May 17, 2023 Winnipeg Bad morning!

 Woke up to all 4 tires slashed #%&$#%&$@&*%& Thanks Winnipeg! and to the condo owner who said we could park on the street.

And now MPI is being extremely inflexible , have to find a way to haul all 4 dead tires back to Brandon for an adjuster to look at, can’t just drop them off in Wpg!!!

Well after taking some deep breathes and wondering what else the Trickster had up their sleeve for us, all the pieces started to fall into place. Several of the tire shops we called couldn't do the tires until later in the week BUT!!! Ken the tow truck operator knew a guy, that knew a guy, and we had the car towed to Kal Tire on St. James right across from a Smitty's. They could put new tires on ASAP. So we selected our new tires and went across the street and had a later than planned breakfast. Breath deep and keep moving! 

We then put in some time second hand shopping and the tire shop got our car in earlier than planned and we were back on the road by 1:00 with 4 dead tires jammed in the back seat. MPI needed to see the tires.

We looked all over Polo Park for the rapid charger the apps said was there, but couldn't find it. We did a calculation and decided we could make it to Portage la Prairie.

It was a very smokey drive as the cold front and rain came over us and the temperature dropped from 21C down to 11C in about 1/2 hr. We watched our range begin to drop as we headed to the Co-op in Portage for our next charge. We decided to push the car and see how it effected the range of the car. So at 11C driving at 112Kms/hr. with the heat and wipers running the car starts to go through the electrons a lot faster. We were normally running at 13-14 kWh/100kms and this type of driving pushed it up to 18.2.

We pulled into Portage with the lowest range we have ever had, 42kms or 11% battery. This is just 1% above what is considered an empty battery. If you are driving an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, this is when your low fuel warning light comes on.

One of the questions people ask and we wondered about before starting this journey was, ¨What do you do while waiting for a charge?” Our experience on this trip tells us that if you have a few errands to run, go for a pee, do some shopping, have something to eat, visit with other EV drivers at the charger, etc the time goes by fast. And before you know it the 45min to 1hr stop goes by fast. At Portage we had a visit with neighbours Wybo and Sharon and their Audi ETron, did some shopping and had some lunch. We had a 91% charge when all was said and done.

Since this would be our last, “on the road” lunch of this trip we splurged and had some dessert.

Boston Pizza Triple Chocolate Cheese Cake did not disappoint!

We had more than enough charge to make it home and we silently rolled into the yards to surprise the cats. After 10 days and 3350kms on the road we finally plugged into the shop and Kona was at their new home.

PS

We drove to Brandon on May 18 and went to the MPI claim’s Center, and as we suspected, it took 10 mins to look at the tires. On the phone there was no way we could have done that in Wpg!!! And avoided hauling the tires, in our already packed car, back home then making an extra trip to Brandon. The guy at the claim Center told us that since it was a drive though Center we didn’t need an appointment for something like this, and just leave the tires over there, an adjuster will call you. Sheeesh!

May 16, 2023 Ignace to Winnipeg

 Well we had a nice sleep in the Lone Pine Motel in Ignace. Nice place, very quaint but well done for a 1970s motel. There motel breakfast was very good simple wholesome, homemade food. We had charged up to 80% on the rapid charger yesterday evening so we had plugged in to the 110v at the motel for 12hrs over night. We were hoping to get a 100% charge by morning. It worked 100% charge with 405kms of range, enough to take us right through to Kenora. We are beginning to notice how sensitive the car is to temperature. In Mississippi Mills we charged the same way overnight and the car read 475kms in the morning. The temperature was 18ºC, this morning in Ignace it was 5ºC. So maybe we will have to park the car inside the heated shop in the winter?

We checked out the Ivy chargers in Dryden on the way by. They were both operational and there was a guy in a Ford Escape on one of the charges. He was doing what we were doing, except he started in Vancouver and was heading to London ON. We traded notes about what to expect down the road, what was working, what was not, where to stay and where to eat. He told us the Co-op chargers across the prairies were working and less expensive than PetroCan, which might be the most expensive chargers.

