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8/3 - Indy to Normal SC lunch trip

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Restating details (#23):
Saturday, August 3rd it is!

Sounds like some will be headed straight to Normal. For those of us from or passing through Indy we will meet at the Keystone Crossing chargers on the north side of the mall's west parking garage at 8:30AM. I will be there at 7:00AM to add a few miles on the battery and grab some breakfast at Ruth's Cafe with the family and anyone else who wants to join us.

We will depart from Keystone and plan to arrive in Normal at 11:30AM (all times are EST) to start recharging cars. Restaurants open at Noon EST.

Post if you're in, and let us know if you plan to be at the Keystone meet-up, or Normal.

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Any central Indiana owners (and others of course!) interested in a day-trip to the Normal superchargers? We could meet up either at Keystone Crossing, or at 30 S. Meridian downtown, both locations have chargers for those of us that would need to top off. A 9AM meet up would put us in Normal for lunch (2:50 drive at 172 miles). There is a nice looking Irish pub right by the chargers, so we could grab lunch, supercharge, and head back to Indianapolis. I'm thinking either a Saturday or Sunday coming up soon. Let me know if you're interested!
 
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Sounds great Kenneth. I'm in assuming scheduling works out. Maybe EFusco, and FlasherZ will come up for lunch too. Maybe Dave from Florence, and Nikoli from Cincy too. We might even get Rifleman to come along. Hope I can make it!
I may even contact the editor of Electric Consumer magazine. The one I wrote the letter to when he didn't include the MS in his article on EV's.
Sent you a separate email with some info.
 
Sounds great Kenneth. I'm in assuming scheduling works out. Maybe EFusco, and FlasherZ will come up for lunch too. Maybe Dave from Florence, and Nikoli from Cincy too. We might even get Rifleman to come along. Hope I can make it!
I may even contact the editor of Electric Consumer magazine. The one I wrote the letter to when he didn't include the MS in his article on EV's.
Sent you a separate email with some info.
The St Louis Tesla group is currently planning a trip to Normal. Tentatively scheduled for July 20th. Maybe we could all meet up then.
 
I couldn't wait, drove over to Normal on Thursday. Backed in to 1A, plugged in, and got the message "Unable to Supercharge, unplug and try again" on my dash. Hmmm. Tried a couple more times, same thing. So I tried the next one over (1B). Same thing. Time to call Tesla roadside service. They seemed a bit surprised that the Normal Supercharger was open, since it wasn't on their map yet. They suggested trying either 2A or 2B, since apparently 1A and 1B are powered by the same unit, and 2A and 2B are powered by another. They also promised to check out 1A and 1B.
That did it, no problems at 2B! I was charging at about 90kW (363 volts / 247 amps) and getting a mile of range every ten seconds. What an amazing feeling!

After 3½ years of charging on the road, first at campgrounds and later at level 2 public chargers, what a game changer this is. While I (and other early adopters) have been willing to deal with the inconvenience of slow public chargers I can certainly understand how this could deter more mainstream buyers from considering an EV. With the construction of the Supercharger network that argument disappears, or is at least greatly diminished.

This was exactly as advertised. I started charging, went down the street to a hot dog place for a quick lunch, and came back to a fully charged car. The Supercharger took 40 minutes to do what a level 2 charger does in 10 hours.

So I went for a leisurely drive down a stretch of old Route 66, then back home. Anyhow, since I'll take a road trip for almost any reason, I'd love to meet up with the Indy group. I wouldn't want to drive to Indy first but I could meet you all in Normal.

One thing I should probably mention is that that they haven't re-striped the parking garage for the Supercharger slots. The old stripes are still there, ignore them or you might back into a Supercharger.
 
Irish Pub Makes it a Great Idea

Any central Indiana owners (and others of course!) interested in a day-trip to the Normal superchargers? We could meet up either at Keystone Crossing, or at 30 S. Meridian downtown, both locations have chargers for those of us that would need to top off. A 9AM meet up would put us in Normal for lunch (2:50 drive at 172 miles). There is a nice looking Irish pub right by the chargers, so we could grab lunch, supercharge, and head back to Indianapolis. I'm thinking either a Saturday or Sunday coming up soon. Let me know if you're interested!


If our schedule works we will come from Newburgh Indiana direct to Normal.
 
Maybe Dave from Florence,.

I'd love to meet up but not sure if I can free up a whole day for this. It's 300 miles for me so I'd need to find a place to charge on the way up there and back. Unless I drove 55 MPH, which I don't think I'd have the patience for. :)

I was hoping they'd put one on 65 between Indy and Chicago, since I often have to go to Chicago for work and that would be perfect. I can't envision too many scenarios where I'd be headed through Normal.
 
Dave, I havevisited Florence2 times in our "S". The Nissan dealer let me charge both times. Maybebecause we own a LEAF. I just can't make the trip in the LEAF from Newburgh IN to Florence. The"S" has no problem with the 205 mile trip. I have one problem: Sincewe received are car in mid-March all I want to do is go somewhere. We areoperating 2 EV's and our home all from the sun. Our power bill is only $11.00per month. We have not visited a gas station since we return from a FL vacationin our Prius .
Prius= 45 MPG Average
Tesla= 95 MPG(based 0n $3.50 per gal. gas) MPG is really great using Sun Miles.http://solarchargeddriving.com/

http://solarchargeddriving.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1149&Itemid=145

 
Dave, I havevisited Florence2 times in our "S". The Nissan dealer let me charge both times. Maybebecause we own a LEAF. I just can't make the trip in the LEAF from Newburgh IN to Florence. The"S" has no problem with the 205 mile trip. I have one problem: Sincewe received are car in mid-March all I want to do is go somewhere. We areoperating 2 EV's and our home all from the sun. Our power bill is only $11.00per month. We have not visited a gas station since we return from a FL vacationin our Prius .
Prius= 45 MPG Average
Tesla= 95 MPG(based 0n $3.50 per gal. gas) MPG is really great using Sun Miles.http://solarchargeddriving.com/

http://solarchargeddriving.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1149&Itemid=145

I am about 2 minutes away from the Nissan dealership if you ever need a 14-50 charge.
 
My wife has the car on the weekend of July 27th for a reunion out of town. How about August 3rd? I think we need to be a little careful with the number of cars that will be in the group. Since the goal is a "day" trip, it would be a real bummer if chargers were down and/or there wasn't enough time to get all the cars charged up during lunch. Al Sherman and I (and dave if he comes) have a distance to home that is max for the car -- not much margin for not getting a full charge.

Al, childressmd, others -- is the 3rd good for you? Anyone have room for rabar10? (I've got 4 in my car at this point).

We could do two groups also -- on the 27th and another on the 3rd to try and catch everyone's schedule.