Well good morning on day 6 from Bucky and friends. I am a little late writing the blog for Day 5 because I just woke up after an epic day of driving 675miles from Saline KS to Grand Junction CO, The trip was so beautiful in so many different ways it is hard to count.
We started our drive off in Salina and noticed we had a major head wind going I70 west. It definitely took the range down on Bucky, so much so that we readjusted our charging planning for it. The scenery along I70 with farms as far as the eye could see was peace to the soul. The two things that surprised me on this part of the trip were the hundreds and I am not exaggerating, HUNDREDS of wind mills along the route, I know why they were there too, because the head wind was brutal at times. More than a few times I eyed those wind mills wondering if there was a electric socket I could plug into the base of one of them. 😝
The other thing was the huge number of oil Derek’s and pumps. I had no idea that Kansas was such a oil state. A quick google search and it was pretty apparent how much oil and gas they produce. Good for Bucky, he loves them sweet sweet electrons produced by all that oil and natural gas.
Our first stop for charging was - yep you guess it - Walmart. It was there I realized that the sprinklers at the previous nights hotel had left hard water spots all over Bucky’s shiny new paint. I went to work immediately getting those off while were were charging. I got some strange looks from folks as I stood there getting those spots off, but no way was I gonna let them bake on throughout the day. Mission accomplished. May I also say - Bucky is a Bug Murderer - LOL. Damn that poor boy had bugs up in his “grill” like some sort of weird Bug horror movie. A quick wipe of detail spray and they were off and Bucky could smile that stupid buck-tooth grin of his again down the road.
The second stop was at the I-70 dinner along I70. There are EA chargers there (even 350KW) and we gave Bucky a long drink of electrons while we went in and had a burger. Interesting experience while at the diner. Service wa slow and as we waited for our meal, we overheard the owner of the place had sold it the previous night, told everyone this was their last day and it was all over. Only one waitress had shown up and the poor girl was overwhelmed. You could tell she was really torn up inside and was doing her best to still help the customers. Cheryl went and gave her a really nice tip to help her out and she was so appreciative of that. Remember folks, waite staff are humans too. Sometimes we all have bad days, turn up the compassion filter when you find these situations, and add to the good karma points to the universe as you can.
Finally the wind was starting to die down as we were driving into Denver Colorado. I noted our range was still really sucking and I surmised it was that 1 mile climb into Denver. We stopped at a EA station at the Colorado Mills Mall (thankful some other scenery than Wally Word) and found a charger to use (another 350). There was a Nissan Leaf and a Polestar at the station as well. I pulled up, plugged in and started charging right away. I was getting looks from the other folks there and it turns out they had all been having issues getting there charging started. I don't know what magic BMW did to make charging so easy at these EA Electron dispensers, but I need to shake their hand. The connection period is literally less than 30 seconds (I started timing them) and the spin up to around 175-180KW takes another 30-45 seconds. Just easy peasy! About 5 mins latter a band new hyundai Ionic 5 pulled up to charge. It took him almost 20 mins to get connected and started. We gave him a hand and got him going. I love all the comments we get about Bucky, everyone wants to check him out. I have given several “sales pitches” on Bucky at chargers all over the place on this trip. Including fellow BMW drivers in ICE versions who pull up and want to know everything about him. Hmmmm, I wonder when my royalty commission checks will start coming in from BMW 🤣
We did a longer charge at the Colorado Mills mall because some good friends we had not seen in ages showed up to see us and Bucky. It was great catching up with them. Thanks for coming out Stuart! We are looking forward to seeing you in WA soon.
NOW THE EPICNESSS!
After leaving the Colorado Mills Mall we started up long tall hill climb into the mountains along I-70 to begin the last leg of the journey that day, I believe it was 11,000 feet (I need to go back and check). I was really worried about how much range Bucky was going to get climbing all these mountains, luckily there were charging stops along the way in several towns, like Vail and Aspen, so I was not too worried. Bucky climbs hills like they are flat land. Amazing. No effort at all. What else is amazing if the amount of regeneration Bucky got going down those steep sloops on the way down into the valley. He regenerated so much, that I never had to charge once the entire section of I-70 from Denver at the Colorado Mills Mall until we reached our final stop of the day at Grand Junction Colorado with a 20% battery and still 80 miles of range on the old ‘guess-o-meter”.
I cannot begin to describe the sites we saw on that trip. The geology of those mountains were ever changing and amazing. In fact I found myself setting Bucky cruise control to slower speed so I could just revel in the scenery. I am sorely tempted to go back to Denver and turn around just to see it again. Alas I am on a time schedule and need to get home to southeastern WA by Tuesday. If you have never done this drive, it has been the highlight of this trip and one of my top 5 best drives EVER!
One other note: I used Bucky Professional Lane Assist feature the entire time. Only once did I feel like it was not in control, but I had my hand on the wheel all the time anyway so it was an easy correction. Again - Bravo BMW engineering!!!! It made the drive a complete no stress experience. I am going to include a short 1 minute video on on this blog of the drive, but trust me, it does not do this road justice.
Well its almost 8:00am, need to go get some coffee (must control fist of death you know) a little breakfast, and then saddle Bucky up for another 500-600 miles today.
Stay well out there my friends!
Until the next blog…..
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