San Diego LEAF Gatherings of Yesteryear - HTB Mira Mesa

A few years ago, in the early days of the LEAF, Gary Giddings started the SoCal LEAF gatherings in Orange county and it continues today alternating between HTB in Cerritos and Santa Ana. Randy Schimka with Gary Giddings started the early San Diego LEAF gatherings starting in 2010 at the Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa. Gatherings were there regularly until a year later when Tony Williams took over and moved the meeting places to various locations.

Here's the link to the first gathering - nostalgia: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1452" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyway, I was at the Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa today and noticed Blink EVSEs in the same plaza as the HTB. Unfortunately, it's not powered up. How interesting it would have been to have had these stations back in 2010. Maybe we should revive the Mira Mesa HTB gatherings and keep it informal without too much formality for old times' sake.

Mira Mesa Hometown Buffet
10660 Camino Ruiz
San Diego, CA 92126

This is great news because Mira Mesa does not have anything but Mira Mar College and that parking structure closes at night.

I've added this location into Plug Share and used the cool photo, thanks




Fred

Those were some fun times...I'd love to go back to the HTB and have some get-togethers there...

Those Blinks (and a few others nearby) are about to be turned on by the new owners of Blink...The circle of life (and EVs)....

Let's do it!!! I can't meet this Saturday, but maybe next?

19th Saturday is my birthday, following 26th flying out to Waikiki, so anytime after the 3rd of May will work for a meeting.

We are open to any time. The more, the better.

Wait a second - are these the first new Blink stations installed since Car Charging took over?

I'll try to make any impromptu meetings that are set up, always fun!

Looks like the same old stations, nothing new

They were stranded by the bankruptcy and are resuming...

Randy said:

Those were some fun times...I'd love to go back to the HTB and have some get-togethers there...
Let's do it!!! I can't meet this Saturday, but maybe next?

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Alright!, let's definitely do it soon but maybe we should plan on it after the Bilnk stations are up and running so that people who might come from a distance like Garygid can get here and back in a reasonable time. I wonder if we can have as many get-togethers as the Orange County folks...here's hoping.

Haven't made any trips past north of the I-8 from down in Imperial Beach yet, so I would hope they are up and running before we select a date.

eHelmholtz said:

maybe we should plan on it after the Bilnk stations are up and running so that people who might come from a distance like Garygid can get here and back in a reasonable time

Click to expand...

After the Blink stations are up and running? And when would that be? 2024? Seriously, I hope that the new connectors installed on a couple of Blink QC stations means that CarCharging is finally getting serious about running Blink as a business, but I'll believe it when I see the blinking blue lights on my dash.

Meanwhile that HTB, our traditional location in Mira Mesa, is fairly near the eVgo QC station in Rancho Penasquitos. The HTB in Vista is fairly near the eVgo QC station in Escondido, and the HTB in Oceanside is fairly near the eVgo QC station in Carlsbad - both good locations for Gary. Closer to Wennfred, the HTB on Clairemont Drive is near the eVgo QC station at the SDG&E Energy Innovation Center. And eVgo keeps their stations working.

Carlsbad / Oceanside is something that virtually any San Diego area LEAF driver can get to, and unlike previous meetings about the county, there are now plenty of charge options.

Plus, LA / OC folks could more easily reach them.

My recomendation would be a complementatry biweekly informal gathering at Hometwon Buffet in Oceanside, and one somewhere down south two weeks later, just like Gary does in OC.

Then, every weekend, there would be a LEAF / EV breakfast in one of four locations from the Mexican border to LA county, all with people we know.

Please go to this thread for Orange County meeting dates.

Here's the meeting schedule for breakfast at Hometown Buffet, 8:30am to 11am, on Saturday:

April 26 - Santa Ana (Orange County)
May 3 - Mira Mesa (San Diego County)
May 10 - Cerritos (Orange County)
May 17 - Oceanside (San Diego County)


Repeat

Here's the thread I've kept going since Dec 2011:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155193#p155193" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I like the idea of multiple locations on a rotating list. We could even vary the times based on location. The last one was at the NRG eVgo Freedom Station in Fashion Valley. For that location there was no restaurant to meet but food and drink was brought. For this location it could be something like a simple "pot-luck" with juice, fruit, etc.

