Drive Across the USA with a LEAF and Plant a Tree every 250 Miles!

[UBUYGAS]

Thanks for that update and clarification.

[UBUYGAS]

Tom,

The problem is you don't have a Facebook account. There are hundreds of posts there.

If you ever build up enough nerve to get to www.FaceBook.com then search for #negcarbroadtrip or #NegativeCarbonRoadtrip




Sal

Yeah, it is about the most nonevent event ever... I had pretty much totally forgotten about it... Clearly he needs someone who understands marketing...

Too bad he didn't take feedback about more frequent and better status updates. I'd asked that he at least tweet his current odometer mileage, current city and next planned city right after he initiates a charging session, at least on long sessions where he has to L2.

[jpadc]

That Leaf Spy screenshot is from my phone -- my wife and I met him at the West Coast Electric Highway charging station in Bellingham, WA, yesterday. I bought him lunch and we talked for a couple hours. His OBD-II dongle was broken so he hadn't been able to use Leaf Spy his entire trip! A friend of ours in Bellevue, WA had an extra OBD-II dongle, however, so he went down and met him to get hooked up, so to speak.

I wasn't too surprised to see it at 96%. Taking long trips generally increases reported SOH, and he hasn't exposed it to heat for long periods of time. And he's sort of taking long trips...

Thanks for getting that information about car and sharing it with us. Those numbers are impressive at ~50k miles.

I was thinking at the beginning of his trip that such regular charging, driving/discharging cycles would tend to heat the battery, Of course, he has really dropped the per/day miles from the initial (unrealistic) plan.

So if memory serves he started out with about 28k miles on the car (I wish we had LeafSpy data for the day he started the trip) and that screenshot was taken after 108 days and about ~21.5k miles which is roughly 210 miles per day (taking out some down time due to a death in his family). Impressive certainly, but not likely charging/discharging cycles at a rate to heat up the battery. So I guess I need to start taking long trips in my car!

Edit: Corrected some estimates

[NegativeCarbon]

I've read through the comments here and I find them fascinating. That some of the most prominent Leafers in existence could be so clueless about what I'm trying to do and the difficulties inherent in it is pretty mind-boggling.

The only thing I've been able to deduce from this thread is that the majority of you are wasting a bunch of time that I don't even have the luxury of wasting. Cwerdna, you in particular disappoint me. From the start I've listened to and evaluated your suggestions--at one point taking you seriously enough to buy an atlas. What's it doing for the $17 I could have spent on a meal or lodging? Taking up space and adding a bit of weight is what. And now I see, "if he had taken my [brilliant] suggestions..." lol!

The half-processing is astonishing, right down to: "I thought the whole point was to plant trees."

Yeah, the whole point was to plant trees. Doh. The point of planting the trees was:
A) to pre-answer the people who would ignorantly argue about fossil fuel emissions from power plants
B) because planting trees is a good idea (try it sometime)
C) to add beauty to the places I visited and offer thanks to the recipients

The point of the project I won't even bother to explain, because it is self-evident. If you wanted to be constructive, why not take the obvious step of contacting me directly instead of badmouthing me on what you probably (but errantly) believe is the source and destination for all things Leaf--this forum? Why not contact Nissan and see if you could convince them to assign an unpaid intern to help with the gigantic task of coordinating this trip? Why not do *SOMETHING* that is actually constructive, rather than pretend constructive--like hassling me on a forum it's obvious I pay scant attention to is?

"I don't DO Facebook." I've heard some people derisively claim. Yeah, well most humans do, and since I'm time-limited to say nothing of energy limited, why doesn't ONE of you--aside from Sal Cameli, who is a very busy person himself--offer something tangible like reposts rather than oblique insults?

Answer: because you're drive-by critics, and that is all. You're like teen boys driving around neighborhoods with 40 ounce beer bottles half drunk swinging baseball bats at mailboxes and saying, "that one wasn't built very good!"

"He should just do [THIS AND THIS]." lol. Yep. And instead of giving me a hard time about what *I* shoild be doing better, you should all be spending your energies harping at Nissan--since last I checked that entire corporation has barely done more to publicize the Leaf than I have, and certainly less to educate the dealerships on how to take care of their DCFCs than I have. They're cowtowing to people who think range is a factor while I've spent 16 weeks proving that infrastructure is the real issue.

