2016 ElMoto 4Corners - Tallahassee to Titusville, FL

Today was a day of contradictions, it was both easy and challenging, predictable and uncertain, hot and...well it was very hot. The previous night I had arrived at a friend's house at 1am, then we proceeded to talk until 3am. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep and woke at 7:30 then headed out by 8:30 (which was later than I wanted).

I have traveled this path before on a road trip last year, so I had been to each charging stop before, but that didn't stop today from presenting unique challenges.

First I stopped at A Stone's Throw RV Park and charged up there for 20 minutes. A guy asked about my electric motorcycle then immediately went into a diatribe about how there is no white privilege, Trump pays women better than Hillary, and how there was never any racism in America. All I wanted to do was charge, but he tried his best to foist his non-fact-based opinions on me. Fortunately, I didn't have to stay long.

Then I stopped in Lake City, FL at the In & Out RV Park. The lady at the desk asked for $5 and let me charge. I had intended to charge at the local Nissan dealership, but took a wrong turn (typed in the wrong directions in my GPS) and ended up in a better situation at the RV Park. Not only did I add it to Plugshare, but also charged in the shade, whereas the Nissan dealer did not have shade.

I've been monitoring my battery temperature closely ever since it overheated in 110F temperatures in Indio, CA. This is a rare challenge that has never happened to me before. Today would be a challenge so I charged at 6.6kW instead of supercharging at 9kW.

Headed to Jacksonville, FL and the Water St. Garage (where I charged last year) only allows monthly passholders to park there now. This is an unexpected change, and nothing was listed on Plugshare. Fortunately there was a charging station at the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and I was able to sit in air conditioning in the nearby Waterfront area.

After Jacksonville I went to a new (to me) charging station at a hotel in St. Augustine where the front desk associate was super kind and let me charge immediately. I charged at 3.4kW so my battery would stay cool enough to charge, and it worked.

Then things got tricky again. I charged up at a BMW dealership in Daytona, where I had charged before, and caused a fault in the breaker. They couldn't find it so I had to go to the next-door Nissan dealer. They weren't friendly at first, but allowed me to charge and became much more friendly. That was the second year in a row that I blew the breaker at the BMW. Last year I was plugged in next to a BMW i3 and the station went dark. Oops! I need to charge up here again on my way back North, I hope it works by then.

Then I made it to my parents' house a little before 8pm, so it took about 11 hours to travel 300 miles today. Not bad considering the challenges of the day.

My girlfriend flew down from Queens, NY to see me, meet my family go to the beach, and go to Harry Potter World.