2700 Miles In a Bolt (Day 3)

May 13, 2021

The third day was an easy day; we left Atlanta and ended at my parent's house in Glade Valley NC.

But first I would like to talk about Aloft Hotels.  Most are pet friendly and the two we stayed in did not charge for pets and that is a real plus. They are less expensive than most similarly situated hotels and both of ours said they had car chargers; though we were only able to use one. But, they are for lack of a better term, "spartan". They reminded me of when I lived in the BNCOQ in the Air Force. Nicer than the enlisted barracks, but just barely. Or maybe a youth hostel in Europe. Both rooms we stayed in had a single piece of furniture that was bed frame head board and both night stands.  The two rooms were almost identical, except for the big background illustration on the head board. There was a single little roll around desk chair and a small desk. And that's about all.  There was no comfortable chair to sit and read in; this alone would keep me from booking another. The showers were nice. But I found the whole experience kind of "anti-luxury" and a little uncomfortable. Your perception may vary, this is just mine.

Day 3

We drove from Alpharetta (just north of Atlanta) through Greenville and Spartanburg SC and then on to Charlotte NC.  It was an easy drive; charging stations were pretty common; so, there was little worry about range or charge.

We had a big late breakfast in Alpharetta and got on the road fairly late in the morning.

We left the hotel with a full charge (100%) and drove all the way to Greenville where we charged at the SAM's club. Here we never went inside the store and spent most of the time we were stopped walking the dog.

I did have the rather odd experience of finding a credit card sticking out of the reader on the charger. The previous user had apparently left it there. We called the 800 number on the back of the card and they said they would notify the owner and freeze the account and we should destroy the card. When we got home several days later I attempted to run the card through my shredder. The card was metal and choked the shredder. So I guess the request was: "Please destroy our indestructible card."

After charging we went on to Charlotte. We actually stopped in Huntersville just north of Charlotte.  This was a ChargePoint unit at a BP station. Apparently many BP stations in the eastern US have chargers of various types.  There was a pizza place near by and we had supper.

This charge was the first time I paid by the kWh rather than by the minute. It was 30 cents per kWh which was almost twice what I had just paid at EA in Greenville SC.  But, I was in for a surprise; our next stop was the EA charger in Statesville NC. This charger also charged by the kWh at 31 cents each. Looking at EA's web site 31 cents seems to be the common charge where EA charges by the kWh.  This seems to make paying by the kWh a much poorer deal. In an hour of charging I have charged as much as 36 kWh (probably could do more if I started at a lower SOC). By the minute (at 12 cents a minute) this would cost $7.20.  By the kWh at 31 cents this would be $11.16.

We charged to 90% in Statesville. It did not take long (25 minutes) because we had not used up that much charge since Charlotte. But I wanted a good charge because the next stop would be Mom and Dad's house which is pretty isolated. Plus, I had to drive up Roaring Gap mountain.  (I'm not sure that is the official name of the mountain, I call it that because the community of Roaring Gap is at the top. When I was a kid we just said we were "going up the mountain" or "going down the mountain".)

Its about a 2000 foot climb in 4.5 miles. It's pretty steep and very twisty.  I wanted to be sure that I got to the top with plenty of charge, because there is no DCFC near my parent's house.

Going up the mountain was a non-event.  I got about 3.0 mile/kWh going up. We got to my parent's house with about 40% charge.

It turned out that they have an easily accessible plug in their garage (that I did not remember being there) so I connected the OEM charger to it.  More about that next time.

Total charge for the day was 131.72 kWh (including 53 kWh overnight at the hotel).  I did not note the miles per kWh on the trip meter.  Total cost of energy was $20.17, but the 53 kWh at the hotel was free.  Total mileage for the day: My Chevrolet says 325, Google says 320.