Teddy and I headed over to Gertrude in the CitiCar late in the evening. It was getting into the twilight hours, and we had our lights on. Arriving back home and hooking up the charger, I noticed the cover for the contacts was fairly warm. I’m concerned that there is some arcing going on, or too many amps are passing through. It could also have something to do with the proximity of the new charger next to it.
Back to Front
I removed four of the 12 volt battery chargers in the back of the CitiCar as well as their quick disconnect plugs from the battery terminals. I moved the last 12v charger to be next to the accessory battery. I sat the Lester charger next to it as well. I got underneath the car and ran the charging wires from under the seat to the front of the car. While I was down there, I ran an extra set of wires to the front to hook up my battery meter.
Chargers moved to front of car along with a battery meter.
I no longer need to open up the seat to check the voltage. The Lester charger bumps the voltage so high that the volt meter no longer operates until the batteries stop charging. Unfortunately, the wires and chargers look like a giant rat nest.
High Current
The charging app had settings for the cable size at 12 gauge. I have a smaller 14 gauge wire from the battery to the terminal bus bar, but the app wouldn’t let me select a smaller size. To work around the problem, I added an extra 14 gauge wire to both the positive and negative busbar terminals.
Two 14 gauge wires are used to support the current of a 12 gauge wire
I’ve noticed that the wires for the power strip and the Lester charger tend to heat up. The Kill A Watt meter shows a 20% higher wattage being used than the charger is rated for. My goal is to wire up the outlet in the front of the CitiCar to a standard household outlet, and remove the power strip. I’ve also noticed a smell of spoiled eggs when charging. I keep leaving the garage door open just to feel like I’m doing something that might be safer.
I’ll need to wire up a J1772 inlet into the same line, but first I need to find a 12 volt charger that can sense if it is connected to 120 or 240 volts.
Interference
I saw a video on YouTube where someone was demonstrating the effect aluminum has on detecting GPS satellites. I moved the speedometer GPS sensor to another part of the car.
In other news
Rather than splitting out my biweekly deposit through weighted positions in my portfolio, I decided to throw it at Tesla. The companies stock usually does so well that my deposits usually go to everything else that is underweight unless I manually intervene. I feel like I’m playing catch up. It’s nice to finally see the number of shares rather than just the price going up for a change.
“I Voted” sticker given out to voters at Front Royal, VA Registrars office after voting
Today is Tesla battery investor day. A vacation day was in order. A quick trip to the registrar for some early voting was followed with a relaxing vacation day with Teddy.
Happy Creek flows past a pavilion in Gertrude Miller community park
Gertrude, as with most trips, was first on our list of destinations. Teddy slowly made his way around the park. We hung out on the side of happy creek by the wooden overlook. Small fish were swimming about, and Teddy found an old mangled baseball in the creek.
Teddy sits behind the CitiCar at Kentucky Fried Chicken
We were soon on our way over to KFC. I made sure to ask for a cup holder since the CitiCar doesn’t have a place to hold drinks.
CitiCar parked in the shade of a tree
One of the great things about a CitiCar is that you can back into a space half-way, and have quite a bit of room to sit on the curb and lay out your meal on the ground behind the car. In Teddy’s case, I’m able to put a cup of water and some ice cubes on a lid that he can’t knock over and spill.
Teddy, with a little custard ice cream on his nose, is as happy as happy can be
The next stop was at B&L Custard. The owner asked us where our little red car was. I pointed, but a larger car was obstructing her view. Teddy had his usual “Pup Cup” and got a bit messy with it. I had a strawberry shortcake sundae in a waffle bowl.
CitiCar parked at Bowman Park in Front Royal, Virginia
Next on our little trip was a visit to Bowman park. It’s a small park that I rarely visit, and we hadn’t driven to the the park with the CitiCar yet. A few picnic tables and benches are scattered throughout about an acre of land on a gradual incline. The park has very old and thick trees. Acorns were falling fairly often, but I didn’t see any squirrels.