The net net here is that I appreciate your comments on this forum just as much as you appreciate what I've been trying to do. That is, essentially not at all.

But thanks, anyway, because it has been good for a laugh.

[cwerdna]

I've read through the comments here and I find them fascinating. That some of the most prominent Leafers in existence could be so clueless about what I'm trying to do and the difficulties inherent in it is pretty mind-boggling.

The only thing I've been able to deduce from this thread is that the majority of you are wasting a bunch of time that I don't even have the luxury of wasting. Cwerdna, you in particular disappoint me. From the start I've listened to and evaluated your suggestions--at one point taking you seriously enough to buy an atlas. What's it doing for the $17 I could have spent on a meal or lodging? Taking up space and adding a bit of weight is what. And now I see, "if he had taken my [brilliant] suggestions..." lol!

Wow. I have offered suggestions since you'd run out of juice once early on (that I know of) and you've had numerous cases where you had cellular signal issues, so why not use a method of navigation that doesn't depend on it to begin with? I have 2 Garmin GPS portable navigation devices, an old handheld Magellan GPS unit and nav systems in both my cars. They all provide location and navigation (well, sorta navigation on the Magellan handheld) in the absence of cellular signal.

I suggested an automatic beacon because well, TonyWilliams used one on at least one of his BC2BC journeys.

I had only known of 1 place to look for updates initially (listed at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 07#p443207), over time, I discovered more. The purpose of http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 74#p444774 and being interested in updates is for some of us cared about your safety and well-being.

Obviously, it's easy for anyone to be an armchair quarterback. As I learned long ago about forums and the net, if someone posts something, it's probably going to get opinions.

Yes, your trip is not easy in a Leaf and is obviously full of challenges.

The point of the project I won't even bother to explain, because it is self-evident. If you wanted to be constructive, why not take the obvious step of contacting me directly instead of badmouthing me on what you probably (but errantly) believe is the source and destination for all things Leaf--this forum?

Thru what method? Some from me were thru comments on your blog. And, some later came thru your other channels that I found you were using.

Why not contact Nissan and see if you could convince them to assign an unpaid intern to help with the gigantic task of coordinating this trip?

Did you do that? Did you ask us to do that? If that's what we knew you needed/wanted, sure, a bunch of us could've contacted them. Not sure if they'd assign anyone. How many unpaid interns would take this on and that you'd trust to understand all the issues and give you proper/good info? After all, garbage in --> garbage out.

Less than 0.5% of all vehicles sold in the US are pure electrics, so to me, it seems a bit difficult to find someone who understands all the issues and challenges but ALSO willing to do it for no pay, at a for profit company.

There are can be labor law issues with having unpaid interns at for profit companies (e.g. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm). Even if that issue didn't exist, hiring someone competent and trustworthy doesn't happen overnight. It at least takes time and effort on the part of a hiring manager, HR, IT and whoever has to provide them building access and computer access.

AOL got hit w/a class action lawsuit from unpaid volunteers: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/26/nyreg ... -work.html, http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/ao ... volunt.php and http://priceonomics.com/the-aol-chat-ro ... or-revolt/.

why doesn't ONE of you--aside from Sal Cameli, who is a very busy person himself--offer something tangible like reposts

We didn't know you wanted reposts.

I did post about your effort and your Leaf Spy readings at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/sh ... st10729139 (you need a free account over there to see it). It also included links to some of the social media sites you've been updating.

"He should just do [THIS AND THIS]." lol. Yep. And instead of giving me a hard time about what *I* shoild be doing better, you should all be spending your energies harping at Nissan--since last I checked that entire corporation has barely done more to publicize the Leaf than I have, and certainly less to educate the dealerships on how to take care of their DCFCs than I have. They're cowtowing to people who think range is a factor while I've spent 16 weeks proving that infrastructure is the real issue.

