Supercharger

We have made it to the Woodstock, ON supercharger. Now for some Italian food!

Entering Canada

We just entered Canada! We have entered the land of the hosers and land of Tim Hortons!

Go Blue

Supercharging in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Heading to campus and then to Canada.

New state

We made it to Indiana. We will be here for only a little because soon we will go to Michigan.

6:15am

First stop in Rockford, IL.  We were up this morning at 4:45am and in the car by 5am.  Excited for Ann Arbor and Canada today.

New state

We are now in Illinois! We are about to go near Chicagoland! (Sorry for bad picture.)

Lunch in Albert Lea

Lunchtime in Albert Lea, MN - deciding between McD's and Applebee's.

La Crosse

In La Crosse, WI - real civilization now - swinging by the Home Depot.

New state

We made over the Ole Miss. Now we are in Wisconsin!

Swung by the Mayo Clinic

Always nice to be at a hospital when you're not sick.

Back to Civilization

In Worthington, MN - I've never been so happy to see a Walmart and a Pizza Hut.

First Stop

Mitchell, SD - special thanks to the Ramada Inn for the free breakfast.

Rapid City, SD

No Charging Here

But a few presidents to see - a quick stop at Mt Rushmore.

Supercharger

We are now in Lusk,WY. We are in the middle of nowhere. We are not near any interstate. Next stop Mt. Rushmore!

First speeding ticket

I was doing 40 in a school zone - needless to say I didn't see the sign - maybe my NY plates were the draw!

Cool Stalls

Interesting drive in stalls at the Supercharger in Cheyenne

Breakfast

Awesome breakfast at Penny's Diner in Cheyenne, Wyoming - on to Lusk, WY

Charging in Cheyenne

First stop of the day - time for breakfast.

New state

We are finally in Wyoming! Soon about to get to Cheyenne!

Time for the Trip Home!

Tomorrow Sam and I head back to NY in the X.  This time we are taking the scenic route.  Spending an extra day on the road to head north on route 90.  Will be hitting Mount Rushmore tomorrow, spending a night in Madison, WI on Tuesday and sleeping on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls on Wednesday.

Keep an eye on this - we'll be updating as we move along.

Leaving tomorrow morning at around 4:45 Mountain time - first stop is Cheyenne, WY.

Well - Our Luck Had to Run Out at Some Point

Last week we had our first problem with the car.  This appears to be a well-known issue.  All over a sudden the driver's door was not closing properly.  When the door was opened you would hear a loud clicking sound, as if some mechanism was trying to close but at the wrong time since the door was opened.  When you tried to close the door, the latch wouldn't catch and the door would not lock in place.

After doing some googling I learned that the only way to close the door is to open it as far as it can go and the press the brake.  I found that this worked, but only about 25% of the time.  The bigger problem of course is that you had to be in the car to do this.  When you are out of the car there was no way to close the door successfully.

The scariest thing though was one time when the door said it was closed - I started driving and then about 2 mins later the indicator on the dashboard said the door was open - about 5 secs after that the door swung open WHILE I WAS DRIVING!  This seems like a safety issue!  

The next day I got on the phone with service and ended up driving it to the Denver service center.  They told me on the phone that they had a loner for me - when I got there they did indeed have one but tried to convince me to drive the car and not take the loner until the new latch came in (it was unknown how long it will be for the part to arrive).  Needless to say I did not plan on driving 2.5 hours each way to not take a properly working car.  The thought of getting a call from my wife telling me that the door was swinging open while she was driving didn't really sit well with me.

So now my X is sitting at the service center and we are driving a loner S (which is pretty nice actually).  Hopefully they will get the part soon and I will have my X back.  I spoke to the service center again today and while they still didn't have an ETA on the part, they thought that it was "days, not weeks" for it to arrive - which sounds good - we shall see.

Incidentally, the service technician seemed pretty well versed on this issue and told me that the new latch is actually an upgraded version versus the one that shipped with my car.  Query why my car, which is only about one month old, didn't have the upgraded latch to begin with.

I will keep this blog updated.