So today we had a nice easy drive. There is construction on a lot of the bridges, both in Ontario and Manitoba, but no big deal since the traffic was light. At no point did we have to drive on temporary gravel bypasses. We did some more site seeing and stopped at a vertically integrated farming operation. Egli’s Sheep farm and bought 2 pair of wool gloves. They had a large retail store on site along with farm tours and petting zoo for the full on tourist season. It was very nicely done.

One of the challengers with driving new cars with lots of onboard thingamadooeys is that most of it is cell phone dependant. While we were surprised how good the service was generally, there was also a lot of this!

When we got to Kenora we were back in familiar territory, if you don’t include charging stations. We located a rapid charger down on the water front which was a perfect place for our picnic lunch. Except it didn’t work. So we back tracked to a PetroCan charger at the A&W. Except it was occupied by some guy with an Audi EV. It was our former colleague and local resident Wybo. So we had a good chat about EV life and his experiences driving across northern Ontario. He has had to have his car towed twice, once because of a dead charging station and again from the same tow truck operator because when they hooked up the car the first time they wrecked the air ride suspension!

 Wybo left and another couple pulled in with a Chevy Bolt. We were just finishing charging at the time. Some kind of serendipity was at work, they had owned their car for just 8 days, just like us. And just like us they were driving across the country to bring the car home. The only difference was they had picked up the car from their son on Vancouver Island and were driving to Newfoundland. Stories were shared again about EV road tripping in these early days.

We went back to the harbour for lunch and then we were on our way again with plenty of electrons to get us to Wpg.

Since this is going to be our last night, of the first part, of what we are now calling “The 50th Anniversary Tour”, we thought we would splurge on an Airbnb downtown condo. Nice view of the smoke haze from the 19th floor.

Then it was supper at the Forks. And they really know-how to treat an EV owner, prime parking and free electrons! These are the halcyon days of EV driving, soon everyone will want to park there.

And guess what the Tesla owner parked beside us was doing? They were driving from Calgary to Guelph and then back home through the states. 

Tomorrow we head home to the cats and garden. We will try out the new Co-op chargers here in Wpg and Portage la Prairie.

May 15, 2023 Marathon to Ignace

 So I first have to show you the moose I forgot to put in yesterdays story. We saw 3 in total.

                                    Moose

We were up early with the just over 80% charge (340kms range) which would take is all the way to Nipigon, (286kms) if the Terrace Bay (82kms) chargers were not working. Just like with the CRV we don’t like running to far below 1/4 of a tank. So we should have around 60kms in the tank if we have to push through to Nipigon.

Sure enough the Ivy chargers were non-functional. A town guy stopped by (he drives a Ford Lightning) and told us a guy was there last evening and had to stay overnight in the hotel in the background. The hotel had good advertising for EV owners frustrated by dead super chargers, they have a Level 2 charger on the wall facing the Ivy chargers!

We pulled into Nipigon and 1 of the 2 PetroCan chargers was working. Good thing since we only had 58kms in the tank!

We walked 500m back to a small restaurant we saw pulling in, Ducky’s Dinner. Of course we had to order the Big Quack, which did not disappoint.

When we got back to the car we had an 87% charge, over 350 Kms.

There is construction all along the way. They are replacing bridges and widening the highway and putting in passing lanes. Very expensive since it is almost all rock.

With both of the PetroCan chargers down out on the highway we had to go to a dealership in Thunder Bay to get a top up to comfortably get to Ignace. This dealership has 2 Flo superchargers and 6 Level 2 chargers. They know the future is coming! 

We stopped in a small park/lookout and enjoyed the harbour view.

Our PlugShare app said there was chargers in the small town of Upsala. So we decided to stop and try out the Ivy chargers. With Ivy they charge your credit card once a month based on what you have used. With Flo you have to add cash to their app and keep a positive balance on the app as you charge. PetroCan does it right in our opinion. You tap your debit card and put in your cell number and pay for what you use at the time, then they text you the receipt when your done.

The Upsala parking area wasn’t much and the place was a bit run down, but they had picnic tables, ice cream and everything worked!

They also had a very large mosquito.

We had a warm drive to Ignace.

Our motel is on the edge of town and right beside Agimac Lake.

We topped up the car to 80% of 64 kw in town and did some shopping, then came back to the hotel and plugged in to the 110v. We will get 12 hrs at 1.4kWh, so we should be close to 100% tomorrow morning.

