A package to take with me.  Including:

• USB A to USB C cables (two or three, two feet in length)
• USB C to USB C cables (two or three, two feet in lengh)
• USB C charging bricks (two)
• USB A charging bricks (two)
• Wireless CarPlay adapter (that makes a wired CarPlay wireless)
• Sanity.  Lots of sanity. And patience

Also, make sure your credit card company is aware of where you are going.  So your credit card doesn’t get declined because it might be a fraudulent transaction, because you’ve never been there before.

For today, that is all.

So, I’m in Buckeye, Arizona for a few days to attend a memorial service for the wife of a good friend of mine.

I set up the flight and the rental car, and the hotel on Expedia (I don’t travel much via air, if at all).

Book a car, through Hertz.  Because I’ve been to Phoenix exactly one time before (and that was only in the airport to change planes), I made sure that the car I chose had CarPlay, which would give me the ability to have Apple Maps navigation for my excursions in Buckeye/Phoenix.  Great.  So I reserved a 2024 Chevrolet Spark.  I previously owned a 2019 Chevrolet Spark, so I was familiar with the car, and knew that even if they had no options on the car, it came standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.  Great.

So, I took the flight from Everett, Washington (Paine Field, highly recommended) to Phoenix Sky Harbor.  Go to the Hertz counter, get checked in, given a place to go to pick up the car I reserved.  I get there, and someone else has taken the car.  At first, I thought I was  just stupid and couldn’t find the car.  But no, someone else had taken it.

Ugh.  So I go back inside, and get switched to a 2024 Toyota Camry.  Really nice car, since it is  a 2024, it should have CarPlay.  But the place where you plug the USB cable into is USB A.  In 2024!  Sadly, I only brought USB C->USB C cables.  I did actually bring a USB A cable, but it is the old style connector (Lightning) not USB C.  Ugh.

So, I used navigation on the trip from the airport to the hotel, about 40 miles away.  It worked OK, but certainly was substandard.  After doing some research, I discovered, thanks to the utility of Amazon Prime, I can get a USB A to USB C cable delivered tomorrow.  Awesome.  So hopefully, after that, CarPlay will work for me for the ride back on Sunday (and my excursions on Saturday).

The moral of the story is this – Never trust anyone.  Bring all cables you think you MIGHT need, even if they turn out not to be needed. It might just save some brain cells, and in my case, some hair on my head.  Since I have very little hair to start, it must have been brain cells.

I should have been more prepared.  But Hertz shouldn’t have let someone else take my reserved rental car.

Second problem was that I had reserved the car using my wife’s credit card (at her insistence).  When I got to the Hertz counter, they wouldn’t let me use it, because she wasn’t there.  I totally get this.  But I had to pay for an upgrade to the Camry, and had to use my debit card, which was an additional $200 charge.  Supposedly, that charge will be refunded when I return the car unscathed.  We shall see.

Anyway, mentioned all of this to a few people and all they said was “Welcome to travelling. ”  Thanks, I’ll drive from now on.  At least I know the car I have, it’s limitations, and it’s quirks.  I also know it works with CarPlay for navigation.

As I have told others.  This is a very first world problem.  I shouldn’t be dependent on CarPlay for navigation.  But I am.  Especially in cities/towns I’ve never been to before.

Thus ends my rant for the day.

• Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the bride who sat next to me with her sister, and who almost invited me to be her maid of honor in her wedding in Dublin on June 8th, 2025. Because her sister doesn’t like to fly (I don’t either, but what other chance am I going to get to wear a wedding color matching kilt and be a maid of honor in an Irish wedding?)

I’ve written a bit lately about the Tesla Superchargers.

Today, Tesla laid off almost the entire Supercharger team, including the VP who was in charge of Supercharging.

This was after most (if not all) automakers had decided to switch their charging ports (in 2025) to the Tesla connector.

Many OEMS commented that their contacts for this process, who worked at Tesla, are now non-existent.

I’m confused, as many others are in the industry. I don’t know what to make of this.

Hopefully we will get more clarification in the coming days and weeks. It’s a bad look for Tesla, given that they want/need to collaborate with the other OEMs to complete this conversion process.

Once the conversion process is done, Tesla stands to make a large chunk of change from charging, because, frankly, the Supercharger network, to this point, outshines Electrify America, EvGo, and any other charging provider out there. They have the biggest reach. They have the best uptime percentages.

