SoCal LEAF & EV Gathering, Y7 - Finished - 19 Aug 2017

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Have fun guys.

We learned last Saturday out there that you can expect major crowds near the visitor center, and a traffic jam at the intersection leading down the mountain for the last half mile and to the visitor center. While the visitor center is a nice one, the rest rooms are the only essential thing about it. If you can make a bathroom stop before descending into Borrego Valley, you can skip the frustration at the visitor center and get right on to the flowers.

Bathroom opportunities before descending into the valley can be found at the (tiny) Warner Springs Glider Port, Warner Springs Resort (Golf Club, I think), or at Santa Ysabel.

There is a manned (womaned) mobile flower info station in a parking lot along the road in the valley towards the town square traffic circle in Borrego Springs, so you don't need to fight the parking/traffic at the visitor center.

Download the best flower info before you go, including a map of the roads in the valley so that you can get away from the crazy crowds of people near the visitor center and out into the valley and see flowers away from so many people. We think that Henderson Canyon Road might have a good display of yellow sunflowers. We foolishly skipped that road last weekend, and we regretted it later.

We love to end our trip by climbing up out of the valley to Julian for lunch and pie. Take Yaqui Valley Road (I think it's S3) out from the traffic circle and up the mountain to Julian for a whole different atmosphere. If you have trouble finding parking, go a couple streets behind Mom's Pies up at the gravel parking lot of the Catholic Church ($5 donation).
 
Thanks for the tips Boomer! We had an awesome time and it was a very long day! I'm sure a full trip report and tons of pics will be ready by the next meet!

But there were no Orange California Poppies and those are about ready to bloom this weekend up north now in the Antelope Valley/ Gorman area so now that trip gets ready to start being planned!

418 miles in 1 day and it was awesome, zero pollution and it was great to see the long gas lines out there in the desert and they even ran out last weekend and some were stuck! Something that probably wouldn't happen in an EV ;) Free Blinks too to all that want to travel out there!

Tons of pics to come!
 
For all the SoCal peeps... this is coming up.... click the link below to register...

http://electriccarguestdrive.com/

6OXGu-lppdKpRclHLIvc8zqxS5tFlaa0MHxHbsVxh-5ENaQzLeS21GwxEU-wMkmfAqxs4_78n5Wm0zixhLlyzEdRcUDLJ4zmHmfSveRI53SocdbqoYAMZTDkkbYWM-Pz7opmrmXufz7uzqA=s0-d-e1-ft
 
If any Leaf or OpenEVSE owners wants some new L6-20 NEMA connectors, I have 3 new Leviton Industrial/Hospital grade plugs that I had setup for my modified brick but never used. the 10-30/6-20 & 14-30 cords are now on 14-50 ends.

I'll bring them to this weekend's meet if anybody is interested or wants them. Make me an offer! ;)

http://hostthenpost.org/uploads/2b00491dec7874078c22532d2211d35b.jpg

Typical price at Amazon..
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-2323-Connector-Industrial-Grounding/dp/B00002NAT2

Plus I might have some new 3d printed Tesla connector/ EV adapter goodies also! ;)
 
91040 said:
If you show up this coming Saturday, you will probably be the only one there!
DOH!! thanks for reminding me!
Gathering #80a: 8 Apr 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Well then it's going to be an awesome time up in the Gorman/ Antelope valley for flowers/poppies!!

If anyone wants to go or caravan let me know!
 
If anyone particularly wants me to bring the new Bolt EV this Saturday to Industry Golden Corral, please comment. I'm very happy to bring it if even one of the group has an interest. Otherwise, I'll probably catch a ride with Gary, if he's willing.
 
Very good Gathering at the Golden Corral today, with some
brand new EVs present ... Congratulations to those with those
big new grins.

Next meeting in 3 weeks, on the 29th of April, as copied from
the first post of this thread:

------ 82nd month Gatherings ------
Gathering #82a: 10 Jun 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #82b: 24 Jun 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 81st month Gatherings ------
Gathering #81a: 13 May 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #81b: 27 May 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 80th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #80a: 8 Apr 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #80b: 29 Apr 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.
 
Phil was correct, the next Gathering is in another three weeks,
on the 29th of April ... I had it incorrectly listed in my own calendar.
Cheers all, and Thanks for coming today.
 