Nissan runs TV ads all the time here in the Bay Area featuring the Leaf, esp. w/the '16 w/107 mile EPA range rating (which they emphasize). They show up to auto shows w/the Leaf. They were at a Cupertino Drive Electric event earlier this year and previous years, besides being sponsors (https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=342). I'm sure they were at others.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance recently made available for use 200 pure BEVs as shuttles at the UN COP21 climate conference: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/20 ... -02-e.html, http://www.nissan.co.uk/GB/en/experienc ... COP21.html and http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/ ... e-at-cop21.

I was at Tokyo Motor Show for 2 days (it ran from Oct 29 to Nov 8). There was at least 1 Leaf (including the 30 kWh unit) and e-NV200 van on the show floor, besides them premiering the 60 kWh IDS Concept (http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/ ... us-driving and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-TLo86K7Ck). http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 34#p445534 has a pointer to a backstage video, showing it's no small feat to set up and run booth there + press conference.

Per http://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/press ... 51108.html, there was 812,500 visitors to Tokyo Motor Show 2015. In addition, there was press coverage of Nissan's announcements and discussion here.

There were 197K views of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-TLo86K7Ck, another 21K views of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx8XPU3driU and almost 10K of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZyCvMGsdZI.

As for dealer education on taking care of DC FCs (keeping them working, accessible, etc ), this is something we've harped on for a long time here. Unfortunately, due to state franchise laws, with only a few exceptions, automakers CANNOT own dealerships, so they have limited control. And franky, the overwhelming majority of all vehicles sold at Nissan dealers are not EVs, so it's no surprise that they don't know/don't care much.

For reference, here are some BEV and Nissan sales and production figures:
http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/ ... -u-s-sales - Of the 107K vehicles sold/leased in the US by Nissan + Infiniti for Nov 2015, 1,054 were Leafs
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/20 ... -01-e.html - Nissan finally passed 200K cumulative Leafs after ~5 years
http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/20 ... -01-e.html - Nissan global retail sales from Jan to Oct 2015 = 4.4 million vehicles
http://www.hybridcars.com/november-2015-dashboard/ - (US) "Battery Electric Take-Rate: 0.46%"

Some folks from Nissan corporate do monitor MNL and there is the Leaf Advisory Board (aka LAB: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/107 ... r-problems, http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=10267 http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=18015).

If you watched Revenge of the Electric Car, Carlos Ghosn (Nissan CEO) himself said he didn't care about the long distance EV driving scenario. The Leaf wasn't intended for that.

It's at about the 76 minute mark. I found someone w/a transcript (possibly from closed captions):

PEOPLE SAY, YOU KNOW, "HOW ABOUT THE GUY WHO'S MAKING"--
YOU KNOW, "DRIVING VERY LONG RANGE?"
WE DON'T CARE.
WE ARE NOT ADDRESSING THE CAR FOR THESE PEOPLE.

Why not do *SOMETHING* that is actually constructive, rather than pretend constructive--like hassling me on a forum it's obvious I pay scant attention to is?

Not sure what you're looking for. I've offered suggestions and pointed you to locations of certain known good charging spots.

The net net here is that I appreciate your comments on this forum just as much as you appreciate what I've been trying to do. That is, essentially not at all.

There's a disconnect between what you envisioned and have in your head, including your wants/asks vs. what others have interpreted or can know w/o the ability to read your mind.

I appreciate your effort and wish you well, but wow, if that's your response, I guess I won't bother to comment, follow or offer any more suggestions.

[dhanson865]

I've read through the comments here and I find them fascinating. That some of the most prominent Leafers in existence could be so clueless about what I'm trying to do and the difficulties inherent in it is pretty mind-boggling.

Is the trip complete?

I'd love to know the average miles per day (without including the days you didn't travel for any reason).

I'd also love to now how often you had to charge L1 or L2 other than during your overnight stop to sleep.

You've already proved the degradation guess wrong as the Leaf seems to be no worse for wear per the leafspy screenshot.

[jpadc]

The half-processing is astonishing, right down to: "I thought the whole point was to plant trees."

Brian:

I wanted to take a minute to respond to your comments on mynissanleaf.com. I’m sending this to your email (as all as posting on mynissanlieaf.com) as I suspect you may not have a chance to go back here to read the responses posted. I want to try to briefly address some of the concerns you expressed there both directly and indirectly about me. On a side note, I’m the one (not cwerdna) who suggested you buy an atlas when you got lost and had poor cellular coverage. I thought it was a good thing to have. I use one frequently while traveling even though I have many GPS type devices. I’m sorry if you did not find it useful since. I’ve upped my contribution on IndieGoGo to cover that expense for you.

