Next San Diego EVent: Sat, Aug 9, 2014, CANCELLED

One shortcoming with the several that drove long distances is no electrical power on site. I'd like to figure out a way to fix that.

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Planning to move the event to 577 South Vulcan Avenue, Encinitas, CA for a whole bunch of reasons:

Saturday, June 8, 2013 @ 10am - 1pm

1. For all the folks coming from "up north" (OC, LA and Ventura), it's only 60 miles south of Irvine (versus 80 miles at the old site

2. Everybody in San Diego can easily get here

3. There are two Blink charging stations on site in addition to 25 parking spots. Lots of overflow parking in every direction

4. Solace restaurant has a semi-private room for about 30

5. It will be far cooler than Poway in the summer

6. Most people like the beach

7. You can take the train!!! (yes, really, the station is right there)

8. I am unabashedly promoting the future site of the EVoasis charging plaza at 577 South Vulcan Ave, Encinitas, CA

9. For the extremely thrifty minded, unfortunately it will cost more to eat.

10. We can start slightly later so that folks who are driving a long distance and need charging don't have to leave when it's still dark

11. Yes, we still have trains, just like in Poway (except these are "big boy" trains)

Moonlight Lounge?
What will my wife say? :roll:

I will try to make it down, bringing some Android devices
and OBD dongle for the LEAF Battery app.

Is the meeting room reserved, what hours?
Cheers, Gary

garygid said:

Moonlight Lounge?
What will my wife say? :roll:

I will try to make it down, bringing some Android devices
and OBD dongle for the LEAF Battery app.

Is the meeting room reserved, what hours?
Cheers, Gary

Click to expand...

Restaurant opens at 10:30am. Yes, room is reserved, and we can stay "as long as we want". You can see the parking lot from the restaurant.

It is a fixed menu, with only 4 or 5 choices for groups. Sorry, don't have that in front of me. $16.50 per person.

http://www.eatatsolace.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll be driving down from Pasadena!

Barring a work call, I plan to be there as well. Probably will stay overnight in Costa Mesa rather than going home after work. I can give a ride down to anyone who dares!

Knowing the menu selections would be helpful, since
their Web site has brunch, but no "group" menu that
I could find. Normally, they do not serve food until
10:30, it seems. Will they serve earlier for us?

garygid said:

Knowing the menu selections would be helpful, since
their Web site has brunch, but no "group" menu that
I could find. Normally, they do not serve food until
10:30, it seems. Will they serve earlier for us?

Click to expand...

No, it will be 10:30am for food, which is why I changed the time to 10am. Thirty minutes is plenty of time out in the parking lot looking at EVs ;-)

I do have the menu choices, but can't find them right this second. I'll ping the restaurant for specific data while I pay for 15 confirmed minimum seats!

Expect to spend $20:

Solace Restaurant
Encinitas, CA

Starter served FAMILY STYLE:

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls w/
Cream Cheese Frosting


Please CHOOSE ONE:

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs w/
Brown Sugar Slab Bacon, Two Eggs, Grits

Biscuits and Gravy w/
Niman Ranch Pork Gouda Sausage and Fresh Fruit

Natural Hanger Steak OR Cremini Mushroom Benedict
on our Cheddar Chive Biscuits, Sautéed Organic Baby Spinach,
Ancho-Chili Hollandaise

EBLT: Toasted Egg Bread, Lemon Thyme Aioli, Sliced Tomato, Bibb lettuce, 2 Fried Eggs, Sugar Slab Bacon

For the KIDS please Choose ONE:
Cheesy Scrambled Egg, Bacon & Fruit
Butter-Pecan French Toast, Sausage & Fruit

Please no Substitutions!
16.50 per guest plus tax & gratuity, drinks not included
Children 5 and above 12.00

I can hear the new phrase now, Tony...In the vein of "I'll just drive the Prius"...

I'll just bring the brown bag....(TM)

Randy said:

I can hear the new phrase now, Tony...In the vein of "I'll just drive the Prius"...

I'll just bring the brown bag....(TM)

Click to expand...

Ya... I posted this in the Tesla Forum:

Since I was asked some questions, I thought I'd post a summary of my answers about these meetings for folks in the Tesla community who aren't familiar.

This group has been having meetings since Oct 2010, and has used all kinds of locations. Gary G. (Orange County LEAF driver) and Randy S. (San Diego LEAF and Model S driver) amongst others, got things started, and I've continued to organize things since Oct 2011. Originally, it was only Nissan LEAF cars and meetings were done at Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa (San Diego county).

We have met at:

1. Home Town Buffet in Mira Mesa (San Diego county). There is plenty of food, but no charging and no private room.

2. The San Diego Auto Museum private room. We made a $50-$100 donation to the museum for use of the room by "passing the hat". There was no food, so future meetings always included food and a private room. There are 7 of the original Ecotality/Blink charge stations installed in San Diego at this location.

3. In Poway, we have used three different rooms at the Old Poway Park location. The Hamburger Factory restaurant back room holds 45, but since we've overfilled that, then we used a room that held "50" (I think) and we overflowed that, so we rented the hall that holds about 75-100.

4. Almost forgot Santa Ysabel, in Nov 2012, where we inaugurated the first DC charger in San Diego. Plenty of charging stations, and a nice restaurant in the mountains with a semi-private eating area. Way too far from the beaten path for future meetings.

5. In February, we met at the KUSI studio and did a live TV presentation with the assembled EVs (Honda Fit EV, Volt, Rav4, Model S, LEAF, ActiveE) and ate at Studio Diner in San Diego in the back patio.