Planning ahead for the rest of the year, skipping Labor day, Christmas, and New Years weekends, I suggest these dates for Gatherings:

------ 89th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #89a: 6 Jan 2018 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #89b: 20 Jan 2018 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 88th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #88a: 2 Dec 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #88b: 16 Dec 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 87th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #87a: 4 Nov 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #87b: 18 Nov 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 86th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #86a: 7 Oct 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #86b: 21 Oct 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 85th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #85a: 9 Sep 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #85b: 23 Sep 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

End of 7th year of Gatherings

------ 84th month Gatherings ------
Gathering #84a: 5 Aug 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #84b: 19 Aug 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

------ 83rd month Gatherings ------
Gathering #83a: 8 Jul 2017 at Golden Corral in City of Industry for breakfast.
Gathering #83b: 22 Jul 2017 at the HTB on 17th in Santa Ana for breakfast.

Comments, Corrections, or Suggestions, please?
 
More on Wildflowers.

After bombing at Anza Borrego last month, seeing some flowers but nothing spectacular, never seeing Phil's advise tips, avoiding traffic as best we could,
Friday, April 14 I drove to Carrizo Plain NM. No big deal, only 196 miles each way.

Beautiful weather, cool, scattered clouds, very light traffic. Until the last 30 miles, nothing to see but highway or oil wells. It is about 1.5 hours of driving after you leave I-5, due west of Bakersfield. Years ago Huell Howser had been to Carrizo Plain NM, and this time I finally made it for first time. Very out of the way, some roads dirt. I will bring pictures on the 29th. Only about 1K of cars, lots of room, crowds not a problem.

Going north I charged at Tejon Ranch on one of 4 new SC stalls. On return trip I was in a hurry to meet Karen for dinner and a play in Pasadena, so I charged briefly at both Buttonwillow and Tejon again. No SC waits anywhere.

--------------------------------------------------

Heh gang, I just stumbled onto the successor to Segway, much cheaper, about $1.5K Looks safe, fun. The inventor in Germany is soliciting Kickstarter funds/reservations. Check it out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-scooter-that-rides-on-a-ball-out/description
 
You could have avoided the boring highway by taking Frazier Park Mountain Road to Route 33 then Soda Lake Road up to the National Monument. The mountains are beautiful. Soda Lake Road is a graded dirt road as it crosses the wide open, desolate plain until you get close to the Monument.
 
91040, thanks for your suggestion for future reference. I did some Soda Lake Road, and it was dusty and slow and probably consumed quite a bit more fractions of a kWh per mile. The road through the hills was smooth and pretty once I got out of the oil fields.

Last night I attended a nice lecture at Caltech, "How Green is the Cloud" I posted some notes on the Grid Scale thread.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=19398&start=20#p492249
 
New map from Tesla showing many more planned Supercharger locations to be completed "by end of 2017" (Elon time). The map is fully zoomable, but the locations are labeled as non precise.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-needs&usg=AFQjCNEIyB5gOGXc2zxr_whpzwsYmFdZBA

In our area, added locations include:
Pomona, San Bernardino, Corona, Lake Elsinore, Irvine, San Clemente, Fountain Valley, Long Beach, Downey, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Northridge, Calabasas.
 
Interesting "scooter on a ball" project in kickstarter (link several posts above) but apparently
deliveries to USA are not available at this time. Too bad, I might have signed up
for one. However, with only 5 days to reach the funding goal, it seems unlikely
that the goal will be achieved without some "crazy" American investors.

On a first look, it seems to me that better battery "protection" is needed, and
probably protection from overheating during charging, use, storage, and transport.
The batteries could get quite hot in the trunk of a car. Charging system mentioned.

Only 16000 mAh, or 16 Ah times 22v = 352 Wh, being used at perhaps 300 watts by
the three 450 watt motors on level hard ground, might give one hour at 12 k/h, or
only about 7 miles of range? Just guessing on the power requirements. I suspect
that it takes more power to balance on 2 wheels than on 3, and more to balance on
one wheel than on two.

Also, the moving parts appear to be somewhat exposed, which might be a safety hazard.
The platform to stand on appears to slope outward, perhaps making it slippery or
awkward for older people with weaker ankles. Just my thoughts.

Our sweet "little old lady" started the next big portion of her "journey" yesterday afternoon.
I will miss her smiles, laughs, and the love that she brought to our Gatherings.

See you this coming Saturday, I hope.
 
Back
Top