Disappointed in Downtown Oviedo

Since Eri took Melissa to Disney for her birthday, I needed to pick up the kids from school. And today was a busy day, too: Tatiana had forgotten her homework, so I needed to pick up Kayla, drop off Tatiana's homework, pick up Tatiana less than an hour later, drive Tatiana to her pottery class an hour after that, and pick Tatiana up again an hour after that.

Estimating 15 minutes from all these locations in downtown Oviedo to my house, that left only 30 minutes of charging for each 6-mile round trip. I can't put 2kWh in those batteries in only 30 minutes! I needed a new plan.

The plan was to drop off Tatiana's homework and hang around the school if they let me charge. Get some new books at the library, and see if they'd let me charge. Drop Tatiana off at pottery, eat at a restaurant that would let me charge, pick Tatiana up, and go home.

Things didn't work out that way, though.

The school was happy to let me charge. The outlet they provided was way in the back, which made picking up Tatiana slightly more inconvenient, but I was quite happy with it. (Action shots when I get the chance.) Kayla and I read some of The Princess and the Pirate, drew a picture, and played with the milk cartons outside the cafeteria.

The library wasn't willing to let me plug in. The head librarian said it was "the county's electricity", and she couldn't make decisions for the county. I understand that reasoning. Maybe I'll attend a county meeting and see if they'll give me permission. We stayed for almost an hour anyway, picking up books (including The Woman Who Rides Like a Man; great series so far).

When I dropped Tatiana off, I still had plenty of charge left. I could probably make it home with no problem, but topping off is always a good idea. I went to the Oviedo Town House, a local landmark. Our daughter and the owner's son have a few classes together. I expected no problems.

But they acted like my car was a ticking time bomb. They said that the fire station might know where I could plug in, but "it's definitely not going to be around here." I had thought that if I ever had a problem, it would be the perception of expense (which I always eliminate right off the bat by offering to pay). In this case it seemed like there was a perception of danger. I don't know what to do about that.

I tried the Popeye's next door, but they dismissed me quickly, saying they didn't have an outlet.

I tried another, less popular, local landmark: closed for Easter. Just not my day, I suppose. I had wasted more than 30 minutes by this time, and I was getting a little frustrated.

MadHatter's Pizza was willing to let me plug in, if I could get my extension cord to reach. I couldn't, but that made them my restaurant of choice. The fire station was only two doors down, and they let me charge with no complaints about "the county's electricity". They even brought out their own extension cord and plugged the car in for me!

They were very interested in the car. They liked that I had used orange cables, that I used redundant contactors and fuses, and that I had a cutoff switch. They informed me that they couldn't tell whether the car was energized or not, and recommended that I add a well-marked Emergency Disconnect under the hood. They said the first thing they do is open the hood anyway, and a big red triangle would make them much more confident if I was ever stuck and unconscious.

One nice fella even showed Kayla around the fire house while I was talking with the others. When they went back inside for dinner, they said I could drop by for a charge any time.

Of course, by that time it was almost time to pick up Tatiana. Kayla and I walked to MadHatter's and placed a to-go order. When we got back to the car, we had been charging for about 15 minutes. That was enough, though. We picked up Tatiana, parked next to the fire station, and went to pick up our food.

The girls wanted to eat at the table, so we did. The owner was very accommodating. Kayla loved her cheese pizza, Tatiana loved her spaghetti and meatballs, and I enjoyed my chicken Marsala. (The meatballs were pretty good, too; I won one from Tatiana by betting that Kayla would finish both slices of pizza. :) )

We also got some garlic knots, which were fantastic.

We reached home without ever really stressing the batteries. Everything worked out well, and now I know where I'm going to eat in the future.

I don't see any reason to shop where they won't let me charge.

Legacy comments:

michael elliott

Regarding not shopping where they won't let you charge, I agree. I only have an ebike (built from recycled junk) but prefer to follow the same principle. Most of the time there are no outside outlets to plug into where I might go, and never any near bike racks (when places even *have* racks!), so often enough it doesn't matter if they'd let me charge or not. :-( But I have one more consideration, and that is that I must be able to see the bike from where I'll be at in an eatery, since I'll be there for a long while in most cases. Not like anyone would probably run off with my 120-pound monstrosity, but you never know. (they used to steal the battery packs for my lights, when I used small ones). At places I couldn't see it from anyway, like a grocery store, I just require that I be able to lock it up in a place that has a lot of people traffic, and is well-lit. I'd like to also restrict to places I can charge at, too, but it's usually not possible. :(

judebert

Someday. Since bikes are so much easier to electrify than cars, it makes sense to put an electrical outlet next to the bike rack. I wonder what the managers would say if you asked for that at the grocery store?

Considering the cost of contracted electrical work, I don't think any place would spend that money in the current economic situation. So I've never asked. I *have* asked about getting bike racks installed at places that don't have them, and at best I get a "why?", and more often scornful looks or comments. ("we don't get places to lock our cars up, why should we give you one to lock your bike up"). I figure there wouldn't be any better response for the outlet request. Also, at most places I go to, I'm the only electric bike I've ever seen. I have seen some on the roads, bike paths, etc, and talked with some of the riders, but I don't see nearly as many as I expected to. Totally off topic, but I think that most people are not using them much because they're not comfortable to ride even when they don't have to pedal, since the only cheap ebikes are from Walmart and the like, and those are not going to be adjusted to fit them. Nor will they buy a bike that *could* fit them properly in the first place, most of the time, even if there is a choice of frame sizes (usually there is not). Even if they did adjust them, and had a frame that fit them, the saddle seats would be uncomfortable for anything but short trips for most people (it's the complaint I hear most often from friends and people I discuss cycling with). Recumbent-style seats are the answer to that, but until very recently they could not be had for a price most people would be willing to pay, and I don't think much of the ones I've seen that are that cheap--I think mine might actually be better made, which is very sad. :-)

Judebert

It's amazing just how resistant people can be to even the simplest ideas. One of my friends is building a recumbent bike. He created his own seat out of plywood; it looks pretty comfortable. I wonder why more people don't do their own work.

Because it is *work*, and usually it's *hard work*. :) Even *I* keep putting off a lot of projects because of the work involved, but partly it's because if I don't have time to do all of what I want to do at once, it is difficult for me to find motivation to keep coming back over and over to finish it. I'd rather just get it done. That's probably why most of my stuff looks so...homemade, because once it functions, it's now "good enough", and I have little reason to go back and polish it. :)