Hi,
Day Two, At The Reunion:
5-3-2025 — We had a free breakfast at the hotel, Texas shaped waffles with blueberries, orange juice, a bagel, and coffee, of course. The reunion was at the country club, and we were told people could start arriving as early as 11:00 AM, but weren’t allowed to bring any food into the clubhouse. They would have catered snacks there if we wanted them, but only served on 100-item trays for about $100 per tray — no, thank you. Dinner wouldn’t be served until 6:00 PM, so we needed to find lunch somewhere.
A Wrinkle and Lunch:
A week ago I had withdrawn more than enough cash to get me through the weekend, Rather than carry it around with me, I put it in my cash box at home. I realized yesterday, about two-thirds of the way to Austin, that I hadn’t taken my cash out of the cash box. I had zero dollars in my pocket, and we were supposed to pay for dinner at the reunion in cash. I had gotten by just fine with credit cards so far (in fact, I rarely carry cash anymore), but I would need to find an ATM before we got to the club, and we did need to find some lunch before then anyway.
I suggested going to a Schlotzsky’s, one of my favorite sandwich places, and Rowland was fine with that. I knew right where it was, so we headed out around 10:30 AM. It appeared to be closed for repairs, so we drove a little farther to a Whataburger. I had a delicious fish sandwich meal (fish, fries, and a drink). I normally don’t drink soda (usually just water and coffee, and occasionally iced or hot tea), but when I’m on the road I will sometimes have a Dr Pepper, which I did today. When we were finished, we took our overly large, not nearly finished, drink cups with us, and left in search of an ATM.
There used to be a Bank of America (my bank) in Deep Springs, but it closed some time ago. There were still a few banks in the downtown area, though, so we headed there. After passing several closed banks with closed ATMs (this was a Deep Springs Saturday), we did find one that was open (the drive-through ATM, not the bank). I got some money out for an extra $5.00 transaction fee (my bank reimbursed me for the fee later), then we drove through some residential areas and past the high school. Rowland wanted to see some of the houses he or his relatives had lived in. He took a few pictures out of the window. I wasn’t interested in looking for any of the houses my family had lived in (they were mostly torn down and replaced long ago), so we headed toward the southwest edge of town, where the country club is located.
The Reunion:
We got there a little after 11:00 AM, and carried our soft drink cups in with us, no one stopped us. There were just a few people there, but the rest of the several dozen who attended drifted in during the afternoon. It was good to see a lot of my former classmates. Some had changed a lot, and some didn’t seem to have aged much at all. I was also friends with a lot of them on Facebook, so changes in appearance weren’t too much of a surprise. Dinner was good (more fish for me — salmon), and catching up was good too. Around 8:00 PM it started breaking up, so Rowland and I left too.
The sun sets about 8:30 this time of year, so it was still light out. When we got back to the hotel, Evie’s battery was down to 65%, so I wanted to charge her up as much as I could. A Tesla was parked in the charging slot when we left this morning. It was still there, so I asked at the front desk if they knew whose car it was, but they didn’t. They said they would try to find out. When I checked again a little later, they said they still hadn’t found the owner. The desk clerk said she had discovered the Tesla was unplugged, but was still blocking the charging slot. She locked the power box, but they still didn’t know whose car it was.
ICEing is a term used to to indicate when an ICE car has blocked a charging slot, preventing an EV from using that (it does happen). In this case I had been ICEd by an EV.
The charging area was on the end of a row, next to a large tree that was growing in a grass-covered island. The charger was on the island, and it had a long cable, probably twenty feet or so. I asked the desk clerk if she would unlock the power box for me, and I pulled Evie up on the other side of the island (technically in the hotel’s driveway, but I was very visible and there was plenty of room to get by me). The cable reached Evie with no problem and I started charging her. Within a couple of hours, Evie was at 80%. I unplugged her, wrapped the plug and cable back onto their stand, and locked the power box back for the clerk. We were ready to go back tomorrow.
The next post is about the journey home.
Michael
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