Sidewalk through Bowman Park in Front Royal, Virginia
Laying against a tree for awhile, I had started to lose track of time until the church bell rang at half past four. It was time to be on our way back home.
Lewie and Teddy laying against a large tree at Bowman Park in Front Royal, Virginia
New Charger
The Lester Summit Series II charger arrived while we were out on our little trip through town. I plugged the car into the regular battery chargers and started to look over the instructions for the new charger, attaching wires and screwing the cover on. Tesla Battery Investor Day started while I was going over the details and I had a live stream playing while I continued to work on the charger.
Busbar with wire that has large enough ring terminal to go around battery terminal
The ring terminals that came with the charger were too small for the battery terminals that came in the CitiCar. I created a pair of wires with ring terminals large enough to connect to the battery terminals and connected them to bus bar terminals. The charger powered up and I was able to connect to it via Bluetooth.
The Lester Summit Series II charger is wired up to four 12v batteries that powers the CitiCar motor
The default battery profile was for 22001. It wasn’t all that descriptive. I went to the battery profile selector, choose battery manufacturer as “Interstate”. After being unable to find my battery model number, the app told me to contact Lester Electrical by phone. The office was closed. I left a message with technical support.
The default profile seems like it would be okay…
I looked into what 22001 was about. The profile information said it was for a 48v flooded/wet lead-acid battery pack with a 20-hour rating of 225-260 Ah. I don’t know what effect amp hour capacity has on the charging process. I didn’t know what kind of Amp Hours my batteries had.
Brand
Interstate
Model
31-ECL
Reserve Capacity (RC)
190 @ 25 amps
Guessing: 190 minutes / 60 minutes
3.166 hours @ 25 amps
Guessing: 3.166 hours * 25 amps
79.166 Amp Hours
Final Answer…
79 Amp Hours
I decided to give the default setting a go. I immediately noticed a difference in the amount of watts used to charge the battery. When using the five individual battery chargers in the past, they used a combined wattage of about 333 watts. The charger was using 1165!
The CitiCar batteries were charging up fairly quickly. It was great being able to see the current state of charge, phase, and predicted time for the charging process to complete. With the other chargers, I would have been waiting 11 hours to recharge at a rate of 0.8 miles per hour,
Towards the end of the charging cycle, I noticed that the voltage was fairly high for charging batteries at 64.1 volts (16.0 volts per battery). In the past, my other chargers would only go up to 14.5 volts on an individual battery. I went to check on the car and it sounded like the batteries were boiling. I opened the garage door as a precautionary measure to ventilate. I didn’t smell anything, but I wanted to be safe. I reached out to other C-Car owners. One confirmed that they had this issue as well and were told the batteries were okay.
The last phase seemed to drop the estimate drastically, stating 13 minutes, but was off by almost two hours. I thought maybe the temperature drop outside was having an effect on the chargers thoughts on how much the voltage needed to increase as the weather got colder. At least I now know that my batteries can hold 50 amp hours.
Time
Remaining
Amps
AH
Volts
SoC
6:52
727
20.5
1
51.9
29%
7:03
533
20.4
4
52.3
60%
7:34
505
19.8
14
53.9
63%
7:44
495
19.6
17
54.6
64%
8:33
191
9.0
29
64.1
90%
9:06
13
9.0
34
64.7
92%
9:35
3
9.0
39
64.9
93%
9:39
3
9.0
39
64.8
93%
9:47
2
9.0
40
64.9
94%
10:55
0
0
50
54.4
100%
A review of the first charge cycle
The end result was a charge that would normally take 11 hours was done in five and a half. I was charging at 1.63 miles per hour! Unfortunately it looks like the quick charge rate also increases the watt hours per mile. I’m often averaging around 280 watt hours, but the recharge from this trip was 391 watt hours per mile.
