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.