San Diego to San Luis Obispo: Red LEAF Road Trip 2012

I am taking my 15 year old son on a road trip from San Diego to San Luis Obispo soon...We have a week to make the trip, stay a bit, and come back down. It seems like a perfect opportunity to take the LEAF on the trip and make a real adventure out of it...It is about 300 freeway miles door to door if we take the San Marcos Pass route north of Santa Barbara or about 320 miles if we stay on 101. I'll probably avoid freeways as much as possible to extend the range.

While I'm pretty familiar with the charging stations on the southern part of our route, I'm really looking for some help and advice about available charging stations on the central and northern parts of our route, with special mention of stations where there are fun and interesting things to do while we wait...

I'm interested to hear if anyone has done this route and what recommendations you might have for stopping to charge...Help me figure out if the trip will work for us...I would hate to take the gas car...

Randy

My first stop would be a nice stroll and lunch in Laguna Beach, while the Red Flame charges at:

2 Chargepoint L2s available 24 hours, need a card
547-597 Forest Ave
Laguna Beach, California 92651

If those are blocked, I'd continue on to visit the Tesla showroom and lunch at California Pizza Kitchen:

Fashion Island shopping mall, 2-L2s, need card
1101 Newport Center Dr
Newport Beach, California 92660

Or shopping at South Coast Plaza:

3 Chargepoint L2s, need card, garage between Sears and Nordstroms
3333 S Coast Dr
Costa Mesa, California

If you can get to the Mitsubishi headquarters before 4:30pm (Edit: Mon-Fri only)

1 Eaton ChaDeMo quick charger, 9am-5pm(Edit: Mon-Fri only), no card needed
6400 Katella Ave.
Cypress, California 90630

Hopefully, youve gone almost 100 of your 300 miles, and now have a quick full tank, so you're good for another 80 - 90 miles with careful surface street / highway 1 driving.

Marina Bike Rental would be a good stop:

1 Blink, need card
505 North Harbor Blvd
Redondo Beach, CA

There are numerous places in the Santa Monica area to charge a bit, and things to see and do.

I'd motor through Malibu, and hopefully there is something to plug into somewhere while you check out the beaches. Otherwise, it's about 95 miles from Cypress to the Nissan dealer in Oxnard / Ventura, and that would be my overnight. That should be almost 200 miles in one day.

J1772 ?
Courtyard by Marriott
600 East Esplanade Drive
Oxnard, California 93036

4 Chargepoint, 50 cents an hour, need card
Crowne Plaza Hotel
523 Ventura Blvd
Ventura, CA

The next day, with a fully charged car, I'd go to the new chargers in Solvang, the cute Dutch town, only 65 miles from Ventura. I'd make a long lunch, and maybe buy some wooden shoes.

It's only about 65 miles to San Luis Obispo, so you could get there in 2 full days. Only a 130 mile day 2.

There's a whole bunch of Clipper Creek units at:

Target
11990 Los Osos Valley Road
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405

Thanks, Tony. I'll scope it out on a map...

How about it, Central Cali Leafers? Are there any other charging stations that could help me out, maybe not appearing on the maps?

Thanks for your help....

Randy

As usual Tony has it covered. (Thanks Tony for Target SLO tip) There are also chargers on the 1st floor of the Marsh Street Garage in the middle of downtown San Luis Obispo;

881 Marsh St.
San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401

In Malibu, a charger in front of Malibu Country Mart

3835 Cross Creek Rd
Malibu, CA 90265

And Malibu Library and Courthouse
23555 Civic Center Way
Malibu, CA 90265

Also on the Santa Monica Pier (drive onto the Pier!)

200 Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica, CA 90405

If you like to Bike, they just completed the San Antonio Creek bridge so you can ride from downtown Ventura to Ojai.

Bike the Bridge

Bike rentals in Ventura

Ventura Bike Rentals

Have a great trip!

Great info, thanks...I had heard about the Marsh garage awhile back, thanks for that reminder...

Last I was there (Saturday 10 March), the Mitsubishi QC
was unlocked and operational, as it has been for over 4 weeks.

Near Dana Point is Wesloh Nissan, with 2 AV L2s usually 24/7.
If you need 5 gallons of peanut butter, Costco is 2 blocks away (South). :lol:

Sounds like a great trip you have planned. I've been thinking of doing the opposite trip --- SLO to San Diego.

Anyway, it sounds like you have all the SLO L2 Chargers above.

Target has several scattered across their parking lot (charged there last week, FREE no card required) - From HWY 101 northbound, exit Los Osos Valley Road, turn left. Target's on your right in about 1/4 mile.