Due to the quick charge rate, I could potentially take two trips in the CitiCar per day. I could take off with Teddy to the dog park in the mornings and go for a second ride in the evenings.
One thing to consider is that the batteries were being charged for a little over an hour on the old chargers before switching over. I may have been able to shave an hour off of the charge time if they started out on this charger from the beginning. The results from the next trip may give a better baseline of what to expect in future charge times and costs.
Charging interface for Lister Charger Connect after the first charging cycle completed
I’m hoping that the over-charge voltage was a one-time conditioning of some kind. I don’t like the idea of degrading the batteries from overcharging. When looking at the logs, I suspect that this will happen every time. I’m hoping that it will consider the time from prior charges to improve the accuracy of estimated time remaining on a charge.
If everything works out well, and there is a profile for the Chevy Volt batteries, I’d like to use this charger for the lithium ion batteries as well since it has quite a lot of features through its app, and it also has extra wires to give it the ability to prevent the car from going anywhere when connected to AC power.
After the batteries were charged to 100%, the charger wasn’t registering any power on the Kill a watt meter at all. Not even a watt. It’s powered by the battery pack alone. The other chargers that I had would always draw about two watts each after the batteries were fully charged – adding to the overall cost of maintaining the battery pack that that I don’t record in my logs. They would also draw more power every now and then in the “float” phase to maintain the battery voltage over time.
In Other News
Battery investor day went well. I just wish I could get ahold of some of those new batteries for the CitiCar. It’s an interesting concept to use the batteries as structural support as part of the frame. The whole car frame of the CitiCar is already used as ground. I went ahead and put in an order for another $500 of TSLA shares in the morning.
The speedometer has trouble getting a GPS signal sometimes, resulting in unaccounted miles if I take off before it acquires its position. In addition, the speedometer does not report speed until it has a signal. The sky was clear today and I would be waiting for a minute or two waiting for the timer to catch the signal.
Teddy and I zipped on down in the CitiCar over to the Gertrude Miller community park. It was a nice day out and we spent quite a bit of time walking around the park, laying down next to Happy Creek and taking in the sound of the water, the wind in the trees, and birds chirping about.
“Get your art on” written on main street
Next we headed over to the town square. There was an art walk going on where people had setup crafts such as ceramics, antiques, and painting. Two of the tents looked like the artists did spray painting fairly quick with various techniques to make a complex painting in front of your eyes as entertainment for crowds.
Custard on a warm summer day
To beat the heat, we walked along Happy Creek. I let Teddy swim in the river for a little bit. We continued up to B & L Custard. This time I tried the strawberry sauce over custard in a waffle bowl along with whip cream and a cherry on top. Teddy was happy with just a plain pup cup.
CitiCar Maintenance
Window lock on a CitiCar
Arriving home, I loosened up the window locks. I used a Philips head screw driver on the exterior screw along with a 3/8 ratchet on the nut on the other side of the window.
In other news
An unsealed envelop delivered to my door
Two packages arrived in the mail, but one was empty. I tried to request a replacement through the website, but I was being asked to send the original back, or I’d have to pay for it. A phone call to the vendor let me square things up. A replacement is being sent to me.
My Kalimba also arrived in one of them. I’ll be practicing with it while Teddy and I visit the parks.
Listen to me play a kalimba thumb piano
Each package was also supposed to have a different 3-way 12 volt adapter. The better one of the two arrived just fine.
Variety of hot chili peppers
Habanero peppers starting to ripen
My chili peppers are ripening. One of the Habanero peppers started turning orange. These are the hottest peppers that I’ve grown this year, and most of the plants had died off.
I’ve been trying to flush the differential fluid in my cars axle. It’s been more than six months since the car came off of the production line in 1976. I’ve been unable to do it without the proper tools to open the fill plug.
My Allen wrenches arrived today. I opened the drain plug and removed all of the differential fluid. After cleaning the plug, I tightened it back on and started pouring gear lubricant into the fill plugs hole. A quart was not enough. I put in an order for some more and filled the old bottle back up with the fluid that just came out.