The important issues that I wish to address are your concerns about me (and a couple of others) not wanting to use Facebook and your loss of focus on planting trees: both issues I have raised about the trip on mynissanleaf.com and that you were critical. I do take offense to your most negative comments there. If you want to support Facebook thats fine and your choice, but you told those of us that donated money to support your trip that you would blog about it at: http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html and I don’t think it outrageous of us to expect you to honor that commitment. If you had told us that we needed to use FaceBook to follow your trip, I may still have donated, but I would have done so not expecting to follow along. On the IndieGoGo site where you asked for my (and others) support you said:

Every dollar pledged to this project will help reduce carbon pollution. Every dollar will be spent toward planting good-quality, hardy, long-lived, climate-appropriate trees.

There will be no money spent for sightseeing (it’s not about the destinations, it’s about the journey.)
There will be no money spent for accommodations (just a tent, a sleeping bag, and a whole lot of stars.)
There will be no money spent for advertising (but I’ll need you to talk about it.)
...just tell one person then follow the blog here: Negative Carbon roadtrip

I'll chronicle the daily victories of the trip—as well as the inevitable setbacks. This is your shotgun ticket to emission-free driving without the range anxiety of a long uphill climb in the wilderness with no outlet plugs in sight.

So when you don’t post on the blog, and your Facebook posts focus primarily on the US capitals and other sites you visited and say next to nothing about tree planting and then you basically stop doing it, I think a little criticism from the people who funded you might be justified. I’m sure the trip was very expensive. I’m sure you are tired. But taking shots at supporters is probably not a well thought through strategy on your part.

In terms of other help, I did try to set up a meeting for you with the BlueIndy people here in Indianapolis, but your schedule was so tight with you wanting to get to an event in Kentucky you did not have time to get that done. I wish we would have had the opportunity to meet in person. Other help would be beyond my ability to give.

I’m glad you have made it through the trip and I hope you feel some measure of success in your effort to promote driving electric cars. I wish you well

Bob

[NegativeCarbon]

Look cwerdna and Bob, you're continuing NOT to help. I've answered your email Bob, which easily could have been left an email, but it essentially amounts to a weak justification/substitute for why YOU didn't do things differently. I can type maybe 20 wpm on this phone, you aren't getting more of a reply than that. I waste project time--constructive time--on these pointless tangents.

Cwerdna quotes Ghosn out of a movie from what, 2011? Is that even relevant? Does it matter? I don't think so. I don't care if he said that TODAY. He's CEO of Nissan and if he says it he's deliberately misleading or out to lunch. The car doesn't need more range to satisfy the requirements of 42% of Americans. I believe the Union of Concerned Scientists over a salesman any and everyday of the week.

You don't know how to contact me directly? Lol try the email associated with this account, or try asking here, if that fails. (I posted my telephone number and got two calls in 112 days from it.)

You want second guessing, cwerdna? You've had a derisive, contrarian, know-it-all tone from the get go as far as I can figure out, and the funniest part about it is that you yourself have convinced everyone here that you dont have the foggiest idea of what is going on with the project. If you were mildly curious, you've spent a whole hell of a lot of effort *NOT* showing it. You're lobbing tomatoes from the middle of a crowd.

Nissan showed no interest, that's what happened. It's their loss more than mine, I can say that with conviction. Because I know all the secrets of the well-traveled Leaf, and I am more than happy to share them with people who might want a car whose manufacturer and dealers are all too often asleep at the wheel. I've been rewarded with thumbs ups, smiles, "right ons" and nods enough to know that what I've done has been worth it. I've planted in all but five of the states I've passed through thus far, and three of them are still planned.

You're going to ride me? Complain about what I HAVEN'T done when you have not even the slightest idea what I HAVE done?

My reporting has been lax, is your summary. "He didn't take my suggestions for more frequent and better updates" is patently false. I did what I could. I did the best a constantly-moving, well-nigh impossible to find a place and time to sit down for fifteen minutes, almost completely lacking coordination assistance TEAM OF ONE person could do in 112 days and 22,000 miles.