Confusion and disappointment at this point, especially for those ~500 people who lost their jobs today.

On Sunday, Laurie and I drove over to Leavemworth, Washington for the night. We stayed in a AirBNB rental we have stayed in before. It’s very close to everything in town, and we could walk and shop and walk and eat.

Because I am interested in always checking out the Supercharger situation, I found Tesla Superchargers within walking distance of our AirBNB.

Sixteen 150KW Superchargers. Very close to a McDonalds (walking distance), which has food (obviously) and rest rooms. It’s also within walking distance of shopping. So, theoretically, you could charge your Tesla here and shop while you charge.

Unfortunately, they are not MagicDock enabled, so only Teslas will be able to charge here. It is possible that Ford F-150 Lightning and Mach E customers would be able to charge here, provided they had the Ford provided adapter. As we were driving an ICE car, I was unable to confirm this.

Once again, it would be nice to see these in locations that are covered. Especially in Leavenworth, which gets snow in the wintertime, and rain the other nine months of the year.

Also, it would be nice to see trash cans and squeegees for cleaning your windshield.

But it was nice to see there were sixteen superchargers ready and available.

So Laurie and I spent 3+ days in Ocean Shores, Washington recently, and one of the things I wanted to do was find the Tesla Superchargers.

I found them. They are in the back parking lot for the Ocean Shores Convention Center.

There are eight superchargers. They are in the back parking lot. They aren’t covered. It doesn’t appear that there is lighting. Amenities are sparse. There is an IGA grocery store fairly close, and there is a pizza place called ‘The Pizza Factory’, which is really good. But there are no bathrooms that I could see.

Folks, if we want people to utilize charging infrastructure, we need to make it convenient. We need to make it accessible to everyone, and that means making it well lit, and covered, in my opinion.

I wouldn’t want my wife to come to this location to charge a car at night. It might be a safe area, but it’s not lit, and it’s not covered.

I really hope that we see future sites that have canopies and lighting, making it safer for folks to charge in safety and peace.

For the past several years, the government has been pushing Americans to convert to electric vehicles. Some people have done it, to varying degrees of success.

I have been (and continue to be) a proponent of electric vehicles, especially ones from Tesla, and the upcoming Aptera. For the plain and simple reason, the infrastructure is in place for those of us who like to take road trips. We can travel across the United States, to pretty much any locale, and have charging available to us during that trip.

It doesn’t take hours to recharge the batteries. They don’t explode.

The batteries do wear out, but I have never owned a car after putting more than 100,000 miles on it, and Tesla’s warranty covers the batteries up to 120,000 miles.

But beside the point, the grid can handle it, for now. But this video was put out today (01/24/2024) which explains that the electric grid is in for some challenges moving forward.

Electrical Grid challenges

So my belief, while I think electric vehicles CAN be part of our future, I think a date of 2030, or 2035, is too optimistic for a complete changeover to electrical vehicles completely. ESPECIALLY for trucks, which carry a large amount of our freight nationwide.

Would I still buy an electric car? Yes. But I would understand that there may be challenges ahead in the near term, and becoming a completely EV only family is unrealistic. At least in the near term.

Well, today is New Year’s Eve. End of 2023.

Not a horrible year, not a great year.

Lost a few good friends.

Gained a few friends.

Sold our Chevrolet Spark. Ending mileage was 71,327.
Bought a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek. Ending mileage for that was 1,538 for 2023.
Ending mileage for the Civic was 50,301 .

We will see what 2024 holds.

I have been running Windows 10 for a very, very long time. Since the early betas of Windows 10 came out, actually.

Windows 11 became available for my laptop a few months ago. I resisted, for numerous reasons, but mainly due to the fact that everything I have on my computer works just as well as it is going to work, and if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it by upgrading.

That’s almost always been my motto, especially with computers. Too many times, I’ve moved to a newer version of something, be it Office, or some other application, or even Windows in earlier versions, and it has broken something critical that I needed in order to do my job.

Alas, I had a customer call in and complain that the software that my company makes and sells didn’t work with Windows 11.

Not having any other willing (or able) guinea pigs, I decided I would take the plunge and update my computer to Windows 11 so that I could do testing to see if our software was working correctly.