Drain Plug
5/16″ hex
Flow Plug
3/8″ hex
Fluid
75W-90, 1½ quarts Gear Lubricant
SIX MONTHS AFTER PURCHASE AND EVERY SIX MONTHS THEREAFTER
* Check differential fluid level. Use 90 weight Hypoid gear oil. Fill to top. In cold weather lighter weight fluid may be used. It is not advisable to mix different weights. When changing types of oil, flush system. Use no lighter than 30 weight oil.
Teddy and I hopped into the car with a destination of Gertrude Miller Community Park. I positioned the dash cam so that it had both Teddy and myself in full view, as well as the dashboard. I heard something wearing a bit along the way. I wasn’t sure if it was the rear driver breaks, the motor, or something to do with the differential.
We spent some time at the park and then headed to Advance Auto Parts to pickup the gear lube. I brought the old bottle back with the 45 year old oil that came out of the car. They had me follow them into the back of the store and dump it into a large metal bin with a mesh over the opening. They wouldn’t take the container itself.
ICE parking at an EV charging station
With that, we headed over to the town square, only to find a large event with live music playing. It was the big summer season finale of the towns summer concert series. Vinyl Tracks was playing Beatles songs in the gazebo.
While looking for parking, I saw a big ICE truck parked at an EV Charging space. I got a little annoyed that this vehicle was ICEing an EV charging spot. Although the CitiCar that I was driving is an EV, I wouldn’t park there unless I was using the charger. No parking was available at the town square, so we went to another parking lot nearby and came back to enjoy the park.
Blue Ridge Arts Council Flyer for 2020 Summer Concert Finale featuring Vinyl Tracks
Social distancing at a concert
The concert was enjoyable to listen to as we walked through the park. Everyone was spread out and practicing social distancing. A few people wore masks. We walked past someone enjoying the music from their car.
Teddy and I went across the street to get some ice cream at C & C Frozen Treats. The little shop was packed with people due to the concert across the street. We didn’t bother going inside.
Ice Cream!!!
On the way home, I saw an ice cream truck in my community. I stopped the CitiCar on the side of the street and waved the truck down. I purchased an ice cream sandwich that looked like a big Oreo cookie. I got my ice cream after all!
Differential flow plug on a CitiCar
We arrived home at last. I checked the mileage, voltage, reset the kilowatt meter, and plugged in the battery chargers. The axle was a bit hot. I gave it some time to cool down. I came back and topped off the gear lubricant in the differential pan through the flow plug.
Video
CitiCar trip to the park
WAYPOINT
ODOMETER
DISTANCE
Home
1,106.6
Gertrude Miller
3.2
Advance Auto Parts
1.2
Town Square
0.4
Home
1,115.3
3.9
Total
8.7
RECHARGE
ENERGY
COST
DURATION
Rate
kWh
9.85¢
0.60 mph
Total
2.30 kWh
23.4¢
14:30
Per Mile
265 Wh
2.7¢
01:40
Other News
The motor bumper arrived today as well as a torque wrench.
I had made about 15% profit in my dividend portfolio that I started out late last year. I sold off everything I had invested in it, so that it only consists of profit now. I’m investing the majority of the money into my other portfolio consisting of disruptive tech and a couple EV companies that I follow almost daily.
I’ve been talking with a few people in CitiCar and Comuta-Car groups and to someone at D&D Motor Systems to replace the motor that I’ve got. The model numbers of the motor and axle that I have do not provide enough information alone.