6. And now, we are meeting in Encinitas.

The issues with getting bigger become more difficult. Typically going over 50 bodies in a rented hall starts to require insurance and fire marshall permit and security, etc. I have already paid many city permits for our previous meetings. Even Encinitas requires a 20 page form for this event, plus prepaid (my personal guarantee) food at the restaurant in case folks don't show and eat. Since there are questions about price of the food and whether you could "brown bag" it, or not eat at all, just know that this stuff costs money nonetheless. It takes a large amount of organization and time that I'm glad I don't keep track of .

In the future, I have offered to co-locate these meetings with other EV car clubs. I have zero interest in bylaws, clubs, board members, minutes, etc. We will leave that to the respective clubs. I've done all that with other clubs, and our gatherings will be exactly that; Meet and Greets. Look at cars, talk about cars, eat food while talking about cars and go home. No newsletter, no website, etc.

Tesla cars are unique in that the cars can generally drive to meetings and nobody should need to charge. That's not the case with all the other EV's, and since we attract folks from "up north" with all kinds of EVs, I intend that all our future meetings will be:

1. Any location north of Del Mar, near the coast, so that all San Diego EV drivers can easily attend, and the northerners can also attend.

2. They must have a private or semi-private room that can hold us.

3. There must be some charging nearby.

4. There must be exposure to the general public (that would exclude meetings at private locations with no exposure). We have had print reporters at our meetings, as well as the TV spot I mentioned. Next month, during the All EV Rally "BC2BC-2013" from Canada to Mexico, I expect we will get a good bunch of EV coverage. We all are a piece of the bigger solution to expose the public to EVs.

5. It must be "close and convenient", which means the charging, parking and eating all have to be at the same spot. This Encinitas location has that in buckets, since there are TONS of parking, lots of restaurant choices within walking distance, and charging stations. In the future, this parking lot location will be EVoasis's charging plaza.

6. Fun and informative. We have had many speakers over the years, typically with charging infrastructure providers like Ecotality, EVoasis, Car2Go, Andromeda Power, etc. We did a live DC charger demonstration hosted by Andromeda Power, charging 20-30 cars while we had our meeting (April 2012). I expect we will have plenty of show and tell, and perhaps a speaker or two at this June 8 meet as well.

Tony Williams

Great summary, Tony! (But you left out one of our most fun meetings - Santa Ysabel!)

cbiwww said:

Great summary, Tony! (But you left out one of our most fun meetings - Santa Ysabel!)

Click to expand...

Crap !!!

I'll bring some "Turtle Soup" which is a brown bag, boiled in wastewater with an OXO cube and a side of crusts from a day-old PB&J. You have to prove your dog ate your wallet so bring X-Rays of Fido

I'm new, but I can already tell you've done a lot for the group Tony. Thank you very much.

As far as possible future locations, may I suggest Liberty Station in Pt Loma? They just put in 10 Blink Chargers (in front of the Vons) that are about to go live any day now (pics on plug share). 8 are grouped together between 12 parking spots where all spots can reach a charger which means less "musical cars" at meets, and 2 others are just 30 ft away with one in front of a handicapped spot. There is a beautiful park area nearby with a wonderful fountain, and plenty of other large open grassy areas. I have a big 12x12 pop-up, and theoretically, (4) 10x10 pop-up tents zip tied together would provide a 20x20 shaded space big enough for the entire group and the park areas are usually fairly deserted, leaving us in a public space, but without much distraction or competition. Permits...who needs em'? =P If you apply for them and fill out the forms, the city will gladly take your money and give you "permission" to meet. If you don't most likely they are to busy to bother with enforcement, especially for a peaceful EV group. =)

As far as Encinitas, we used to live right near there. Great area also. The distance is not the problem for attending, but rather the cost of food. Me personally, I'm frugal, both by choice 'cause I enjoy the game, and by neccessity. I bought my Leaf because I'm smart enough to realize it's benefits, and my wife's work installed chargers and they let her charge free. =) I don't need to be wined and dined, and a monthly meet that I would love to attend, if costing $20 a piece for breakfast or lunch, would add up to nearly $500 for my wife and I per year, which for us is no small amount of $$$.

Unfortunately, I may be forced to not attend and simply glean whatever info is gained from these meetings from the forum here. I may be the minority here but I did want to share my thoughts with you in case there may be others like me thinking the same thing. I know it's tough to please everyone, but I think the 2 biggest barriers to EV meets are (1) the shortage of charging stations and (2) cost of food. Both of these issues are solved by meeting at Liberty Station picnic style. I understand howeer it's far for the northerners, and there is no perfect solution.

Again, not wanting to to dictate anything or sound ungrateful, just sharing my thoughts. But, I do think that having the 10 EV chargers in one spot is HUGE!!!

I think yours is a great choice, at the NTC (sorry, I'm slow to adapt to new names). There should be plenty of eating choices nearby.

We only meet bi-monthly, so I just cut your food bill in half. And, wherever we meet and eat, it will cost SOME money. So, if you can eat at Home Town Buffet for $10, the price difference is only $10 extra every two months (per person).

Thanks Tony. No Hometown buffet for me though. More like Costco Food court. =P

Oops, I was wrong. Liberty station installed 20, count 'em, 20 new Blink chargers which are yet to go live. Here's the article. I'll have to go tool around there and see where they are. I know where the cluster of 10 is already to the left of the Vons.

http://necasandiego.org/news-events/upcoming-dinner-dance/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To tack on to pointlomadave's post above, the rest of the chargers were installed on the north end of Liberty Station/NTC in the parking lot behind the new Stone Brewery & Restaurant (yet another new eating and meeting option!). The lot is across the street from the Ace Hardware/Slater's parking lot.

Those chargers were not active as of last weekend. The lot was full at the time but only 1 space was ICE'd even though there was no EV-only signage posted.