Tomorrow in Arruda dos Vinhos

While I'm posting about our US coast-to-coast roadtrip, we're just back from a trip to Germany. Yes, the Tesla aficionado I call husband drove his EV all the way to Germany and, after some 11,000kms of a marvellous roadtrip, I'm happy to report that long roadtrips are possible with an EV.
The Mayor of our town has invited yours truly Tesla aficionado to give a keynote address about said trip. It's tomorrow at the Sala Jardim do Centro Cultural do Morgado in Arruda dos Vinhos at 21:00 and you're all invited.
See you there!

Day 2: Out of Houston

And time it was to leave Houston and head to the great American outdoors. A storm gathered just outside Houston's city limits and in my mind I could hear the befitting "The Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks. We're on the highway and around us, people take shelter as best they can from the downpour. I see bikers under viaducts, truck drivers hastily covering exposed tools and merchandise with plastic sheets and soon a wall of water falls heavily and we stop seeing anything. It will be the first of many walls of water we'll encounter in the following days of our journey but not the heaviest, mightiest, scariest of them all, o no, not by a long shot.
Just when the storm is over, a Model S is on the rearview mirror. I thought we had left the Tesla obsession back in Houston but, apparently, it is following us...

At the National Agriculture Exhibit

Before and besides being a Tesla-wife I am a farmer. Long before I sat in über-modern Tesla Model Ss, tractors were my old-time pals. I still don't see Teslas doing what tractors do... This year I took the Tesla-husband to the Portuguese National Agriculture Exhibit: a monumental exhibition of all things farming-related, from the latest high-tech gizmo for seed sowing to the most traditional wine-making methods. A blast if you're, like me, into this kind of thing. Acres upon acres of pavillions and outdoor exhibitions and shows. And who or what took me there? The Tesla-Creature, who or what else?

Funny thing to go to a place where Tesla ancestors are king, where the old meets the future-forward, where horses and tractors steal the show, and to go there on an all-electric vehicle that tops its generation. I couldn't help think about the coincidence.

At the end of the day, I believe the Tesla-aficionado also enjoyed the experience...
Mr. Elon Musk, I know there's a lot on your plate right now but you know there's this other whole market for which we could use all-electric vehicles?

Break on through to the other side

When you're in Portugal, the other side implies crossing the Tagus and thus enter the South. We did just that a few days ago and took the Model S south of the north-south divide imposed by the mighty Iberian river. We crossed the Tagus in Lisbon at the 25th April Bridge (that some say looks pretty similar to the Golden Gate in San Francisco). After that, South it is.

We had no particular plans and it was unexpectedly that we found ourselves at the lighthouse in Cape Espichel.

The loneliness of the place was probably what inspired people to build a pilgrimage site there and so, totally out of the blue (for me, at least), there it was: a monastery right next to the lighthouse.

But I mean, when the views are so incredible, it's hardly any wonder that people may feel inclined to contemplation in search of the Divine...

After the radio silence

Yes, it's been a while... A while that took me down to subequatorial geographies and, to the biggest country in South America, a place that I discovered is an incomprehensible no-Tesla zone. What?! How can Brazil be a no-Tesla place?!

Jetlagged and tired after an 11-hour flight where did the Tesla-husband take me to unwind? The sea... The beautiful Atlantic we call home and that soothes our souls.

I think the Model S already knows the road by heart. It's nice to be back...

Truth be said

When I arrived at the Tesla Model S gathering last sunday, everybody was already there (I mean, there's only so much Tesla a Tesla-wife can take at a time). Never, ever had I seen so many Model Ss together. Never, ever had I seen such Tesla enthusiasm.

It was as windy as windy goes (and chillier than my comfort zone allows, which did not deter those Tesla enthusiasts from sharing their enthusiasm). And when I left they still remained happily doing whatever Tesla enthusiasts do which is basically a work of preaching to the Gentiles the Gospel of the new world of electric mobility. Of course, my Tesla-husband stayed...

To Mr. Elon Musk, CEO at Tesla Motors

Dear Mr. Elon Musk,

Our numbers are swelling here in Portugal. Still, we are a Tesla no-zone. Today, coincidently the 90th birthday of that stellar guru of naturalism, Sir David Attenborough, we gathered to call for your attention. We wish for inclusion. By this we mean, we need a Tesla Service Center since the nearest is 1,200kms (745mi) far from us.

I am a Tesla-wife among many, a Tesla-wife whose husband fulfilled a dream when acquiring his Model S. However, without a Service Center, the promised Tesla superchargers to ease our mobility and a Tesla Store this is a kind of bitter-sweet fulfilment (you can see him doing his best to get the picture right so you understand our polite request).

Five hundred years ago, Portuguese caravels set sail from this spot to discover the unknown lands beyond the horizon. We too wish to embark on the journey represented by the dawn of a new era when mobility is powered by electricity. Do help us reach the horizon. Thank you.

First Tesla Model S Gathering in Lisbon

It's on the 8 May, 15.30 by the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon. It'll also be a time to ask Tesla for a Tesla Store and Superchargers to get to Portugal soonish, please Mr. Musk.
Join us!

The views from Biscaia

We all recognise stunning views when we see vast expanses of blue and green stretching as far as the eye can see. So worth taking the Model S for a spin on the road from Guincho (surfers' paradise on Earth) to Sintra, so absolutely worth it.

