When EV-sales came to visit

What's so great about Tesla-moments is that we get to meet tons of amiable, like-minded people we wouldn't otherwise.
A few days ago, EV-sales blog mastermind and all things EV enthusiast, Zé Pontes, came to visit us. His is the top 1 EV blog in the world, mind you! Not only was he well accompanied by lovely wife, Dulce, he also brought us a bountiful supply of magazines on everything EV and electric-related: PlugIn, ReNew, you name it.

With so much to read, I can fairly say my education as a Tesla-wife is a consistent work-in-progress with no end in sight. Luckily, I have just the best teachers to learn from.

Come again anytime soon!

And what were we doing in Alexandria, Louisiana?

You know History Channel's "Cajun Pawn Stars?" Well, we're fans and I had a minor business proposition for them, a thing of long-lost pasts I wanted to get rid of with a major goodbye and good riddance! Since we were in Louisiana, why not go there? Besides, they have the General Lee at the door, that relic of a time EVs were not even a thing of science fiction and a proud symbol of Dixie. O, "The Dukes of Hazzard"... Who doesn't remember?

They were all there the DeRamus. Hospitable beyond words. For our amusement, they roleplayed being in the show and appraised what I had brought to sell. I got ten bucks out of the deal when I had asked for fifty cents! Who would have thought? What a great afternoon!

They showed us around, told us great stories and, hey, Jimmie DeRamus even played the mobster with this yours truly Tesla aficionado. Don't they look neat?

What a fabulastic break on a day chasing superchargers. Morning saw us in Sliddel, the evening would lead us to yet another supercharger. I'll get back to that shortly...
To the DeRamus family at Silver Dollar Pawn and Jewelry Center in Alexandria, Louisiana, our heartfelt gratitude for such warm welcome and a time well spent. We felt like royalty. To Jimmie, Tammie and Johnnie: thank you!

Slidell, Louisiana: Back to chasing superchargers

After all the merriment of the last couple of weeks (and the Creature giving autographs and posing for the cameras), I feel like going back to a past of wonders when Tesla came our way.

If you recall, we had just made it to New Orleans and, of course, having been to all superchargers from there to Florida, it was only expectable (notice I'm not saying normal...) that we had to go chase superchargers (some people chase rainbows) in Louisiana.

On this particular day, we wanted to go to Alexandria, LA, for purposes you'll later find out, so stay put. It so happens that Alexandria is some 200 miles/320kms, Northwest of New Orleans. Logic has it that if you want to go Northwest, then Northwest you go, right? Not quite so.

Chasing superchargers you sometimes find that the road to go from A to B also detours to Z. And so we detoured East and Eastbound we crossed Lake Pontchartrain on our way Northwest. Why East? Because, just after you cross the Lake, there's a supercharger in Slidell, what else?

And so, on the fine morning of the fine day I wanted to go to Alexandria I found myself on a spot on the map with a name slightly resembling "slider" (mine with cheese and a slice of pickled cucumber, please).

We and the Tesla on TV: Making of

And suddenly the big day was upon us. The leading star, of course, needed some prep and pampering before shooting, the kind of hair and make-up thing before the close ups. What better than some TLC by owner-extraordinnaire?

Lights, camera, action: shooting. Shooting. Shooting. Lovely Filipa Gambino, reporter fabulous, was the epitome of professionalism filming the Creature from all sides and angles.

And she was, let's say, more than a wee bit flummoxed on finding out the Creature does not have an engine. No Ma'm, it has a frunk, aka, front trunk, as a Tesla-wife knows by now.

"No engine?! Really?!"
"No engine, really!"

And after so much excitement, we called it a day at the world-famous Pastéis de Belém Factory for some insanely delicious custard pastries (no, no cheesecake factories of this world come near our own Pastéis de Belém Factory).
Monumental thanks to Filipa: we enjoyed every minute!

We and the Tesla on TV

One of these days, I reckon, the Creature will be giving autographs...
With electrifying gratitude to the amazing people at Portuguese RTP3 who develop Central Parque, a weekly info magazine on all things new, tech and trending, here are some snapshots of the wonder Tesla-trio on TV.
Credits, credits, credits to fab reporter Filipa Gambino, who spent a whole Saturday afternoon shooting with us and managed to compress and edit all those hours into an elegant 3-odd minute piece, to veteran journalist-extraordinaire Pedro Rolo Duarte and to Joana Stichini Vilela for bringing us a programme that is a pleasure to watch.

