After the snow

I was definitely out in the driveway last night from 10-11pm shoveling snow as we needed to drive both cars today and, though a winter champion, Zippy doesn't deal well with 14 inches of heavy snow. Thankfully it didn't snow after my shoveling, so things were looking pretty good for the descent this AM.

The drive into town for my AM workout as excellent - and I think a might bit easier in the i3 than in our Xterra despite the slippery conditions. I was curious to see how the return trip would be as I needed to be back at the house for some AM appts before heading back down to the office. The climb went great despite the snow covered (plowed) and sanded road that was quite slippery.

The main event was the final climb up the driveway. Though I shoveled, the passage was narrow and the surface covered in fine snow - like sand on the beach. I came at the driveway doing about 25mph and sailed right up - around the curves and into the garage! Now Zippy is having a nice drink before we head back down for a day in-town.

• Distance: 26 miles
• Average Speed: 21.9 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 3.1
• Time: 1hr 15min
• Temperature: 8-22 degrees

Flexible Mobility

Back at home in the mountains of Boulder it is snowing like crazy this Sunday evening... though it was in the 60s when we dropped Zippy at Gebhardt BMW on Friday morning for some quality time with his brethren. 

This weekend Laura and I were set for an adventure to Moab for the Red Hot 33k trail race so we decided to inquire if Gebhardt was participating in the i Flexible Mobility program. Per the usual, the team at our relatively small Boulder BMW home is out-in-front - even though this program is optional for BMW dealers they already have it going and were happy to accommodate. We dropped Zip on Friday AM and hopped into a 2015 328xi - and off to Moab we went. 

Before concluding this story - sincere thanks to the Gebhardt team for embracing the comprehensive program that BMW NA is designing in order to enable true adoption of EVs in the US... and for contributing to a great weekend for Laura and me. On Saturday morning Laura completed not only her longest race ever - but her longest run - almost 19 miles! And one year after crutching my way to the start line to watch two of my dearest friends (Andy and Peter) start the race I should have been running if it weren't for my recently broken leg - I ran too... and finished 15th.

So that brings us to Sunday. A drive back over the Rockies, into snow by Dillon and even harder snow upon arriving in Boulder. After dropping the 328, we were re-united with Zippy and drove back home with the temp dropping from 32 to 22 by the time we were home and "awesome" roads as we drew near :)

Gebhardt - ya'll are the best. We hope you will have us again soon when the open road calls.

After a few days away

I seem to have fallen off the blogging wagon for a few days - many miles driven but nothing too noteworthy. We did have one morning with decent snow and ice, but Zippy's exceptional performance in these conditions is now just assumed. A quick drive down the mountain today:

• Distance: 21.1 miles
• Average Speed: 31.9 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 5.6
• Recuperation: 10.4 mi/kWh
• Time: 40 minutes
• Temperature: 31 degrees

All Around Town

Evening of 02/02/2015

• Distance: 34 miles
• Duration: 1:38 minutes
• Average Speed: 24 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 3.0

Swinging in the Wind

Nothing fancy about the drive down the mountain this morning - just dropped L at work and then headed to my office with our dog Ana. What was interesting was the whipping wind and the fact that the temperature was 32 (F) at our home, 20 degrees midway to Broomfield and then 35 when I arrived at the office.

• Distance: 21.1 miles
• Duration: 44 minutes
• Average Speed: 29.8 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 5.0
• Recuperation (mi/kWh): 8.9
• Temp: 32 to 20 to 35 degrees (F)

Range Anxiety?

We woke on Sunday morning to about 3 inches of fresh snow in the mtns - and the weather showed that 5-6 inches had fallen in Boulder-proper. After a nice run in the snow I headed down into Boulder and then out to Longmont in order to fetch a dear friend who doesn't drive very far from home anymore and who hadn't yet been to our new home. Given that the temp was relatively cold for Boulder and that I knew the mtn road would be a mix of tracked snow, slush, solid ice and gravel from the plows, I had some trepidation... though I should know better by now. The conditions were exactly as expected - and the highway out to Longmont (speed limits varying 55-65 mph) was a total mess with many sections of deep slush - and Zippy performed perfectly. 

55 miles, 3200+ vertical feet of climbing (and 3200+ descent), 1 hour 40 minutes... and there was still 10% left on the battery. Maybe we should go back to one car :)

• Distance: 55 miles
• Average Speed: 34.1 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 3.3
• Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
• Temperature: 15 to 33 degrees
• Conditions: snow (up to 2 inches), ice, deep slush