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