Dana spider axle and motor on a CitiCarv
For anyone going down the same route, here are the numbers that I see, that you can use for reference. The motor has some details on its plate, but some of the details are worn. I am unable to see the serial number at the moment:
GE 6HP Series Wound 48v DC motor plate
Manufacturer
General Electric
Voltage
48V
Wound
Series
Horse Power
6
RPM
4000
Amps
125
Class
F
Time Rating
INT
Model
5BC 49 JB 327 C
Motor plate information
Numbers 815107X and 5 on a Dana Axle
Numbers 20 and 820178-4 on Dana Axle
Numbers 820178-4, 5, and 20 appear on the axle. Another number appears as 815107X, but it may also be 8/5/07X or 8/5107X or 8/5107X.
The number five appears in the center of a circle, tilted on its side, with eight dots around it in odd positions filling eight of ten spaces.
There is also a letter “D” with a letter “W” inside of it.
I need to pull the motor off of the Dana spider axle to see inside and identify the motor coupler, spline, or shaft it will need. I’m not at all a car guy, but that’s the lingo I keep hearing. I’ll just pull it off, snap a few pictures, count things, and make some measurements with my calipers. How hard can it be? After all, I’ve watched David Brunson install a motor on his Comuta Car, so I’m certain that I am an expert mechanic now.
I wasn’t sure if removing the motor involved axle oil spilling out. I was told no, but then a few people chimed in and started offering tips on how to replace the axle geese. I figured while I’m working in that area on a 40 year old car, what bad could come from fixing something that ain’t broke? It felt like general maintenance that should be done every X-thousand miles or X-years, whichever came first. Sure enough, the owners manual had something to say about it:
The 1976½ CitiCar Owners Manual
SIX MONTHS AFTER PURCHASE AND EVERY SIX MONTHS THEREAFTER
Check differential fluid level. Use 90 weight Hypoid gear oil. Fill to top. In cold weather lighter weight fluid may be used. It is not advisable to mix different weights. When changing types of oil, flush system. Use no lighter than 30 weight oil.
I’m under the impression that the “every six months” is just topping off what’s already there, but this thing is so old, I’m wondering what I’ll find inside. I think I can just drain the fluid and fill it back in. If I need to crack it open, I’ll have everything on hand, just in case.
I previously had no clue what a differential was, but apparently it is something inside the rear axle. I watched a video by CitiCar Tom rebuilding his Terrell differential for a different axle than mine. I watched another about replacing differential fluid and ordered everything I didn’t already have, and got a nice 20% discount.
Supplies
Part #
Price
Discount
Mobil 1 Synthetic Gear Lubricant LS 75W-90, 1 Quart
26101
$13.99
$2.80
Permatex Ultra Black Maximum Oil Resistance RTV Silicone Gasket Maker (3.35 oz)
82180/82150
$8.49
$1.70
Performance Tool Multi Use Pump
W1145
$16.99
$3.40
CRC Brakleen® Break Parts Cleaner Non-Chlorinated (14 wt. oz.)
5088
$3.59
$0.72
FloTool Standard Duty 7 Quart Drain Pan
OP-112EMI
$3.49
$0.70
TEQ Correct 2 Ton Hydraulic Trolley Jack
TQ924
$41.99
$8.39
$88.54
$17.71
Order from Advance Auto Parts
DC to DC
Buck converter and 12v socket
The other night, I had a few supplies come in. One was a DC-DC Buck converter from 24/36/48v to 12v. I was hoping I could hook it up so that it would work in both the 48 and 24v mode that the car runs in.
I had two sets of wired 12v sockets. I cut one of them in half and spliced the buck converter into the middle. I ran down to the car, hooked everything up and saw/heard an unexpected spark as the wire made contact. Nothing blew up.
I also got one of the cheapest 12v car devices I could find that was still a little useful, but I wouldn’t mind having it blow up if something I did would destroy it. I found a volt meter with 2 usb ports. I plugged it in and it showed 12.7 volts. Everything worked in both the 24 and 48 volt configuration.
Given that I saw the spark, I knew this would always be on, even when nothing was plugged into it. I went ahead and placed an order for a fancy latching switch button that lights up when the power is on. It comes with a pre-wired socket, and I believe I can setup the LED to run off of the 12v supply while the 48v power only flows through the switch itself.