So one evening, on a whim, I started the update process on my laptop. I thought, well, I have a desktop I can fall back on if things go sideways, and if the don’t, well, at least I have the most recent Windows update installed to do testing with.

Thankfully, the install went well. I had zero issues with compatibility,either with my hardware (a Dell Inspiron laptop) or any of the software I use to do my job.

Best part was, my VPN worked still, and lo and behold, our software works fine with Windows 11 as well. Two days later, I received a call from the customer that the issue that they had run into was due to a computer on their end, not our software……duh.

Oh well. I’m on the Windows 11 bus now. So far, it works as well as Windows 10 did. So far. We shall see.

I have always loved the Tesla cars. Have always wanted to buy one. Have always wanted to drive one. Have never had the chance. Recently, with my wife’s car getting in an accident (and being far in the future to being fixed), we occasionally need a second car.

I found a service called Turo, where normal, everyday people, rent out their cars to strangers, for a fee that they set.

I went on Turo, and found a Tesla that I could rent. I decided that I would rent the Tesla Model 3 (2020 edition, normal range), for six days.

Last Wednesday, I picked up the Tesla.

It was very sweet. The torque is instantaneous. It’s fast. Probably TOO fast, for me. It had self driving built in, which I did not use.
The driving range, because this was an older standard model, was about 200 miles per charge.

I drove it around for the time I had it. I charged it every day (mainly due to my own range anxiety), but it was not necessary to charge every day.

There are lots of things I like about the Tesla. There are a few things I don’t like, but some of those things can be fixed by add-ons that were not present on the rental Tesla.

Likes
——-
– Fast
– Easy to charge, convenient chargers that were quick to use
– Spacious inside
– Felt like a rocket ship on rails
– Easy to drive, easy to park

Cons
——-
– No CarPlay. – Since I bought my car in 2019, I’ve become accustomed to using CarPlay, which allows my phone to connect to my audio system in my car. I use it for navigation, to make phone calls (all hands free) and send and receive text messages (also all hands free). Tesla has built in navigation, but it’s not the same. There is an add-on available from a 3rd party company that would add CarPlay to the Tesla for about $100. Definitely a necessity if I bought a Tesla in the future.

– Charging is (somewhat) inconvenient. Superchargers can charge the car fairly quickly, adding 100+ miles of range in about 45 minutes or so. Yes, it’s not as convenient as gas stations, but from where we currently live, there are four SuperCharger stations that are fairly close. They are adding more every week.
– Charging works well, BUT, it requires patience. On a road trip, you could spend 25-45 minutes charging the car every 150-180 miles. That’s normally fine, because you usually will want to get out of the car and stretch you legs, use the restroom, eat something every few hours anyway. But it can (and will) add time to your trip, and if your passengers are not patient, it could be a problem.
– Initial cost of a Tesla is somewhat higher than a regular car, but will pay you back in the long run due to lack of maintenance costs required.
– If you need to have your Tesla serviced, it can be expensive. And it’s really a dealer only option to get it serviced. That may be a pro or a con depending on your thoughts. Tesla’s don’t have dealers, but they do have authorized service centers.

When I returned the Tesla to the gentleman who rented it to me, I said “My wife loves this car. Now she wants one.” He said “Would you like to buy it?”

I was sorely tempted. But, at this juncture, I declined, even though the price that he offered was quite reasonable. For me, I just don’t drive enough to justify the expense. Maybe down the line, things will change, and it will become more of a possibility.

But it was a fun experience, and I would rent another Tesla in a heartbeat.

We spent three nights and four days this past weekend/first part of the week staying in a (new to us) Tiny House Village in Welches, Oregon.

It was a small tiny house on wheels. Two upstairs lofts with queen size beds, and a basement bedroom with a single bed.
Small bathroom. Small kitchen.

We loved the park. We mostly loved the house.

One thing I think we figured out is that while we love tiny houses, a tiny house on wheels is not for us.

For the plain and simple reason that a tiny house on wheels is meant to be a mobile home on wheels. We don’t want to move it around.
We want to find a place, and plant, either as a home base we travel from, or as just a home base.

Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, bathroom with a walk in shower, and a living room. I think about 1,000 square feet.

We love the tiny houses as a vacation destination, but I think in the grand scheme of things long term, they really aren’t for us.