An inauspicious start to a road trip

[captainsblog]

I drove back and forth to Rochester three straight days this week, none of it terribly important, but all of it inevitable. So going back again this coming week- as it appears I must- is not my idea of big fun.

But driving Iggy always is. So I am now planning his first Rochester roadie for Monday, weather permitting. Eleanor's view on this is very Reaganesque- trust, but verify- and she asked that I take him out locally over the weekend first, to get a better handle on how long he takes to recharge off one of the dedicated public-available charging stations that we have an app to find. (At-home charging off the 110 in our garage is pretty much an all-night proposition.)

I decided to do it this morning on the way back from gym at 9 a.m. Iggy was down below 40% when I left, and depleted it to 20 on the way back, so my best option was going back to his mother ship- the Smart dealer we leased him from.

Their public charger is right out front, but today, there was a gauntlet of car either side- a minivan on one side and a brand-spank Mercedes tank on the other...

and their charger cord doesn't reach if you pull in head-first, so I had to back Iggy in. VERRY carefully.

Once backed in, though? It was an easy-peasy hop to get their cord plugged in. Just one problem, though: no indicator on the cord, like on our one at home, and the dashboard wasn't lit up.

A few inquiries later, we had our answer: the front-end charger isn't working. So they've taken him to The Back, where they charge the units before sale, and he's happily sucking electrons as I write this.

I'm going to run to my office and back, which will give him about two hours of juice in all. From that I can extrapolate how long an almost-full charge will take on the Rochester end of things.

----

And it will require an almost-full charge, they say. There isn't a Smart dealer in Rochester yet, so they run the cars to buyers there- including the Iggy girlfriend I saw there the other day- and they bring them on a truck bed, since they're not 100 percent sure they'll make it on a single charge.

If it's a decent weather day, I'll give it a try. I know where the stations are on this side of Rochester, and there are two within a walk of my office there when I get where I'm going.

I just hope the damn things all work:P

Comments

[symian.livejournal.com]

Err, I gotta ask: What's Smart about it? ;P

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Costing about 15-20 bucks a month to operate versus the 80-plus in gas Eleanor was previously guzzling?

The rest is debatable, but that's pretty damn summa cum laude.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Much as I think Iggy is cute, I'll never own an electric. I couldn't handle the stress of running out of juice.

But we're a one-car family.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, so are we for the time being.