In the mean time, I installed the other socket onto my accessory battery.
Dual USB Car Charger 4.8A Output Cigarette Lighter Voltage Meter
$9.99
19mm 3/4″ Metal Latching Pushbutton Switch 12V Power Symbol LED
$9.99
GPS Speedometer
The T600 has connected to Skynet
I purchased a little T600 Universal GPS Smart HUD. This thing is more of a curiosity to play around with, but I got it because I needed a battery monitor, and I like some of the features it came with.
This thing feels and looks cheap. It simply gives you the bare bones of features it advertises. The most fancy display has a round swoosh below your current speed.
I had to configure it first to bring the speed adjustments down to 100% and offset to 0 mph. I also played around with the three colors that it shows text in.
Speed
Speed Alarm
Distance
Voltage
Voltage Alarm
Duration
Cardinal Direction
Altitude
Clock
The features I like of the T600 Universal GPS Smart HUD
Leaving Home
CitiCar at Advance Auto Parts
Teddy and I started our trip to pickup some supplies to change the cars axle oil, and to pull the motor off to take a closer look at the spline for the shaft of a new motor. As we pulled into the parking lot, there was a police car strait in front of us. Sometimes I think they are going to make up an excuse to pull me over just so they can have a closer look.
Teddy waits to take off on another ride
We wern’t at the store for too long, as it was an online order for pickup. It started to rain a little when we took off. I took Teddy over to Gertrude Miller community park on the way home. It got really dark, windy, and rainy very quick. I started wondering if the wind was strong enough to blow the car over.
Our first trip in the rain
The trip home was… interesting. The roads were wet. The rain was pretty hard. I had the wiper running along with the lights. I saw my voltage on the accessory battery was down to 12.0v. I even tried the defroster to see if I could defog the window. When I turned on the fan, I didn’t feel any air coming through the window vents. The simple fix was to use my hand to wipe down the window. I’ll have to look into what I can do to defog the windows later.
Dead after arrival
As we pulled into the garage, I turned off the lights. Since I was playing with the GPS HUD, I flipped the switch for the lights back on and see how much they impact the accessory battery.
Nothing.
I suspected that a fuse had blown. I grabbed my multi-meter and tested all seven for continuity. I found the bad apple. When I matched the position up to the cover plate, it was labeled as a fuse for the break, turn signal, and horn. I turned on my turn signal and it worked. I pulled out the fuse… still works. I’ll need to re-label these fuses later. Even if I was reading the panel upside down, the other label indicated it would have been the controller.
Luckily for me, one of my first investments in the car was to purchase a variety of fuses and throw them in the back of my car. The cover plate indicated a 20 amp fuse would be adequate for the lights. I replaced the fuse, and all was well with the world.
I took a look at the burnt out fuse and noticed it was rated for 30 amps! My speculation is that the previous owner put that in there because they got tired of replacing 20 amp fuses. Since this happened at the tail end of the trip, I’m guessing that the wiper motor had too much trouble as I entered the garage. Since it wiped away all of the rain, there was a great deal of friction to continue.
In the meantime, I have a DC fuse block on order with sticky labels and LED’s that light up when a fuse is blown. I’ll add the lights and windshield motor to my list of things to upgrade later.
Accuracy
Regarding the GPS HUD, there were a few things enlightening about it. The speedometer on the car was reporting 4 miles faster than what I was actually traveling at. I was able to set my phone next to the GPS monitor and confirm its accuracy. I thought I was going amazingly fast the other day pushing the car to 33.5 mph, only to realize now that I was going under 30.
On a related note is that the distance I have driven on the odometer is much higher than this new gadget is reporting. There seems to be a large discrepancy in just a few short miles. When I punch my routes into Google Maps, It’s sitting in the middle of the other two.
