Saturday: Westchester to Tarzana; A chance
encounter with a Red EV1
I left my home near LAX in Westchester with my
fully charged EV1 to meet up with fellow
enthusiasts in Camarillo, about 50 miles away
via 405 and 101 Fwys. It was around 2:30 when
I decided to top off at the very convenient
charger at Hawthorne Savings, just off the 101
on Tampa in Tarzana. I had just plugged in,
and lo and behold another EV1 pulls into the
lot. This has never happened to me before: an
auspicious beginning to the event. It was
Richard N. from Monrovia, who had rented the
vehicle just for the rally. I would see him
again when he would join up with the rest of us
the next day on PCH. (He was going to pick up
his son Peter and wait at the Malibu Ralph's.)
I relinquished the paddle to him (he was down
to a bar), bade farewell and got back on the
Fwy for destination Camarillio.
Before this, I have met no other ev1 driver,
even after more than a year. Well, I was going
to meet a whole lot more soon!
Saturday: Charging at the Outlet Stores,
Scoping out the Costco and Olive Garden in
Oxnard and Checking into the Motel
I went directly to the Outlet Stores' charging
stations to charge up a bit before heading out
to Oxnard to scope up the scene. At this great
charging spot an evplus was plugged in. Man,
two evs in one day! The markings indicated it
belong to the Ventura County Pollution Control
board. The driver came out with his family,
got in and took off. Sigh, I didn't get to
talk.
Anyway, off to Oxnard to check out the COSTCO
chargers and the location of the Olive Garden,
our 7 pm meeting place for dinner. No problems
there so I headed back to the Outlet Stores for
a little more charging (this time alone) before
checking in at The Goodnite Inn. This might
seem a little excessive, but I figured there
were going to be a heck of a lot of evs looking
for chargers that night (and I was right).
Finally got to the Goodnite Inn (lest said
about the place the better) at 6 pm. I was
checking in when some guy bounces into the
office and says "Whose EV1 is parked out here?"
I thought it was police or maybe a GM rep, but
when I indicated it was mine, I finally got to
meet the infamous Greg Hanssen! All right.!
It was great to put a face on all those emails
and phone calls (By the way, his famous "No
Gas" photo sits on my Desktop.). We greeted,
shook hands and confirmed that the Olive Garden
was the place to be at 7.
Saturday: Dinner at the Olive Garden, The
Faithful Gather, Plans and Introductions, Food
I arrived at the Olive Garden just about on
time. We got seated a bit late, so I had a
chance to meet a whole slew of EV enthusiasts.
They included Michael Schwabe, who drove down
from Northern Cal in a period of a few days; Ed
Huestis, who did the same but in 24 hours. Ed
Battershell was there, after toting his EV1 on
a flatbed from Arizona that same day. Marc
Zorn, Rick Reinhard, Bill Korthof, and, of
course, Greg H. All together there were15 or
so people at the Olive Garden, all showing up
for the rally. I was impressed. Of course, we
exchanged war stories, disappointments
concerning the release of EV1 Gen II, etc. And
the food wasn't bad either. (However, keep
away from the carafes of the house wines:
they're deadly. Michael S. will attest.)
Pictures were taken, maps distributed and plans
made. We were instructed to meet at Port
Hueneme to charge up at 8 am before the
departure time of 11am.
A bit after nine pm I headed back to the
Camarillio Outlet stores to charge up for an
hour, so I wouldn't have to get up toooo early
the next day. Fred Beers & Co. were there
already. He had rented a RAV4 and planned to
return to take it off the charger by 2 am, or
something ungodly like that. (The Goodnite is
reasonably close the chargers.). Shortly there
after, Bill Korthof showed up in his EV1 and
some guy who had this modified Honda Civic to
charge up as well. Wow. Lots of EVs. Four
EVs and three chargers. Everything got sorted
out and then it was time to return to the
Goodnite Inn for a night spent in the arms of
Morpheus.
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