Your "constructive criticisms" have come without a whole lot of depth of thought, cwerdna. PERIOD. You've got all the time in the world to type jeering comments from your armchair quarterback position but not even the decency to give me a call. It's disgraceful. You want to appear clever, but I'd take kind over clever any day of the week. A pint of the former versus a gallon of the latter if you please.

585.331.7051 and I've been 24/7 on call for 16 weeks. Use it if you have the guts to reply with anything other than a half-thought out forum post. I've been thinking on my feet for 112 days, how about you try it for three minutes?

BK

[cwerdna]

Look cwerdna and Bob, you're continuing NOT to help. I've answered your email Bob, which easily could have been left an email, but it essentially amounts to a weak justification/substitute for why YOU didn't do things differently.

With you lashing out at me, I will not help. I was originally planning on contributing to your venture, since I recognize it's costly for you. I guess I won't now.

I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to respond and defend myself.

Cwerdna quotes Ghosn out of a movie from what, 2011? Is that even relevant? Does it matter? I don't think so. I don't care if he said that TODAY. He's CEO of Nissan and if he says it he's deliberately misleading or out to lunch/

It does matter because the range of the Leaf since its initial design until the 2015 model year hasn't changed much. It finally went up with the '16 SV and SL to 107 miles from 84 and those just started arriving at dealers.

They intended a certain set of use cases and it's been evident in their marketing by quoting figures as to the Leaf's range and how much the "average" driver in America drives (e.g. http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/ ... ing-range/ says "MORE THAN ENOUGH JUICE TO HANDLE YOUR COMMUTE

The average American drives less than 37 miles per day. [*] With an maximum range of up to 107 miles, the Nissan LEAF® SV & SL can take you nearly three times that distance on a single charge. [*]...")

The Feb 2013 of the above at https://web.archive.org/web/20130211011 ... ing-range/ says "ENOUGH JUICE TO HANDLE
YOUR COMMUTE

The average American drives less than 29 miles per day. [*] The Nissan LEAF® can get you much farther on a single charge. [*] "

They also had to balance cost, vehicle size, and potential sales at a given price and the # of ZEV credits they choosing what they chose vs. going higher (see http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=379 for ZEV credit table).

Thanks to LAB, we also heard a very disturbing view at Nissan HQ. From http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=261746#p261746.

- Everyone working on the LEAF within Nissan ALWAYS quotes LA4 cycle results when they discuss vehicle range. It is not just marketing and sales doing this, but everyone. Their entire culture seems to be built around this concept that the LA4 range of the vehicles is THE range of the vehicles. Most (all?) of the members of the advisory board found this somewhat disturbing. My personal feeling is that it does not bode well for us to get any changes in how they communicate the capabilities of the car outside of Nissan, but we'll see. I think this needs to be a point for further discussion with them going forward. Would anyone else like to propose a different range for them to use in discussions? Perhaps the EPA five-cycle range test result?

The '11 to '15 Leaf achieves at least 100 miles on the LA4 cycle but this isn't a good number to tell people w/no EV experience, IMHO.

You don't know how to contact me directly? Lol try the email associated with this account, or try asking here, if that fails. (I posted my telephone number and got two calls in 112 days from it.)

Which is "this account"? I had no idea you even HAD an account on MNL until TODAY, when you made your first post that I'm aware of. Your post count now shows as 2, even there though was apparently a post in the for sale/want to buy area that didn't count (somehow) and I didn't know about.

I didn't know your email. It's not part of your public profile info. And again, I didn't know about "this account" to begin with. How I would know to ask "here"? As for your phone #, I had no idea what it was until you just posted it.

I posted in response to the places I knew about (e.g. your blog, your Facebook pages (only knew about these much later), and Twitter).

FWIW, in one of my responses, I offered to possibly meet w/you, if our schedules allowed (I had some commitments I believe already) and I suggested that some members of https://www.facebook.com/groups/BayLeafs/ might want to meet you.

What you write somewhere doesn't mean that I or anyone else knows about it! I initially only knew about http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html and Facebook and Twitter links at the top. I posted about this at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 07#p443207.

