Gail and I have been busy. I’ve been focused on finishing the year strong with speaking engagements and great content for Superpowers for Good. Gail is doing the hard work of packing up.
We sold our home. We anticipate closing on the 22nd as we drive a U-Haul heading southeast to Jacksonville. We hope to close the purchase of our new place on the 23rd as we continue the drive.
Our new home, a condo somewhat larger than our current one, with an extra bedroom. More importantly, it has a two-car garage. We haven’t had one of those in 33 years! We haven’t had two cars in about 20 years.
We expect our Rivian to arrive in about a year. When it arrives, we plan to keep the more efficient Chevy Bolt for our around-town travel. We are planning to replace the Bolt with an Aptera, a 3-wheeled vehicle that gets about 10 miles per kWh compared to the 4.2 the Bolt gets and the 2 the Rivian will get when it’s not towing a trailer.
Speaking of the Rivian, the trucks are starting to hit the streets and fans like us are watching eagerly. One new owner using the handle @gideontherivian shared their journey in a new Rivian R1T towing a trailer with a Ford Mustang from Detroit to Los Angeles as part of their move.
They shared a dozen photos of charging stops (among the dozens they must have made). They didn’t share enough details for us to make any scientific measurements but they shared some comments to help us understand what we can expect.
First, the driver mentioned their speed several times and they kept the speed pretty high, sometimes driving as fast as 80 mph towing a trailer. Speed and trailers both reduce efficiency but they weren’t complaining.
They learned, as we have with our Chevy Bolt, that more frequent charging is more pleasant than less frequent, longer charging sessions. The vehicle charges more slowly as it gets closer to a full charge. So, operating nearer empty allows for quicker stops.
More importantly, they were often able to charge with the trailer in tow. Of course, sometimes they had to detach the trailer but apparently less than half the time. this is encouraging for us.
We’d love feedback about what you like about our updates, what you want more of and less. We’ll do our best to accommodate the interest, whatever it is.
Next week, as the final days for moving approach, our update is likely to be less formal. Please forgive us. The following week, we’ll be on the road. We intend to share updates on social media but can’t promise we’ll post here on the 24th. We do plan to post an update after we arrive in Florida.
Boxing Days