Birth of a nickname - Part 3 - The EVent (Note: This doesn't seem to have gotten sent out, so here it is again.) (Update: The trailer and HMGT were delivered safely to Plasma Boy Tuesday evening and a nice dinner was enjoyed.) All that I've described, horrible and taxing as it was, was more than paid for by the reason for this adventure. Gasless at the Crossroads was a very good show. We got up Saturday morning. I almost said "early Saturday morning", but after the night before, even 1:00 or 2:00 PM would have been early to us. We stopped off at a car wash and got all three road-legal vehicles (Sniffer, Vera's Prius, and the eDatsun) cleaned up. Made it to the mall just after 8:00 AM as intended. The eDatsun got off the trailer just as we planned. When backed up to the trailer, it was easy to get the HMGT back on the trailer by itself, then down the ramps to the ground, where it could head for Starbuck's. All vehicles were placed inside the mall. Quite an interesting experience as Sheer noted. Driving EV quiet into an enclosed mall isn't something you can do every day. I rode with Vera as she brought our Prius in, also in EV mode. We didn't put any fumes into the mall until we left (okay, twice). After a very brief visit with resident EVers, the crowds didn't take long to build in numbers. We got to preach to many people, across a very complete cross-section of the populace. Vera and I had just over 100 two-sided Prius info sheets, printed off john1701a.com's site. Most were distributed Saturday, and the final few Sunday. For a relatively new EVer, it was great to get to know fellow EVers whose name I knew better from the list than I did the people themselves. I still had enough energy Saturday to spend the day fairly active in talking to people about both EVs and hybrids. Vera and I like letting people sit in our car, just to see that the Prius really will fit them. The steering wheel was tilted, the seat moved back and forth, the trunk opened and inspected (the latter upon request, since that was our only "stash" place). I managed to wander over to the other EVs and visit with our SEVA friends. Many were relatively new acquaintances to me, but I now consider them all friends. The SEVA-provided dinner at Red Robin Saturday night was great! Food was very good, but the company made the EVent. Sunday, I still was doing well, but with a little less energy. John and Cheryl had breakfast with us, then headed to Portland to visit with Otmar. Geoff's silver Insight was moved into Sniffer's place. We had taken our Prius out Saturday night, under the impression that another would be brought in on Sunday. That particular one turned out to be unavailable, even though I saw it parked outside during breakfast, so we put ours back in. At least we had it to use Saturday evening. And it turned out that another Prius was present Sunday, so Vera could have had ours out in the parking lot to take naps in. But it was nice to have the two next to each other at the show. One funny thing, though. Both Insights were silver and both Prius were aqua. Sunday was another great day with crowds varying from slightly busy to very busy all day. 6:00 PM came both too early and too late Sunday. I really should make the rest here be Part 4, but I'm going to try to be terse and include it here. Now for the trip home. After the adventures coming up, I thought I could really get a stable arrangement by putting the HMGT inside the Ford, under the canopy to make the tow vehicle heavier. Then the trailer would be relatively lighter. With that in mind, we put the HMGT into the Ford, then headed over to Red Robin where some EVers were going to have dinner. This was really a lapse in judgement, but I liked the association and I really wanted to drive the eDatsun around a city in a state other than mine. Vera and I got there, but noone else showed for a while. Finally Roy and the Gizmo owner, Kelly (spelling?) come in. We expected others, but none showed (missed you, Geoff). However, it made for better person-to-person conversation and we had a great meal with Roy and Kelly. The meal took longer than we expected, then we headed out. Vera and I got the eDatsun on the trailer, but the first hint of a problem reared its ugly head. With the weight already on the Ford suspension from the HMGT, I couldn't get the eDatsun as far forward as I wanted. I did the best I could and took off. Not too far down the road, still on the 405, we stopped and put the arrangement back into the previously known stable position, with the HMGT in the eDatsun, both on the trailer. After some fiddling, it all went together nicely and made it all the way to Portland with no instability. Again, I was (and still am) gunshy, so we didn't make record-breaking time. Getting there in one piece was all I wanted. The problem now was that we hadn't had much sleep the last few nights, even starting with loading the trailer after the OEVA meeting Thursday, remember. We stopped at every rest stop on the way. Walked and got coffee. But we couldn't make it safely. It was about 2:15AM Monday when we pulled into the Toutle River rest stop (you remember, where this adventure started), where we decided to take a nap. About three hours later, nearing 5:30AM, we got going again. Boy, does a little sleep pay off! Neither of us had problems staying awake. BTW, having the FRS radios paid off big time, too. Bottom line is that we pulled in at home about 7:00AM Monday morning. Vera rearranged her schedule to have the day free. I'd already gotten it off from work, but thought I had a doctor's appointment midday. Turned out to be Tuesday, so we spent the day catching up on sleep. We're feeling much better now. We did take time to get the eDatsun off the trailer and the HMGT back on, ready to take back to John's. Tonight, in just an hour or so, the last leg of the journey will occur. An end of a way too exciting adventure that could have catastrophic, but turned out, overall, to be very positive. If we can learn from our previous stupidity, without getting killed in the process, all is not lost. Again, I want to thank SEVA for putting on a great show. After this, I will have a hard time not attending the Gasless EVents. After talking to people about Gasless at Greenlake, I may have to make it a must-attend EVent, too. But maybe the real bottom line is to wonder how I can be so lucky. Lucky to get to know such great people trying to help the entire world. And, especially this weekend, lucky to be so stupid, come so close to buying it, and then to get off so easy. 'Course, with Cheryl's new nickname for me, I'm not as lucky as I could be. - Eric "Jackknife" Johnson