Here is our route plan for tomorrow.

May 14, 2023 Española to Ignace

 We got an early start and we’re happy to leave the smell of pulp mill behind. Beautiful but cool morning for highway driving.

We have lots of electrons to get to Sault Saint Marie. We stopped at the PetroCan there and took 29 kWh.

Then we stopped in Wawa and took on a big charge, to give us some insurance in Marathon, 40.4 kWh.

One of the things we are learning on this trip is that the charging system in Canada is rudimentary with the exception of Quebec. The provincial government there is making the conversion to EV’s a priority as part of their carbon reduction program. There are chargers everywhere because of the grants and assistance the government has given to business and private individuals. Quebec Hydro has put rapid chargers everywhere. Not so much on the TransCanada highway, it is a patch work of chargers from different companies with little info coming from the companies on the state of their chargers. This was demonstrated today when we discovered both the Level 3 and Level 2 PetroCan chargers were down in Marathon ON. The PetroCan app says nothing about this issue. Another app, ChargeHub says the Level 2 is working, the PlugShare app does accurately tell you they are both down and in the comments PetroCan apologizes! Yet says nothing on their app. So we have taken to researching every leg of the journey closely so we have a plan B and C. 

Today we put on kWh in Wawa so we had some hope of getting past Marathon if nothing was working here. We have 162 kms in the tank when we got to our hotel. Once we knew there was no hope of a  PetroCan charge we got the car plugged into 110v at the hotel asap. (Hrs.x KWh=Kms, so the sooner you start on a slow level 1 charger the more you will have in the morning.) There is a Level 3 Ivy charge station at a restaurant in Terrace Bay, 82 kms down the road. We have never tried an Ivy station and our ChargeHub app says it can be used at an Ivy station, but it is an unknown. So we hope we can charge up there but if not, we want at least 220 kms in the tank so we have some room for error and enough range to get to Nipigon where there are supposed to be functioning Level 3 chargers.

So in spite of having to research and learn new apps we are still being tourist and stopping to see the sights. It has been 15 yrs since we have made this drive so most of it is all new again.

The harbour/marina at Blind River on Lake Huron

Chippewa River

Pinguisibi River

Interesting signage in Sault Saint Marie.

Lunch at the gravel round table in Wawa. Since most people spend about 45-60 mins here maybe a picnic table would be in order.

After lunch we went for a hike on the skidoo/quad trail just down the street.

Lots of big panoramic views today, Lake Superior just coming up to Wawa.

Our plan for tomorrow, it will be another big day.

May 13, 2023 Collingwood to Española

 We were up at 6:00 a.m. and I was curious on how the car made out overnight on the Level 2 charger.

And more interesting than going from 12% to 100% for $12:54 is the fact that the car said it was able to travel 473 kms on the charge. Tomorrow I will begin to keep track of our actual mileage as compared with the cars estimate. We have been too focused on what the car and navigation system have been saying and not keeping track of kWh/kms. But it is very encouraging and tonight we will go back on a PetroCan Level 2 about a kilometre down the street from us.

We stopped just outside Parry Sound at a PetroCan Plaza to top up the battery before heading to Espanola. Again one of the chargers was out of order, but the rest of the place was exactly what you need for a quick lunch and charge. Several restaurants in an indoor mini mall and a cannabis shop if you need to regain your appetite.

Nice little lake just across the road from the charge station

The drive was typical rocks and trees and water, with the traffic thinning as we went north. We passed the outskirts of Sudbury and made it to our hotel by 3:00. Now we just have to find a hiking trail and a restaurant for supper. 

We made it to Espanola by 3:00 and took the car about a kilometre down the street to a free PetroCan level 2 chargers. We decided to leave it on until about 10:00 p.m then take it back to the hotel and plug back in to the 110v to top it off overnight. We need to get at least 300 kms in the tank to get to Sault Saint Marie with some wiggle room. So all of our charging was free in Espanola! So we will drive 240 kms. for free!

We picked up the car at 10:00 and it had lots of charge.

 Currently plugged into the free 110v at our hotel room. We have a big driving day tomorrow as we plan on getting as far as Marathon.

Todays travels