drive to San Diego

I had a blast on Wednesday 1/12/11 driving down I-5 to San Diego.  The car handles great and I just set the cruise control to 72 and played with the stereo--

• KFCF in Fresno,
• KPFK for the Presidents speech from Tuscon in LA,
• all of Ayda's iPod music plugged in on a USB connection,
• all of my recent chorus rehearsals on my digital recorder plugged in through a line-in cord,
• the XM Sirius radio stations with jazz, pop, and lots of music,
• CDs of Pacifica archives of the civil rights movement--James Baldwin, Ozzie Davis, John Lewis, ML King, Stokely Carmichael, Fannie Lou Hamer, and others

I had nothing but fun enjoying the ride.  Got some curious looks and at least one big thumbs up from a fellow traveler.  The Highway Patrol guy with the radar gun also gave me a long look.

After the first 35 miles on the batteries, the car's gas generator starts running and keeps the batteries charged up.  That happens seamlessly and you can't tell the difference as a driver.  The car got about 37 miles per gallon on gas, which is about what I had been led to expect.  I filled up around Buttonwillow, which is half way to San Diego, and is where we usually stop to get gas for our Honda when we drive to San Diego.

I plugged in at my mother-in-law's house in San Diego, and it took about 10 hours to re-charge.  This is a bit longer than I had anticipated, and leads me to consider getting the 220 volt charger when we get back home.  This is so I can be sure to charge the car between midnight and 7 AM to take advantage of the lowest electric rates.  My understanding is that the off-peak rate is about 4 cents per kilowatt hour compared to about 10 cents for the partial peak.  So if I run three hours five times a week on partial peak, that is about 1200 watts x 3 hours x 5 days/week x 6 cents x 52 weeks = $56 per year.  That expense would justify spending at least $500 to hook up a 220 volt charger.  So I'll look into the cost of that and see if it is worth it.