We needed to get to Yachats and while that's 'only' 75 miles away, there is the coastal mountain range in-between, so we planned a little stop on the way (sometimes known as 'dinner') so we wouldn't have to drive slow.
Like most of the AV chargers we met, this one took SEVERAL tries before it would charge. The indicator lights on this one showed 'car connected' before we plugged in. No 'master reset' was required though.
We ate an the Newport Steak & Seafood place about 7 blocks south. Best $8 steak dinner ever.
NOT a fancy place, though clean enough.
It took '12 bars' to travel the 45+ miles there and then two hours charge during dinner got us more than enough to make it the 25 miles to Yachats. We actually did our charging at a house, (using a 'Y' cable that allows 240V charging from a pair of 120V outlets. Yes, it's possible...) but here below is the car at the Yachats Commons charging station. (which actually WORKED! Of course it was the one we didn't really need...)
You could do worse for a pass-time...
We would love to show you lots of pretty pictures of the coast. However it's the Oregon Coast! so fog and occasional showers ruled. ...at least until we started to leave then of course it was fabulous!
After a good overnight charge we headed down 25 miles to Florence where the Three Rivers Casino has an AV charging station. On this one we had to call to get it reset out of a persistent Error state.However, once charging we got to relax with free drinks at the casino. In fact they give you $10 of 'free play' there for first-timers and we left with $15 more than we came in with. Casinos aren't my thing, but we had a pretty good time.
By doing the trip as a loop we got to check out several more charge locations. The excitement never stops.
Then there was the 45 miles to Veneta. we used 12 bars on this part of the trip. We needed about another two hours charge to make it the 40 miles home. There's not a lot to do in Veneta. Some fast food resturants... Fortunately the charging station (1.5 blocks south of the main intersection on Territorial Hiway) came with a cute attendant. [OK, not really. it was reset city here again as it would stop charge after 5 min. intermittently]
Q: How come there's all the boring pictures of the car sitting at another boring charging station?
A: Well, because sitting at a charging station is boring. We're trying to illustrate that fact. If you're going to use your EV for actual travel, get one with LOTS of range or a quick charging port. This isn't that car. Just my $0.02
...now if it had about another 8 miles of range, so we could consistently 'make it' using the shorter route from Corvallis to Yachats then it would be a different story. Turning an 80 min. trip into a 240 min. trip isn't viable most times. Plus, it's not like driving the Prius is exactly a hardship... ;-)
[Edits: 2014] AeroVironment (the AV on the chargers above) is out of it's federal/state grant period and they're now 'charging' $7.50 per charge. That would have added $30 to the cost of our little trip and there's no way I would have done it like that. $0.10/mi+ on top of the other time and cost issues makes it less than viable. Granted, if you're doing it every day then their $20 monthly subscription makes good sense. Of course that doesn't cover the BLink and SEMA charge 'networks'... It would sure be nice if a single 'network' subscription would work all over. I'm guessing that's not going to happen anytime soon. In some areas you need to be a member of four different networks to get consistent charging everywhere.]
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