2016 ElMoto 4Corners - Seattle to Ashland

Today was a 490 mile day! Started off in Seattle and headed as far south as possible, and I ended up going past my original destination in Eugene, OR. Started the day off by saying goodbye to my cousin and her 3 daughters, and I was overcome with emotion as I rode away from their house.

My first charging stop was Olympia, WA and the town has put in quite a few Chargepoint charging stations at a variety of locations. However, they are all 6.6kW SHARED charging stations. What this means is that I was limited to charging at 6.6kW instead of 9-11 kW like I usually charge. Other Chargepoint stations will charge at 6.6kW (each plug supplies the full power).

Unfortunately it took me some time, and many plugins and unplugs, to figure out that I couldn't draw more than 6.6kW no matter what. Not only that but it cost $1 each time I plugged in, so I spent about $8 or $9 just trying to figure out how to maximize my charging.

Then I went to Lower Columbia College and sat in the science building while charging. After that was a stop at Cafe Yumm, which serves wraps and salads that are tasty, but not easy to pack into a top case. So I ate the whole burrito/wrap/thing in one sitting (I had planned to save some).

At 12:20pm PDT I made it to Oregon and became the first person to ride in all the lower 48 states on an electric motorcycle! After wondering what it would feel like to accomplish such a monumental feat, I finally knew.

Relief.

I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and accomplishment upon completing this journey that I unwittingly set out upon in 2013. After 3 summers of 4500mi+ road trips, I finally had "collected them all". (At least all the contiguous states...)

After that momentary celebration on the side of the road in Portland, OR it was time to hit the road and push on. My next charging stop was at Knox-Butte RV Park where I plugged in my supercharger at 8.5kW, my onboard charger at 1.3kW and my Elcon charger at 1.3kW for a total of 11kW!!! This is awesome! I should have done this the whole time!

A highlight of the day was visiting Arcimoto in Eugene, OR where I took a test ride on their 3-wheeled electric vehicle. It was quite fun to drive and they will be producing them later this year! Had a great chat with the guys who were eager to hear about my experiences on a Zero SR. About 15 of them basically stopped working as soon as I pulled into the garage where they were working on a prototype and they began digging for valuable user experience.

They treated me to dinner that night at a local pizza party, then I was off to make a little more progress before sleeping. Made it to Ashland, OR at 11:40pm and the person at the desk said I could not plug in to the outlet outside on the wall. I was too tired to find another hotel, so I stayed there anyway. After locating another external outlet, I plugged in the bike there. Since it was so late, I couldn't get a full charge overnight. Read the next post to find out what happened then...