Ditching Gas - My Personal Story Continues

You would think that was the end of the story, but alas I needed a tracking number or something to give Tesla. Instead, they simply accepted a personal check that they said they would hold and not cash for the 70K I owed. I agreed as long as they agreed not to cash it. There certainly wasn’t $70,000 sitting in my checking account. I picked up my wife and we headed to Norristown to get the Model S. We were very psyched and she was ready as promised. No small task since she arrived on a truck 11:00 AM that day. I drove her home in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. Getting used to the array of options took some time, but the slow drive home was perfect to orient me to many of the Model S’s features. I pulled into my garage. I had measured the length of the garage, as the Model S is an exceptionally long car, but I hadn’t thought about measuring widthwise. It was really tight from side to side, but we made it in just fine. I plugged into my NEMA 14-50 and got a green charge signal. All was great until about 15 minutes later the smartphone app told me my car stopped charging. An icy cold wave struck my body. There were no lights on the charger, so it was unlikely it was the car. However, a car without a working charger wouldn’t help much. I called Tesla and they suggested I try a 110 outlet. Bingo, slow but consistent charging. It turned out to be an old fuse in the garage where we coupled to an older hot tub line. We bypassed it and relied on the circuit breaker in the house and never had another problem.

Upon settling in for the evening, I called Pen Fed to get the tracking number on the check. To my surprise, I don't know why I was suprised, they didn't mail it. They claimed now it would go out the next day and that I had to pay $15 to overnight it. I did and Tesla received the check on Wednesday. I still had to sign it, so I made a deal with my Tesla service guy. Since he lived near where I taught, I gave him a copy of my Great Treks and One Dress, One Woman, One World book for bringing the check to me to sign and saving me the trip.