Waypoint
Odometer
Distance
T600
Google
Home
1,088.9
Advanced Auto Parts
1,093.0
4.1
3.5
3.7
Gertrude Miller Park
1,094.2
1.2
1.0
1.1
Home
1,097.4
3.2
2.8
3.0
Total
8.5
6.3
7.8
With the battery voltage meter, I felt better to see how the lights and a wiper affected the voltage with a general idea of the batteries health. I would still prefer to see a capacity meter of some kind with a percent, colors of red/yellow/green, and a bar showing how much is left.
I used the altitude feature to get an idea about how high the hill is to get out of my little neighborhood. The top of the hill is at 648 feet above sea level, and the lowest point is at 508 feet. Every time I go on a little trip, I’m starting out with a 140 foot tall hill.
I know it’s super cheap, but here are some other things I wish it had
A separate set of leads to connect to your battery – monitor 48v battery voltage while connected to a dc-to-dc 12v converter
A switch to turn it on
Buttons on the front
Better sticky pad. It keeps pulling up from the dash
It’s been a long week. The weekend is upon us. Although it’s mostly cloudy, it’s a beautiful day out with warm weather. After finding my keys buried in the couch, Teddy and I hopped into the cheese and ran off to the park. Our first stop, like always, was to our local park, Gertrude Miller Community Park.
It’s fun being in such a tiny car. We were able to maneuver into a small area that isn’t wide enough for most cars to park. It was also at a convenient spot where we had enough area to do a U-turn and be on our way.
Teddy wading in Happy Creek
Teddy will often find his way to the Happy Creek river that runs in between Lions Park and Gertrude Miller Community Park. I let him wade around in a low spot and watch him drink some of the water to help keep him cool.
Lions Park Observation
On the other side of Happy Creek river, there is a little observation deck that he likes to hop up on as well.
Fantasy Land playground looks like a castle
We walked around Lions Park, sat in the shade, and then walked past Fantasy Land playground on the way back to the car. Just looking at the castle made me want to be a kid again.
As noon approached, it was time to cool down with a nice cup of ice cream. We drove over to the Front Royal town square. Our favorite ice cream man at C & C Frozen Treats across the street was happy as always to see us visit his establishment for “essential supplies”. I purchased a quart of Diary Free Blueberry Cheesecake to bring home, and Teddy got a scoop for himself.
Teddy and I went back over to the town square to find some shade and to do a few tricks. He’ll do anything for a treat, and ice cream is one of his favorites.
Sit
Down
Head Down
Nudge
Scratch
Paws Up
Off
Play Dead
Roll Over
Back
Come
Leave It
Wait
Balance
Speak
Left
Right
Touch
Teddy’s tricks
An old caboose from another time
Afterwards we walked around the town square a little bit. The Front Royal visitors center is an old train station, and a Norfolk & Western Cupola Caboose sets in the park. It’s locked off, so you can’t go inside. Usually kids like to play around it, climbing the steps and pretending to ride. It’s been inoperable for a long time, and grass has grown up over the tracks.
The gazebo in Front Royal town square
One of the main attractions in the park is the town center gazebo. Many bands have sat within the gazebo performing for the local community.
The center of the gazebo has a plaque with an inscription about a time capsule buried beneath. Who knows what treasures it contains?
We found a new mural on the side of one of the buildings. I decided it was time to continue our adventure and have a closer look.
This mural lets you become a part of it. If someone takes your picture standing in front of the wings, you can see what you look like with wings. It’s always a treasure to find these murals around Front Royal. One day we’ll find them all. This one also had bee’s flying around.
Inklings is the newest store in town
As we took a walk down main street, Teddy and I found an interesting little pet friendly shop called “Inklings“. It used to be occupied by an art gallery. We went inside to have a look around. The woman inside offered Teddy a treat. I had him do a little performance for her. I grabbed a bar of soap to remove elbow grease with Rosie the Riveter saying “We Can Wash It!”. In addition, a cup with Lewis Carol on it and quotes from Alice In Wonderland caught my eye.
