David Coffaro Vineyard
          and Winery Winemaker's Diary

arrow November 3  - November 16, 2013

Monday November 4, 2013

Pat and I are trying to recover from our trip to Washington state and also recover from The Wine and Food event on Saturday and Sunday. We had a large crowd of well over 1,000 people who enjoyed lobster bisque and many of our wines.

Our trip up North started on October 24, Pat's birthday. We stopped just 124 miles up the California coast at the Benbow Inn. They had a nice charger there that gave us 30 miles per hour of charge so we had plenty for the next stop, I thought. I found out right away the next day that I was wrong about the range on the coast. I thought I could get about 250 miles with a full charge. I did not realize that steep grades use up a lot of miles in range. By the time we got up to Crescent City I decided to charge at an RV park. We were on our way up to Gold Beach where I thought there was a charger that would give us 30 miles an hour again. That was 210 miles away from the Benbow Inn. I was losing range faster than I thought so we stopped at an RV park for 1.5 hours (paid $10) and had 30 miles to spare when we stopped at a pizza restaurant in Gold Beach, Oregon. The owner was real nice and we decided to stay the night at the hotel right next store for $59. It was clean and worked out fine. The problem we had was the charger at the restaurant was only giving us 20 miles per hour and they shut it off at 9 pm. I had to head back the next morning for two hours while we had breakfast. That gave us enough miles to Florence, 130 miles away.

I found out the charger at the hotel in Florence Oregon also was only good for 20 miles per hour, but that gave us enough miles by charging all night to get up to Cannon Beach, 160 miles. I knew the hotel there only had a 110 outlet so I was still hoping for 4 miles per hour and over night would have given us 80 miles if we stayed until 11am. For some reason the nice iPhone app showed me while eating at the great restaurant right next store, that I was only getting 2 miles per hour. I don't know what was wrong, but I assume it could have been the long extension cord they fed me thought a building. The next morning we only had 100 miles of range and we needed 125 to get to Centralia, Washington.

Let me explain about the range display. When we charge all the way, it shows 267 miles, but that is calculated at 55 miles per hour with no wind and a straight flat road which does not exist in Oregon or Washington. What I noticed was when I went up grades the indicator would drop by as much as 1.4 miles for every mile driven. There was never a time when I drove on the trip when I did not lose some range. The best I saw was on some straighter roads at about 62 miles an hour, I would go 10 miles and still the indicator would go down by 12. I figured, realistically I could go about 210 miles on a full charge, but I always wanted a cushion.

That night I spent a lot of time looking for other charging places near our hotel. The only one that gave me 30 miles per hour was at a near by RV park. The comments online were not good........they charged us $43 plus tax whether we were there one hour or all night SO I paid the $46+ fee to sit and read for two hours. Pat was furious, but that is still less than filling my tank with GAS. 

I then had over 160 miles of range to get to our first Super Charger, free from Tesla. We decided to stay on i5 after that and avoid the Oregon Coast. These super chargers are great. In 45 minutes you can get 200 miles on the range indicator. On interstate 5, there are super chargers every 125 miles apart all the way from Vancouver Canada to Orange County, enough to get to San Diego. I drove on i5 after that at about 77 miles an hour and it looked like I could get 200 miles on a charge, but with the chargers so close together I never had to worry about range again.

That day we arrived in Seattle at 5pm where Susie lives. The next day we drove up to Bellingham at the top of Washington and had lunch. I charged at a super charger above Seattle. We left on Wednesday and I had enough miles to get to Springfield just above Eugene Oregon, but I had to stop at two chargers on the way. The next day we were in Mount Shasta. We found out there was to be a ribbon cutting the next morning celebrating Tesla Super Chargers from San Diego to Canada. We were hoping to get home from there in the early after noon but they wanted to showcase my dark green Tesla Model S being charged. There were about 40 people and three other Tesla Model S siting in front of the ribbon parked at the chargers. Two of the cars were marked with big letters, free charging from Canada to San Diego. We finally left at about 10 am and had lunch near Chico at another Super Charger. We were told there was a ribbon cutting there, the day before. It was a fun vacation, but I know I enjoyed it more that Pat. I like stopping every 2 to three hours and taking a break. I will have more about what we thought about the car at another time.

