2016 ElMoto 4Corners - Austin, TX to Tallahassee, FL
In Austin I visited swing dancing friends Orion and Tina who moved to Spicewood, TX together shortly after getting married to open the TerraPurezza Regenerative Agriculture Institute. They are basically taking back the desert by turning dead dirt into soil that can sustain living plants. This is incredible! I definitely at the freshest food of the trip while visiting.
Also, they both work at a local high-end restaurant called Apis Apiary and Restaurant that makes incredible food with locally sourced ingredients. Both Orion & Tina taught me volumes about nature, farming, nutrition, and life. We also took a few moments to relax at Krause Springs where I jumped off the 15 foot cliff and we all swung from the rope swing (yay Tina!).
Eventually it was time to move along, so I packed up my belongings and headed to Houston. Since Spicewood is on the West side of Austin (about 40 miles), I stayed with another friend from my days living in Pittsburgh in Austin proper. His house has solar panels which I used to recharge while we ate at Torchy's Tacos. After a good night of sleep, I was on my way!
There were only two charging stops that day, the first was at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa just East of Austin. It is a very fancy hotel with all the amenities. I planned to buy some food to reimburse them for the charge. One of the benefits of charging at fancy hotels is that everyone is super nice and helpful. A valet came to ask me why I was parking my motorcycle by the chargers and he was excited and kind when he found out I was charging. After that I bought some food (a very expensive breakfast wrap served by an enthusiastic server), and was back on the road quickly.
As the day continued, the temperatures once again hit the 100's. I arrived halfway between Austin and Houston at the Columbus RV Park, basically the most useful charging spot between the two cities.
After charging for about 15 minutes, I heard the fans from my supercharger stop. Always an unsettling experience. When I checked on them I found the breaker switches were all on, none had flipped. I immediately felt bad because charging so fast (11kW) had burned out the RV hookup post and would offer to pay for it. This charging stop may cost over $100! Yikes!
After finishing charging and paying $5 for the charge, I headed out. Later when I called to give them my info so I could pay for damaging their RV hookup, they said the recently heavy rains had messed up their wiring and it wasn't me, it was their equipment. *phew*
Made it to my destination in Houston and continued on to Tallahassee for a long day on the highway.