The HTB at Mira Mesa, HTB at Clairemont Mesa, Carlsbad, Poway, Escondido, Oceanside, El Cajon, etc. all sound great. Maybe even RP and RB area.

We could have the folks in each area host for that area and coordinate the event. That way we do not rely on just one or a few folks to set them up for us.

Since San Diego is a large area, We could make it a weekly thing. Then no problem if you can not make that day and time, there is another one the next week. It could be a Saturday Morning, or even a Noon or Afternoon gathering. Same for Sunday. Each week the selected Hosts for that area decide the day and time as well as the location.

Since we live near Spring Valley we are happy to be on the team for anything south, up to the Fashion Valley area. Those in other areas that wish to help please let us know.

It was nice meeting all of you last time, but I think there are so many other EV'ers out there that we need to contact to get them networked.

What do you all think?

All really good ideas for future gatherings -

I was thinking along the lines of what Tony proposes so that we complement the OC folks. A weekly meeting on different weekend days at different locations may also work but might be too ambitious. Graffi, if I remember correctly, your recommendations to Gary & Randy in the early days was to keep the gatherings informal and fun (from your experience with another car gathering in San Diego); this, I think, is sensible advice.

I happened to be in the Santa Ana area this weekend and stopped by to attend the OC LEAF gathering and it was a lot of fun with Gary, Tom, Robert, and others there. In addition there was even madcow from Hawaii who's on the Rav4 forum and was in Santa Ana for meeting.

Anyway I did tell Gary about our efforts to reinstitute an HTB leaf gathering in Mira Mesa. With the battery degradation on his LEAF of the last three years he's not able to make it to Mira Mesa and but said that he would try to make it to Oceanside if we were to have gathering there as well.

Randy, Tony, and friends, are we in agreement that we should meet in Mira Mesa this Saturday, May 3 at 8:00 or 8:30AM? Who can come?

I can make Mira Mesa on May 3

eHelmholtz said:

Randy, Tony, and friends, are we in agreement that we should meet in Mira Mesa this Saturday, May 3 at 8:00 or 8:30AM? Who can come?

Click to expand...

Wish I could be there, but I'm out-of-town.

Yes, Mira Mesa May 3, Oceanside May 17



Please go to this thread for Orange County meeting dates.

Please go to this thread for San Diego County meeting dates.



Here's the meeting schedule for breakfast at Hometown Buffet, 8:30am to 11am, on Saturday:


May 3 - Mira Mesa (San Diego County), 10660 Camino Ruiz, San Diego, 858-566-9848

May 10 - Cerritos (Orange County), 11471 South St, Cerritos, 562-402-8307

May 17 - Oceanside (San Diego County), 491 College Blvd, Oceanside, 760-945-6080

???? - Santa Ana (Orange County), 1008 E 17th St, Santa Ana, 714-541-3020

We would love to be there, but last week we started a very strict diet that will last for 6 weeks. With HTB we would have to pay and eat NOTHING. It is almost worth it just to meet with all of you, but I think we will have to wait until this diet is over. Just the thought makes my mouth water....

We had a small but fun gathering this morning and discussed a range of interesting things including SDGE's upcoming proposal to enter the EV charging mix!

We even found a Blink DC charger and 3 L2 Blink stations in the same parking lot as the ones I posted about at the begining of this thread. Unfortunately, none are operational yet. The ones we discovered was right in front of the Target and next to an AT&T store. Here are some photos:

Look at the lisence plate on the Model S - Randy must be high up in the company ;-)

We are so sorry that we had to miss it this morning. We were planning on going last night when we went to sleep, but something came up early this morning that kept us from getting there. We do plan to be at all of these gatherings as possible.

I know there is a HTB in National City, and also El Cajon, so maybe we can schedule one at these in the future. Anyone live near either of these? The one near National City is nearest for us.