Wednesday November 6, 2013

Yesterday was 60 years since my Father, Frank, died in an explosion on the job. My Mother said yesterday, she was so disappointed I missed my Father in these 60 years. I told her, I have done OK, but I know it could have been better.......

I had fun today with for my first outing since back from our vacation....... in my Tesla Model S.

I purchased my first stock in Tesla today......TSLA. I now have 40 shares........I hope the stock goes down more so I can buy more.

As i have said before, in 2010, I put $5,000 down when I first heard about the Model S, Tesla EV. I backed off and cancelled when I would have been one of the first to own a Model S.......... because, last year, when I figured a vacation, I could not drive up on the Oregon Coast. There were no chargers....... I found out I was wrong.

When I put $5,000 down on my Tesla 3 years ago, Tesla stock was selling for 20. I could have owned 250 shares still back then if i had put that $5,000 in the company. When I picked up my EV on October 17 the 250 shares in stock would have been valued at $46,000. Last year I got my $5,000 back in a refund but I could have paid for 50% by investing in the company.......I love my Tesla

Thursday November 7, 2013

Here is some of what I wrote to a friend tonight:

>>>>>>Yes look at the comments today. Everyone thinks Tesla has problems. I now own 50 shares and I will buy another 50 tomorrow. If it goes down to 120 to 80 I will own at least 500. This is like birth control pills. This electric car thing is going to be big. We will no longer need Oil......but maybe it will take longer than my life time................<<<<<<<<<

9:00 Pm: I was 20 years old. Everyone in the stock market back in the early 60's bought the first birth control company, I believe it was called Syntex, look it up...............The stock went up like Tesla in a short time, way too high. I was just into the Market then and said..........wow this could be good........... Some women do not want to have a baby every time they have sex!!!! I had no money and then I had a little, a year later.............Syntex went down big time, concerns about health.
........http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntex.......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill#Studies_of_progesterone_to_prevent_ovulation

I see there is little information on Syntex.........why is that......

I know the stock went down and when it was low I bought some shares and made my first big money......a triple from I think 30 to 90......long time ago

I hear from Pat, Cindi, Matt and Catalina we will be offering some new wines on a great sale price. I have tasted these new 2012 wines and they are good.  

I close with this great post about Tesla

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1820742-i-justify-my-tesla-purchase-with-this-analogy?source=email_rt_article_readmore

Friday November 8, 2013

An IRS agent was here from 9Am until 5. She was very nice and wanted to take a few other documents. i asked if she needed to come back and she grinned and said she probably would not need to come back. After my accountant left at noon, and advised me the day before......."do not talk too much" I thought for a second to my self after he left...........I have nothing to hide and do I really want to waste another day? So at 5 pm, 5 hours later without a break from her. (Of course I asked several times do you need a break) (No I am fine, she said) I asked her how long will this take? NOT LONG she said......to me I thought she said it strong, but what do I know..........the IRS was here for 8 hours......why would they waste their time? OK I do not know what my accountant does so hey, there could be questions and she had many. We sell mostly FUTURES and the IRS is having toruble understanding.........

I know some of you are wondering what I thought of my Tesla on this 2000 mile adventure..........

The best handling car I ever drove before this Tesla was a 1971 Porsche 914 with a 4 or 5 speed, I can't remember, with that 914 i had so much fun driving home from the Finance district after a big trade. I lived the stock market, we floated money, it was fun BUT that 914

The 914 could take any turn at what speed you wanted, as long as you were focus. I remember on the coast going as fast as I could to keep up with a 2002 BMW. Those were small cars with little power..........

This Tesla is better, with twice the weight). It is scary. I know I could take any turn, with better balance (The batteries are all distributed evenly under the car) and it is so fast, or should I say responsive. You touch the peddle and it does what you want AND when you let up it slows down automatically.

I love my Model S so now that the stock is down, I am investing in the company.....I now own 70 shares.....  
 



For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com

Dave


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