I’ve wanted an electric car for 17 years.  That’s not an exaggeration- 17 years!

But at that time, EV’s were not yet ready for the mass market.  So we bought what we thought was the next best thing- a Toyota Prius.  We bought two of them actually.  Our original Prius lasted 17 years, and when it finally died, I was surprisingly sad about it.

But I also knew that we were definitely, finally getting an EV.  And when we did, I couldn’t wait to take it on a long test drive to one of my favorite places- Rehoboth Beach.

There were things to consider though, mostly having to do with range and charging. I had done some research and knew that I would definitely be able to make the trip down on a full charge, but would have to do a Level III “fast charge” before coming home.  I also knew that there were plenty of fast charge stations in the Rehoboth area- so I wasn’t really worried about that either.

But in order to fully explain how I became the undisputed champ of EV stupidity- you need some background:

We were originally planning to buy a used Tesla, so we had a Tesla home charger installed at our house.  But then, due to market factors involving the Chevy Bolt and asshole factors involving Elon Musk, we instead decided to get a used Bolt.  I only mention this because it required us to get an adapter that would allow us to use our Tesla home charger on our non-Tesla vehicle.

So back to the Rehoboth trip…  I had range, I had places to charge at the beach and I had an adapter.  All that was left to do was to download and set-up the apps that allow you to pay for fast charges at convenience stores and other public places. I thought I would just wait to do that until I really needed to.

On Tuesday night, the weather stopped raining, so on Wednesday morning, I headed off.  I really was interested and excited to see how the whole EV experience would work on a longer trip like this one.

The weather was beautiful! I charged the Bolt overnight and left on Wednesday morning with a full battery.  I had planned on fast charging as soon as I got to Rehoboth, but the weather was so nice that I just couldn’t do it.  I went right into town, got some lunch and hit the beach.  Within minutes, I had forgotten all about the car, and spent the day hiking around Cape Henlopen State Park and the surrounding area.

When evening came, instead of heading out to the highway to find a charger- I decided to drive to nearby Bethany Beach and see what was happening in my other favorite beach town.  

Nightfall seemed to come quickly.  When it did, I had about 30 miles of range left on the car.  It was time to get serious about finding a fast charger!  Making use of a few charging station locator apps, I found out that the closest ones were all back in the Rehoboth area.  So I drove back past town and right into a Wawa convenience store.  They had 8 Tesla fast chargers and all were available.

“Cool.” I thought. “Let’s do it!”

So I got out my adapter, the one I use at home to enable my Tesla charger to charge a Chevy, slid it on to the end of the Tesla charger, and stuck it in the charge port.  I peered through the window and onto the dashboard to see how long it would take to charge. 

The screen said: Unable to charge.

“No problem,” I thought. “It probably has to do with the Tesla app not being set up yet.  You probably have to pay first.”

So I set up the app and tried again.  

Same results.

Then, all of a sudden, the piece of knowledge I should have grasped days ago struck me like a shock from the charger I was trying to use.  

I didn’t have the right adapter! I could not fast charge here at all!

A quick Googling confirmed my stupidity.  In order to fast charge my car, I needed a different adapter than the one we use for slower (Level II) home chargers.  I thought that the lower bulb of the Bolt’s charge port was what you used for Level I (aka painfully slow) charging.  But non-Tesla fast chargers use both that lower bulb and the upper section of the charge port for Level III fast charging.  In other words, I needed two different adapters in my life; one for Level II type home charging (which I had), and another for Level III fast charging (which I did not have and couldn’t get in time, seeing as that time was now).

Well now I had a big problem.  I was about 140 miles from home, with 30 miles of range left, and the only place I could fast charge was…..Well, the charging station locator apps weren’t showing any non-Tesla options. 

I was screwed. It was also a little past 9:30am.  This was going to be a long night.

My locator apps did find a few places along Coastal Highway that sported Level II stations, so I figured I’d just have to plug in there and hang out in the car for several hours before driving home very late at night.

I followed my app to several chargers,, only to discover that people had plugged in to them for the night and left them.  They were all in shopping areas that had since closed and there were no people around.  The situation was getting dire!

My last hope was a car dealership that, according to the locator app, had 1 Tesla charger and 1 non-Tesla.  As long as both of them weren’t taken, I would at least be able to charge there and get home- eventually.

I figured the chargers would be inside a garage bay and not accessible to public moochers like me, but to my great luck, the non-Tesla port was open!  I pulled into the narrow space between two pillars of the dealership building, snapped the cord into the car’s charge port, and settled down for a long evening.  It was 10:00pm and everything nearby was closed.  There was nowhere to go to kill the 5 hours I was going spend waiting to get enough juice to get home.  The Bolt’s computer estimated a full charge at 3:00am.

It was getting colder too; just below freezing.  What started as a delightfully sunny spring day turned more toward winter when the sun went down.  I was chilly in the cabin of the Bolt, but my being warm-blooded has it’s advantages.  After getting caught up on my backlog of Time magazines, I fell asleep.

When I came to about an hour later, I looked at the charge progress on the dashboard.  It was going faster than expected! By 1:30am I would have enough range to get home!

So when 1:30am arrived, I unplugged the charger, mentally thanked the dealership for having a charging station I could use, and hit the road back to Lancaster.

I was tired of being cold at this point, but didn’t want to turn the car’s heater on because it reduces range by about 30 miles.  I didn’t have that much to spare. All good though- I was glad to be making progress.  

But as the drive went on I noticed a disturbing drop in the range department.  I wasn’t speeding, but the combination of the cold weather and highway driving was really taking it’s toll.  The Bolt was losing 2 miles of range for every 1 mile of actual driving. 

I was in trouble again!

There’s something comforting about Wawa, and I knew there was one in the town of Smyrna, which I was approaching.  I decided to pull in there, grab a snack, and sort out my options.  Maybe there was another dealership I could plug in to and just finish my cozy, car sleepover.

As I searched the locator apps yet again, I noticed an unusual symbol on the map at a Royal Farms convenience store about 4 miles down the road.  It was listed as a charger but I didn’t understand the description.  But with no better option, I decided to drive over and check it out.

When I arrived, I saw the most beautiful site of the day, 2 fast chargers; each equipped for both Tesla and non-Tesla charge ports.  And no pain-in-the-ass apps required for payment!  Just tap your credit card right on the machine like a regular purchase!

I was saved!!

And it would only take 45 minutes to get to full charge!

I plugged in, hit the store for some pretzels, and settled happily into the cabin under a heavy blanket I had stored in the car for emergencies. It was really a cold night and I was feeling it! 

Just before 3:00am,  I made my final attempt to get home.  It was a joyous drive, with the heat fully on! Traffic was non-existent for obvious reasons.

At 4:56am I pulled up in front of my house.  I was tired, stinging from self -inflicted stupidity, giddy at having survived the adventure, and…..asleep in my own bed by 5:00am.

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