interplaydave
Member
Hey All: So decided to take the Leaf up to visit friends in Santa Rosa. We knew we could get about 4.5 hours of trickle charge while there. Total trip distance -- house to house -- 110.9 miles. We live in Berkeley . . . so called Santa Rosa Nissan to see if I could drop in for an L2 charge, just in case, and they were very accommodating -- told me I could drop in anytime before 7pm (on Saturday). Arrived at friends with 3 bars and 22 miles to go and plugged in for trickle. Checked Carwings on my blackberry (twice! Wife about killed me 
) and saw we were charging, but too slowly. We arrived at 6:30pm at Santa Rosa Nissan and they couldn't have been friendlier! We plugged in to their easily accessible Aerovironment charger (they have 4 chargers together out in the lot) and spent a half hour yakking with David, their Leaf rep. and a nice guy. Left with 5 bars and 47 miles -- not ideal to get back to Berkeley -- better would have been 60 miles. Anyway, we take off, and by the time we got to San Rafael we had 7 miles to go and low battery warning. My wife was adamant that we NOT cross the Richmond/San Rafael bridge without more "fuel" so we pulled off with the idea of a hour of trickle charge somewhere. Asked two gas stations and one of them -- the Shell station on 2nd street in downtown San Rafael -- agreed to let us plug in. They have an third-party ATM machine in front of their store that is plugged into a two-socket plug with the upper plug available. We plugged in and pulled out some reading, got some water, and talked to three different groups of people interested in the Leaf and what we doing. Told them all the Leaf is the real deal and time to start thinking seriously about changing over. Spent 45 minutes and then took off with 9 miles and one bar. At 8 miles got low batter warning with the nice lady letting us know along with other indicators. We crossed the bridge with 4 miles and one bar, but as soon as we got past the refinery, got zero bars, three flashing lines where the miles read out, and the nice lady telling me my battery was seriously low and did I want to find a charging station? I pressed "yes" and she gives me three options -- the closest of which is my own home at 3.9 miles. I selected this and she sets a course for home with zero bars and three flashing lines. We get off at Buchanan and when we reach Marin and San Pablo Ave., the dreaded Turtle appeared. We kept going and when we pulled up to Francis and Santa Fe, the car went into "golf cart" mode. We made it to the top and coasted down to our house, pulled into the drive way and plugged in! YES!!! Very much enjoying my victory gin and tonic!
) and saw we were charging, but too slowly. We arrived at 6:30pm at Santa Rosa Nissan and they couldn't have been friendlier! We plugged in to their easily accessible Aerovironment charger (they have 4 chargers together out in the lot) and spent a half hour yakking with David, their Leaf rep. and a nice guy. Left with 5 bars and 47 miles -- not ideal to get back to Berkeley -- better would have been 60 miles. Anyway, we take off, and by the time we got to San Rafael we had 7 miles to go and low battery warning. My wife was adamant that we NOT cross the Richmond/San Rafael bridge without more "fuel" so we pulled off with the idea of a hour of trickle charge somewhere. Asked two gas stations and one of them -- the Shell station on 2nd street in downtown San Rafael -- agreed to let us plug in. They have an third-party ATM machine in front of their store that is plugged into a two-socket plug with the upper plug available. We plugged in and pulled out some reading, got some water, and talked to three different groups of people interested in the Leaf and what we doing. Told them all the Leaf is the real deal and time to start thinking seriously about changing over. Spent 45 minutes and then took off with 9 miles and one bar. At 8 miles got low batter warning with the nice lady letting us know along with other indicators. We crossed the bridge with 4 miles and one bar, but as soon as we got past the refinery, got zero bars, three flashing lines where the miles read out, and the nice lady telling me my battery was seriously low and did I want to find a charging station? I pressed "yes" and she gives me three options -- the closest of which is my own home at 3.9 miles. I selected this and she sets a course for home with zero bars and three flashing lines. We get off at Buchanan and when we reach Marin and San Pablo Ave., the dreaded Turtle appeared. We kept going and when we pulled up to Francis and Santa Fe, the car went into "golf cart" mode. We made it to the top and coasted down to our house, pulled into the drive way and plugged in! YES!!! Very much enjoying my victory gin and tonic!