The Marsh Street Parking garage is great. I usually charge here. There are 4 L2 EVSE's. 3 of them are in the main garage (bottom floor near the toll booth). First hour of parking is free and it's $0.75 per hour there after. There is also a EVSE on the first floor behind the post office, but it's a metered spot and it's $1.25 per hour.

Downtown SLO is wonderful to spend some time in (shopping, restaurants, etc, etc).

If you need a little insurance charge on your way through Santa Maria, I understand that the Rabobank has an EVSE. I haven't used it, but the Rabobank in Atascadero has one and it's J1772 ready.

Have a great trip!

Thanks very much...The trip is a Go! and I'll post to this thread as we get started next week.....

Randy

The Red Car Road trip is officially getting underway in a few minutes....San DIego to San Luis Obispo...

We'll be going to Laguna Beach and then up to the DC Fast Charger in Cypress....Then over to the coast up and PCH to Venice, Malibu, and Ventura...

The adventure begins!!!!

Randy said:

The Red Car Road trip is officially getting underway in a few minutes....

Click to expand...

Best of luck on your trip! It sounds like fun!

Enjoy!

At the Dc FC right now.....It sure makes me want these all over.....We stopped at Laguna Beach for breakfast and then hopped up to the Tesla store and then up here...The road trip is on......

Vroom, vroom!!!!

At Venice charging at the Blink at Electric Ave...On to Malibu shortly....

Heck, no surprises so far? You're making it look easy!

Throw up a pic or two.

:idea:

So far so good....We're currently charging at Malibu city hall on their Clipper Creek CS40...No surprises at any of the stops, no OOS or ICED charging stations...Next stop Oxnard/Ventura....

Great to hear of the red road trip! Keep on letting those electrons flow!

Randy said:

So far so good....We're currently charging at Malibu city hall on their Clipper Creek CS40...No surprises, everywhere. We stopped zqwas okay and ready to go...Next stop Ventura....

Click to expand...

Only one blue LEAF charging at the Ventura Promenade an hour ago. 3 open spaces. Windy at the beach, so you will have a headwind coming up.

Arrived at Oxnard Marriott with 1 bar and 11 on the GOM...Charging now on the hotel Clipper Creek CS40...Total miles driven about 190. Dinner soon after a booster charge...Oh, the sales guy at the Tesla store gave Brandon a Matchbox Roadster, so he is happy...Overall a great day...On to SLO tomorrow...

In part inspired by this thread, I am now thinking of taking my family on a road trip to San Luis Obispo. With green vegetation and wildflowers, Spring is usually a great time of year to experience the Central Coast region. In the near future I'm going to have several days of free time.

Driving from the San Bernardino Mountains, one of our first stops would be the USC Science Center in Los Angeles, where we'd spend a good chunk of the first day and bring the charge up to 100%. We would then head for the Coast Highway and likely follow the same route as Randy.

Our intention would be to camp every night, including possibly two nights at Montana de Oro State Park near SLO. Has anyone been able to get permission to charge at state campgrounds or day use areas? Alternatively, I could take my road bike on the trip, and use it to shuttle the car to/from overnight charging locations; this has worked well on past occasions, and I'd love to do some road biking anyway.

Also, in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, can anyone recommend any good hiking trails within a few miles of charging? In general, our goal will be to have enough activities en route to never feel like we are waiting around for charges. We are into the outdoors and don't care much for shopping. (Libraries are also great places to stop; we've made very good use of the L2 charge point at the library in Rancho Cucamonga.)

Very much looking forward to reading about Randy's drive tomorrow.

Here's a summary of the first day itinerary..

San Diego to Laguna Beach: 70 miles
597 Forest Ave. Charged for 2 hours while we ate a leisurely breakfast at the Penguin cafe...

Laguna Beach to Newport Beach: 8 miles
1101 Newport Center Dr. Stopped by the Tesla store at the Fashion Island mall and charged at the Coulomb station by the California Pizza kitchen for about 45 minutes. The sales person in the Tesla store made Brandon's day by giving him a Roadster matchbox car...

Newport Beach to Cypress: 21 miles
6450 Katella Ave. So much fun to use this equipment, and it saved us a bunch of charging time...We ran it to 80% and then re-started it and slowly went up to 90%...

Cypress to Venice: 38 miles
1416 Electric Ave. Stopped for an ice cream break while we charged at the new Blink stations for about 60 minutes.

Venice to Malibu: 15 miles
23555 Civic Center Way. Stopped at Malibu city hall to charge for about 45 minutes while we walked around the park they have there...

Malibu to Oxnard: 36 miles
600 E. Esplanade Dr. Chose the hotel because it has a J1772 compliant charging station (Clipper Creek). We rolled in with 1 bar and 11 miles on the GOM....

I had the GID-meter on board and took detailed notes on each leg as far as miles, gids, miles/kwh, etc.

More to come.....Randy