Teddy at Mountain Trails
Main street was closed to traffic so that establishments could use the area to help keep people spread apart. We crossed over and headed towards a hiking store called Mountain Trails. The Appalachia Trail runs through our little city, and many hikers and locals stop by for supplies. A mural of the Appalachia Trail is painted on the side of the building next to its entrance.
The staff were already familiar with Teddy. We hadn’t been there in such a long time, and they were asking to see him do a few tricks. I mentioned he wasn’t going to do them without a reward. A woman offered a treat, but he would only sit. He wouldn’t do the trick to play dead when she asked. I asked for one of the treats and had him doing a bunch of tricks to everyone’s admiration.
Since I had lost quite a bit of weight, I picked up a lightweight Charcoal El Mono T-Shirt by the Howler Brothers. It has a better fit and is ideal for the late summer heat. They threw in a free coffee flavored cliff bar with my purchase.
Time was moving fast. Even though we parked in the shade, I felt that our ice cream back in the car was going to melt if we took too long. We returned home and I got to unpack all of my loot for the day.
The sun is out in the middle of a hot July summer day. Lazily getting up, it took my time enjoying the weekend morning. I had plans to pickup an office desk. I got into my 2004 Ford Explorer SUV and found that I couldn’t get the vehicle to recognize that the gear had shifted out of park. Unfortunately, my hybrid 2010 Honda Insight car is also inoperable. Due to the pandemic, I haven’t driven it for a few months and the battery has died. The only operational vehicle at the moment is… the CitiCar. Really? This?!? At least I’m within range of a couple auto-parts stores.
After calling around and making a few arrangements due to my predicament, it was time to enjoy the rest of the day. Teddy and I hopped into our little electric car and started driving. The right rear brake had a sound that concerned me, so I made a few adjustments back in the driveway and continued on again.
We visited both Gertrude E. Miller Community Park and walked over a little bridge to Lions park across river. Teddy waded in the Happy Creek river a little bit and started laying down when he realized we were about to leave. I’ll admit, if it were cooler, we would have stayed longer. I was getting hot, thirsty, and wasn’t inclined to drink and wade in the river.
1976 CitiCar at Front Royal Town Square
We drove over to pick up Ice Cream. Just like last week, Main street was blocked off. It probably put on an extra mile on the odometer, but the car seemed fine on battery charge, setting on the third tick of five, when we parked. Teddy had some dairy-free strawberry mint ice cream as a reward for doing a few of his tricks in some shade at the town square. We could see the ice cream man and his wife, while dressed as pirates, had stopped by the car to check it out.
On the way home, I had some concerns regarding how much load I was putting on the battery as we were on one of the last inclines. We stopped on a side street just before continuing home. Teddy and I had a bit of a serious discussion regarding the batteries and how much power the motor was drawing. After a minute or two, with clear traffic, we pulled out and continued on our way.
As I held down the breaks for a couple minutes going down hill, I was thinking of how much power was being wasted. Ideally, I could just let off the brakes and coast all the way home, but I wouldn’t even attempt that in my hybrid car with regenerative breaking. As we coasted into the garage, I could hear the motors fan blowing and wondered if I should leave the power on to help it cool off. I also considered if I should wait before charging the car.
In all, we go just under nine miles on our trip from a full battery. The fuel gauge read at 50%, half way between the red dot and the next tick. The owners manual states that the red dot indicates a ¼ charge. We could have probably gone an extra mile or two before fully depleting the battery.
Waypoint
Odometer
Distance
Home
1,060.5
Back to Driveway
1,060.7
0.2
Gertrude E Miller Community Park
1,063.7
3.0
Front Royal Town Square with detour
1,065.6
1.9
Side Street
1,068.2
2.6
Home
1,069.3
1.1
Total
8.8
CitiCar odometer readings for a trip to the park and ice cream store
The Chez 