 The topic of the programme was "The Internet of Things"and Tesla is definitely the cherry on top of the internet of things cake, the leader of the gang, the alpha-creature of the pack, you know where I'm going with this...

The Tesla Model S aficionado got to go on spreading the Tesla-word to the Gentiles.

Even this here blog of mine fabulousness and intense vida loca was featured. But, of course, it was all about the Creature.

Details:
Central Parque, February 13, 2016 edition on RTP3.
Available here, check us and the Creature at minute 28:28.

A Convent, a Nobel and the Tesla

Standing before the Convent at Mafra, you cannot help but be dwarfed by its sheer size. The Convent imposes more by its gargantuan proportions than by its beauty. A Collossus, indeed. The Tesla, on the other hand, imposes itself as leader of the pack when all four-wheeled creatures are concerned by might of its elegant lines and top-nodge technology.

The day was bleak as befits Mafra, a convent enshrouded in horrid legends of giant human-eating mice, a convent built by a megalomaniac king with the riches of a crumbling overseas empire and a convent that was never truly finished. Bleakness is also an accurate rendition of Nobel-laureate José Saramago's novel Baltasar and Blimunda, whose plot is erected around the trials and tribulations of the workers who built the Collossus. A tragic love story much in the likes of Dylan Thomas' "Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion".

I think the only happiness on such day of bleakness came from the Tesla and we, a stark contrast to the greyish, cold and damp environment around. Still, one cannot but be stunned in amazement at a monument that so bluntly dominates the landscape.

And yes, the Tesla über-aficionado pictured above is still stunned in amazement at how perfectly car-perfect the Model S is.

The Force Awoke...

I was dying to set eyes on the latest installment of the Star Wars saga. Yes, I confess to the odd nerdy streak in me... (but if asked, I'll deny it with every fiber of my conscious self). Last saturday dawned as the day I'd get to see Han Solo playing Han Solo in his mature years (O, Indiana where art thou?). Like any anxious kid before Christmas, I had to wait until the sun was down to see what dawn was going to bring. Never mind the long wait, I finally saw the "Force Awakens". But, maybe better than the Millenium Falcon, it was the Tesla that drove me to the Force.

And this Force is mighty. Zillion horse-power and the power of electric and there I was wide-eyed and jaw-dropped before the movie screen. Credits where due, His Geekyness played the diligent chauffeur to My Nerdyness (I honestly fail to grasp why His Geeknyness does not appreciate Star Wars and falls asleep throughout the crucial minutes of the film as though this was some minor, wee thing of a film when this is movie History!) and now I'm left waiting for the next episode to see if Han Solo has the resurrecting powers of Luke Skywalker...

May the Tesla Force be with you...

My first time...

Curb your enthusiasm! My first time, yes... behind the wheels of the Tesla-Creature. Sunny day out and off we went. I thought that, with the geeky husband, I was in for a painful day back to driving school. Guess what? He was geeky alright (how could he not?) but his was geeky amazing. And after all, my o my, so easy Tesla-driving. So darn easy! Reverse. Drive. Park. And the Creature does everything on its own.

We're not talking automatic gear. No, Sir. We're talking major autonomous driving... The future is not around the corner. This is the future now.

Is Elon Musk all mixed up?

Tots lol!!!!
Elon Musk's drive is also to go to Mars. I say, why not go to Mars behind the wheels of a flying Tesla? That'd be neat!

Credits where due with thanks to the ev aficionados at the Nissan Leaf Forum here.

How many superchargers in Louisiana?

Early February. The Creature is here. This is a supercharger no-zone. I miss the roadtrip chasing those insane power stations where Tesla is king of the world and the Tesla world rocks. So, I'm back to reminescing.
After Florida and Alabama, there came this vortex of Tesla nothingness called Mississippi but then there came Louisiana, greeting us in English and French, mind you, and merci! I now forget how many superchargers we went to: loadsa them... But I do remember the mighty Mississippi River and my memories of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer read at a time when time was young. My turn to be the kid in the candy shop when I cruised for a time-suspended while in that creature of myth, the steamboat Natchez. Karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go...

It was Nola, the Mississippi and the Natchez. What a treat! I could go catch superchargers later. I just fail to grasp what, in the name of Christ, possessed us to buy a CD with the music "sung" by the Calliope (for those not in the know, it's a steam organ and, as it seems, the pride and joy of the Natchez but for me a kind of giant turbo-whistle gone mad...).

I promise I'll resume the supercharger chasing, it's just that I needed some me time.