Third Time's the Charm

The Lightning ⚡ and the Bolt 🔩 are on the road again. This time to Ohiopyle State Park in western PA. The journey started on a beautiful summer's day. A fairly early start of 9:15AM. The route southwest from home has a paucity of highways so the first third of the trip was navigating the back roads of eastern PA in a somewhat harrowing fashion at 35 mph. The green hills and hollows of Pennsylvania are not be missed. It is Penn's sylvan wildness and it is spectacular. We are, however, now cognizant of weight restrictions (the Lightning Bolt ⚡ 🔩 together weighing just under 15,000 pounds). There are innumerable country back roads and their small bridges that are, alas, now, definitely not for us. A few "recalculating"s got us to manageable byways. From there we wound our way to our first charging stop in Mill Valley, PA.

The lightning ⚡ does great towing. Only the range is adversly affected by the towing. The unburdened range of the lightning ⚡ is about 320 miles. We've come to learn that with Bolt 🔩, the range drops to 142 miles with the caveat of a strict 55 mph speed limit. This equates to about 2.5 hours after which both Lightning ⚡ and humans need recharging. The humans can retire to the Bolt 🔩, when charging, for rest and refreshments. The charging station was the Flying J #709. A terrific, relatively new station. Part of a huge truck stop, the EV charging was pull through and very easy to access with the trailer. A pleasure with good charging speed.

From there we planned our next charging stop; which would have put us 40 miles from the park. Alas, we couldn't quite make it so we stopped at the back up station. This was Electrify America at a Sheetz in Bedford, PA. Misery! Five charging stations shoved into a small parking lot. We had to unhook the trailer and then charge. Unhooking and hooking adds at least 20 minutes to the charging time.

We continued from there on the PA turnpike for about 40 miles. Then another 25 miles of twisties in the backwoods to the campground. The evening sun gently warming a gauzy breath of condensation from the dense forest.

Driving, we noticed that a strong line of thunderstorms passed south of us. It turns out the park was right in their path. The park was hit by a microburst that did significant damage. Trees down and power out. 

A ranger directed us to a 15 mile detour to the campground. No power. The full hookup sites at the campground are so new that they don't appear on Google maps. A friendly neighbor camper guided us in.

We set up relatively easy. And a long day was done. A dinner of salmon quiche, pickles and cucumber salad really hit the spot. Tomorrow, we explore.

Lightning ⚡ and the Bolt go to Letchworth

Letchworth State Park is a phenomenally beautiful State Park in the western region of the Finger Lakes in upstate NY. Often referred to as the "Grand Canyon of the East", it's a narrow park that follows the Genesee River in its gorge, through woods and over three spectacular falls.

We chose LSP as our destination cruise for the Lightning ⚡ and the Bolt. It's relatively close to home in case of major issue. TL;DR: no issues. A great test. 

The Lightning, with its extended range battery, unencumbered by a trailer, has a range of about 300 miles. With the trailer, the range is cut by a little more than half; just under 130 miles. From our perspective, charging every 100 or so miles (keeping a small reserve) just isn't a huge deal. We like to take a break every 2 or so hours anyhow; stretch the legs and empty the bladder. So we charged, once, halfway between home and the park.

Hauling a large trailer is a new experience for us so there were some nerves as we entered the campground. It was a back-on spot, unpaved with nearby trees. Slow and steady won the day and we had no trouble backing into the space.

You'll notice that there was no water or sewer hookup but there is a 50A electrical service. Water was available from a nearby spigot so we filled the tank before parking.

Staying only two nights, we used mostly our battery and solar for our electric needs. The 50A did come in handy for charging the truck for our daytime wanderings.

The trailer with its insulation and AC s cool and quiet. Very comfortable. All of the amenities, bathroom, shower, sinks, AC, fridge and freezer operated as promised. We learned a lot about what we would need to bring on subsequent camping trips.

We had a beautiful next day visiting the park and its waterfalls. A successful shakedown cruise.

Trump Won on the Courage of his Convictions

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump won re-election as the 47th president on the courage of his convictions. It doesn't matter how vile, nonsensical or felonious those convictions are; he holds true to them.

 It doesn't matter if he's going to execute his plans; he comes across as rabidly believing in them. Once you win, you can change course, waffle, hem and haw, lie and prevaricate. The clear, frank, honest, consistency need only last till election day.

We all know Donald Trump's style: hold outrageous and outrageously simplistic beliefs based on naive, childish comprehension and present them in loud, bombastic, often incoherent fashion. Use shock jock vulgarity to press those points.

It works. Not for the sideshow cinematics but for the straightforward yes/no, "I don't care who I piss off" transparency and sincerity.

Everyone else in the game is politically correct to the point of obsequious meaninglessness. You cannot get a simple "yes/no" answer from a politician other than Trump or, more importantly, get them to state clearly and definitely their opinion on any issue whether of national security or their favorite ice cream flavor. They are deathly afraid of pissing off some constituent somewhere or worse, any constituent anywhere. They, therefore, take no stance, and merely pussyfoot on the shifting quicksand of immediate public opinion.

Trump realized that he can piss off 47% of the electorate and still win the election. The moral to this story is that you can pick, choose and hold fast to concrete positions and opinions that are supported by about half the nation or more. Don't waffle or hedge. Say "yes" or say "no" but answer the damn question. Be confident and consistent in those positions even in the face of withering criticism. Consistency in the face of attack makes you look even stronger.

Political correctness was killed by Donald Trump and we should thank him for that. Now, let's see if the Democrats, or anyone else, can stand up a candidate with sane convictions that they can clearly articulate and have the courage to uphold consistently in the face of benign and malignant questioning that is the modern media.

Bucket List Item Checked

I had a simple dream for retirement. Buy a pickup truck, build a camper and explore the USA, predominantly, the West.

You have to put this in a little context. I am a progressive, eco-consious, STEMM (the second M is for medicine) nerd. I have been this way since childhood reinforced by friendships with similar minded people along the way. I was taught about solar energy in 1977. I was taught about homesteading and home building. I learned about Tiny Homes.

In May 2021, Ford announced the Ford F-150 Lightning all electric pickup truck. The day after the announcement, I placed a reservation for one. In November of 2022, I picked up my truck!

Knowing that my truck would be coming in the fall, in the Spring of 2022, I ordered a 22' all aluminum cargo trailer from Proline Products, LLC. I picked up the trailer (with a U-Haul pickup rental) on July 25, 2022.

The dream was born.  An all electric truck towing an all electric camper. It would take another 2 years to finish the project. In August 2024, we took the Lightning and the Bolt to Letchworth State Park in the Finger Lakes for their shakedown voyage.

I'm So Not Inviting You to My Review

Terrible. It's a terrible movie. To start, I'm not a huge fan of Adam Sandler comedy; childish and slapstick. That's the case in this film, too. The jokes, including the alleged inside Jewish jokes, just fall flat. He used every cliché in a vast Jewish repertoire; none of them new. Just not funny. The story is, of course, trivial and obvious.

My real beef lies elsewhere. Sandler, both in real life and in this film, poorly represents the tribe. Yes, there are many different kinds of Jews; less observant, more observant, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and more. The problem is that to Sandler, in real life and on film,  nothing is sacrosanct. Anything and everything can be the butt (no pun intended) of a joke.

Worse, still, whether out of ignorance or time pressures in the film, he trivializes the rites and rituals of Judaism. This is tragic given his stardom, popularity and reach. Many folk in his larger viewership may have little or no other contact with Judaism. It is terrible that this terrible film will be the taste of such a beautiful religion that stays in their mouth.