Electric car charger chasing

[davenowherejones]

I don't need no stinkin' rally. I did 514 km checking out electric car charging stations. I had a guy ask if it was possible to go from Hope, BC to Penticton, BC via the Okanagan Connector.

The Honda Forza 300 scooter has many characteristics similar to an electric car. We both have to really pay attention to the fuel and range. Both take forever to get anywhere.

I started at Hope McDonalds with an Egg McMuffin. Hope has a Tesla station which had an X charging there. First cell phone photo. It also has a Sun Country slow ? charger with a Chevy Bolt attached. Second photo but then I realize that the very young owner is trying to breast feed her new born in the passenger seat. Oh well.

The Hope fast charger is new and empty. The other slow charger is empty. The Alpine Motel advertises that they will let you charge your car while staying there. The outlet appears to be 50 years old and probably would not work a toaster.

Time to hit the highway as an electric car would. But I cheated a bit by taking Othello Road. Then I hit the Highway Through Hell to the Britton Creek Charging Station. Another Bolt was charging. The owner had done Victoria to St John's Newfoundland last year.

Onward to Merritt. The whole Hell Highway 5 is a series of big hills which really such the power out of EV's. The Forza has problems as well.

Merritt has several Sun Country chargers around town. All empty. A fast charger hidden away. A Tesla station beside the highway and a charger at the bankrupt gas station & soon to gone from ALL of Western Canada Greyhound bus station. One of Greyhounds passengers killed a fellow passenger and started eating him. The cannibal was declared mentally unfit for trial and sent home. We need to start electing our judges!

The next charger was at the Loon Lake rest stop on the Okanagan Connector. This highway has some really steep and long climbs. Merritt is at 2000 ft and the top of the connector, Pennask, is at 6500 feet. The Forza takes it slow and steady but it really sucks the power from the EV's.

The government built a multi-million dollar rest stop to charge the cars. It has 2 medium speed chargers and a slow charger. All 3 were empty. They also put in free wifi for the charger people and flush toilets with heating!

I finally pulled in to West Kelowna were I used a coupon for a free A&W root beer. The next charger was a little hard to find but it was a fast charger tucked into a corner of a United Church. Everyone is trying to make money out of this.

The rest of the trip down to Penticton should have been easy alongside the lake so I did not even bother doing it. It was time to go home.

I could have taken the super highway home but that was getting boring on the Forza. I decided to hit one more EV charging system in Manning Park. The big highway was out, the little highway was further so I took a shortcut on the Princeton Summerland Rd over the mountains.

The shortcut was over an hour longer because of the 36 km of washboard gravel road. Who needs a GS when you have a scooter. The Forza 300 was sideways in the sand a few times. I need a few new fillings but I got 95 mpg imperial going slow. The paved section of the road was superb twistys before and after the gravel.

The Honda Forza has a 300 km range but the RCMP have a bad habit of closing the highway for 12 hours. You really need a full tank at all times, fill up in every town.

The last EV charging station was at Manning Park Lodge. It had a Chevy Bolt charging. I went for a walk while I ate my popsicle.

There was a very loaded DRZ400 with a flat rear tire in the parking lot. The young guy said it went flat on the highway. He was running 21 psi in the Kenda Trackmaster knobby. It seems kind of low for a 100 kmph highway run. He thinks he got a pinch flat on one of the potholes.

I got home in the dark. The trip took all day to do 519 km. It was quite the fun adventure on a slow scooter. I probably spent more money on food than gas. My rear tire is almost bald. I am scared to go look. It might be flat. 83203 km so far on a Honda Forza 300!!!

[davenowherejones]

Shortcut but an hour longer

[NADman]

A "Peach" of a tale.

[Lafree]

Hi Dave, a memory tale for me, my two sister live in Van last year I borrowed a car and drove to Calgary for the stampede via Penticton stopped at a cafe Tim Hortons in Hope, on route, we stopped at a hot springs resort with a camping ground wonderful place can't remember the name, have you seen a light aircraft which looks to have crashed and just left there in a field out in the countryside, ? get the tyre levers out, regards Lafree.

[Mel46]

I have 2 problems with electric vehicles.

The first problem is the shortage of charging stations. Going with that is the fact that it takes so long to recharge cars.

The second problem is that you can "pack" an extra can of gas if you are driving a standard vehicle, but on an EV it would be impractical to try to "pack" extra batteries. That means that you can't plan for unforeseen circumstances, such as the road being closed halfway to wherever you are going, forcing you to take a longer route than planned.

The Tesla is the best EV for longer distances right now, but it still has those same limits. Hybrids are more practical until these problems are resolved.