Right now, https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/negcarbroadtrip at the top for ME, it shows a post from Sal on Aug 31! The public posts are in a random order, it seems... the 1st is from September 1, the next from Sept 2. then Nov 13, then Oct 14 then Oct 27. Oh... and now I notice one from Dec 10 on the FOURTH page down, followed by Oct 9 then 19.

On https://twitter.com/search?q=%23negcarb ... p&src=typd, prior to your post today and on Dec 10, the previous post was from Nov 13th!

Only later, did I figure out that you were posting in other areas, which I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 77#p445577.

You want second guessing, cwerdna? You've had a derisive, contrarian, know-it-all tone from the get go as far as I can figure out, and the funniest part about it is that you yourself have convinced everyone here that you dont have the foggiest idea of what is going on with the project. If you were mildly curious, you've spent a whole hell of a lot of effort *NOT* showing it. You're lobbing tomatoes from the middle of a crowd.

I have a day job that keeps me very busy every weekday and sometimes on weekends. I was also on a vacation in Japan for 2 weeks which I didn't want to spend writing and responding to posts. I also have other things going on in my life. I did follow your journey, esp. when I learned of the more frequently updated locations.

Contrary to what you think, Nissan has done numerous things to promote EVs while you've been on your journey (see my earlier post).

My reporting has been lax, is your summary. "He didn't take my suggestions for more frequent and better updates" is patently false. I did what I could. I did the best a constantly-moving, well-nigh impossible to find a place and time to sit down for fifteen minutes, almost completely lacking coordination assistance TEAM OF ONE person could do in 112 days and 22,000 miles.

Given that on Sept 23, I only saw infrequent updates on your blog and only knew about 3 places where I might find updates, this is why at http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargeh ... 9021656803 I said

cwerdna September 23, 2015 at 12:28 AM

Just checking in to make sure you're still ok. It looks like your last post was Sept 18th...
...
cwerdna September 23, 2015 at 3:13 AM

Since it doesn't seem like you bought a beacon, would be cool if you just tweeted at the beginning of all/most charging stop (esp. long ones) w/info like city, state, odometer reading and the likely next city/area.

And, in some post somewhere, I added that you should only do so once charging has commenced as to not burn valuable charging and/or rest time.

http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargeh ... 4933343720 I pointed out a hint of a NEMA outlet under the not very discoverable corrugated metal door of CT2100 series charging stations. We have some at my work and some people don't know about it. RonDawg at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.p ... 84#p300684 didn't know about it for awhile.

Your "constructive criticisms" have come without a whole lot of depth of thought, cwerdna. PERIOD. You've got all the time in the world to type jeering comments from your armchair quarterback position but not even the decency to give me a call. It's disgraceful. You want to appear clever, but I'd take kind over clever any day of the week. A pint of the former versus a gallon of the latter if you please.

I didn't know your number! I didn't know until you posted it today!

I was obviously dead wrong about SOH and Hx predictions for your car, but I suspect EVERYONE here on MNL who's had a Leaf for at a least year and taken such readings is surprised, as well and never would've guessed such good readings, esp. given that even L2 charging raises battery temps, and multiple QCs/day really raises it.

At this point, I don't know why I should call and spend any more of my time (or yours). I guess it'd give you an opportunity to further vent and maybe get it off your chest, but I'd be on the receiving end. Maybe I will call you when I find some time, but there doesn't seem to be much to gain, on either side.

Your attitude isn't going to win many friends here. At this point, I will not help your effort further and I will try to restrain myself from commenting much further nor provide any tips, including potentially cool places see that you might come near.

Good luck and a continued safe journey for you.

[NegativeCarbon]

Seriously, cwerdna? You were going to pledge to the campaign? Great, since the project was due to end two weeks ago. "The check's in the mail..."

You contradict yourself at every turn. You are such a busy guy and I'm so irrelevant but here you are posting epic posts and continuing to harass me. You're "not going to waste your time" calling me, but you CAN waste another hour composing a lawyeresque but essentially poorly-thought out and internally inconsistent diatribe.

And I was actually looking forward to getting to the bottom of this. I'm sorry to have assumed you'd take the high road--probably your car just doesn't have the juice that mine does.