timing! The hosts at the hotel were happy to let us plug our 110V charger in overnight, which allowed us to start the day off with a full charge and a warm car in the morning again.
Leg 3: Baywood Shores Bed and Breakfast to Tillamook fast charger (45 miles), 20 minute DC fast charge while I talk to a friend on the phone who needs a favor and wanted to talk about my Vanagon being on Bring A Trailer.
Leg 4: Tillamook to Cannon Beach fast charger (45 miles), 1.5 hours at the DC fast charger to get a really full battery. We stopped along the way to sight see, as the ocean looked pretty cool with the wind and drizzle.
We played pool and ate an eclair while the car charged. I don't normally wait so long at the fast chargers, but this was in preparation for the first time I went over the mountain pass between Cannon Beach and Banks, OR, so I was being super conservative. Unfortunately, this charger is about a half mile from town and had no cell service, so it was admittedly boring waiting here, but I figured it was better to wait than to run out of juice on the new-to-me route. The DC chargers are very fast to charge up to 80%, but after that they slow down...when using the heater, this takes even longer.
Leg 5: Cannon Beach to Banks fast charger (55 miles), 15 minute charge while we took a bathroom stop and the liquor store to get a gift for our friend who was the dog sitter for the weekend. This leg was a little sketchy, as I said above I was being very conservative. Turns out, I arrived with 20 miles of range left, so I could have gone faster and used more heat than I did...but of course I don't regret playing it safe! Good to know that come summer time, this will be an easy leg when no heat is required despite the mountain pass (which spooks you on the uphill with massive charge consumption, but gives quite a bit back to you on the downhill). Next time I do this route, I expect I would probably drive the same manner and only charge to 80%ish rather than waiting for the slow battery top-off.
Leg 6: Banks to home (30 miles), had way more charge than we needed so we hauled butt on the last leg, a good feeling after being so cautious on the mountain pass.
All in all, we drove about 300 miles for the weekend and didn't pay to charge on the whole trip. The drive took about 2 hours longer than it would have if we had a gas car, the obvious majority of that being me topping the battery off in Cannon Beach before the mountain pass. I figure I could shave it down to only one hour extra instead of two knowing what I know about climbing the mountain pass.
We're starting to plan a big adventure for next month on perhaps our last free-to-me roadtrip before the Aerovironment chargers add a fee. This one will be about 600 miles in a weekend and include crossing a mountain pass twice, so it should be a real test of the Leaf and my EV-strategery.
Bryce