The hazy horizon, the beach in the distance, a far-off cape, the greenery of the mountain meeting the ocean. Divine sight...

Pictures, a pale rendition of the beauty of the landscape.

He had to go to Alcorochel

Roots are roots... His grandfather gave money to build the church tower of his family birth place. He never lived there, the Tesla aficionado, but he had to go because he had to go. There was this sense he had to show me the place and he had to show the place to the Tesla-Creature living with us. We went along.

The place is Alcorochel and I'm guessing the name is some ancient linguistic legacy of the time the Iberian Peninsula was the al-Andaluz after the Moorish Invasions way, way back in the 8th century AD. The village church (seen from a distance) is probably the only landmark worthy of the name in Alcorochel but it makes for a nice Saturday outing if you want to test the impressive range of a Tesla Model S.

I confess I stress over range but looking at my happy face, no one would guess it. And no one would guess it because there simply is little cause for range anxiety when the EV in question is a Model S. Kudos to the brainiacs at Tesla for coming to the aid of a Tesla-wife and developing an EV that has the range of a conventional ICE minus the CO2 emissions!

Nowhere

There was a straightfoward intention: to go and have tea in Sintra, that jewel of a town that bewitched Byron and found a pedestal as UNESCO's World Site. But, on taking the road less travelled, one needs to be open to the joys of the ride.

It was Nowhere where we found a river swollen by the rains of the last days. A bridge of manholes added to the sense that the current was strong and the river determined to make its brave way to wherever it wanted to make its brave way. We had no idea where we were.

But, on looking further, we found out that the street leading to the river and the bridge of manholes goes by the extravagant name of Street of the Half Orange. No one can say the Portuguese lack imagination for toponyms!

Eventually we got to Sintra, where the delights of local traditional pastry were waiting for us. We went for the "Travesseiros", literally cushions of puffed pastry with an egg custard filling that are simply to die for...

Utterly impossible to eat just one.

The Backyard

They say the best things in life are free and I add they are just around the corner if we just pause to take notice of them. This is just outside our backyard. We hike there all the time and this time we decided to take the Creature as far as the road would allow. It did ok.
Perched on the top of the hill there's this very small chapel that goes by the fitting name of Our Lady of the Hill. Once every May, farmers and locals come on pilgrimage, more for the fun of tradition than anything else. They bring flowers and tractors decked with more flowers, olive and palm tree branches and go out into the fields to collect wheat ears with which to compose lovely bouquets to hang in the house for a whole year. They say it brings prosperity. But we prefer our weekend hikes when we have the fields all to ourselves.

 The views are most bucolic but, hey, this is the great outdoors and quintessential Portuguese countryside. The Model S may be a city slicker but it's getting to know its way around here.

Kingdom by the Sea

We don't quite live in a kingdom. It's more of a republic but, let's face it, "Republic by the Sea" does not have half the allure of kingdom and "republicdom" was pushing the envelope far beyond literary elegance. Besides, not that I like Edgar Allen Poe particularly but I have a crush on Paul Theroux. It was his Kingdom by the Sea (1983) which once led me to experience the coasts of Britain only to be assured that the Portuguese coastline is more impressive, more diverse and way less invaded by those infamous boardwalks that really kill the joys of the sea and the beach.

So maybe we don't live in a kingdom by the sea but we definitely live in a kingdom of the sea. The sea is our passion, our essence and our History. The sea is Summer, freedom and contemplation. The sea is and has always been our manifest destiny. With this thought in mind, why not introduce the Model S to the sea? And the sea to the this high-tech land Creature?

For its maiden voyage to the sea, we decided to take the Model S to a beach nearby. The day was beckoning and the beach deserted. Heaven.

It is called Praia Azul, Blue Beach, an apt, beffiting designation although, by the silvery reflexes on the water, one might also appropriately call it Beach of Silver. And the sunset... I leave the words for you.

The windmills of the gods meet the Model S

Up on the wuthering heights, we found the windmills. Freezing cold piercing through your every layer of clothing. But what's that to stop you when you meet the gods of wind, of invention and of tech?

First, there came the gods of wind, Atlantic, fierce and powerful. But the gods of invention harnessed and tamed them and windmills were born to help Man on the path to survival and progress.

When survival and progress were a given, the gods of tech made their way to the wuthering heights and wind turbines started to dot the land in Man's quest for energy, clean, affordable, modern energy. We took the Tesla Model S to meet the gods.

A befitting acquaintace: the super modern EV meeting the super modern wind turbines and their ancestors and all this just outside our house. How cool is that?

For your better judgement, here the gods of past and present-future: the quaint, old windmill and the blasting wind turbine.

At Sparkle Target

My ICE set of wheels got serviced at Sparkle Target where, as it happens, the owners are super fans of Teslas. Little did they know I am the infamous Tesla-wife of the bloke who owns the only Model S for miles and miles around.

Shock and awe! What?! Yes! So, we treated them to a little Tesla demo and drove by to introduce the Creature to them. Always a highlight when we show people there's no engine to this Babe!

Ironic as it gets the Tesla Creature found its way into the barricade of ICE (you know the lingo, right? Internal Combustion Engine) in clear proof we can be pretty ecumenic.

To the folks at Sparkle Target: it was a joy! Thanks for the welcome!