My Award

For the third annual National Plug-In Day festivities today, I joined dozens of fellow EV drivers at Nissan of the Eastside at Bellevue for a day of sharing stories and drooling over Model S sedans.

The weather was terrible, but the camaraderie was not!  The day of socializing began at Magic Nissan in Everett with about 10 other LEAF owners.  We had a great time talking EV-specific stuff, of course, but we also used this hour-long stop to catch up on each others' lives.  The LEAF drivers in the Seattle-Everett area have really started to get to know one another, and some I would call friends now, too.  One couple just recently had solar panels installed at their house, which was awesome hearing about.  And, we had an opportunity to preview the soon-to-be-released window sticker that will be available for Seattle area LEAF owners; Trish Haveman did an awesome job on it, and I look forward to sharing pictures and plastering our LEAFs with the sticker once it goes public:)

In first meeting up at Magic Nissan, we planned to have an EV caravan for the trip to main event.  While it was not a world record road train, having seven LEAFs in one line on the road was pretty cool!

Yes, I got out of my car--on Hwy. 99--to take this shot.

It looks like EVs are really catching on!

In a way, I am pleased with the biblical rain from earlier today.  The downpour had all of us hunkered down under a large tent.  And the close quarters actually facilitated folks talking with one another!  I sported my BC2BC jacket, and had a few enthusiasts ask me about the trip and the West Coast Electric Highway.  Having a captive audience that wanted me to talk about electric vehicles was dreamy.  I was in heaven!

The moments of glory just got better when the awards ceremony got underway.  There were quite a few awards presented:  most EVs owned, fastest EV (I did enjoy raising my hand at the M.C.'s cue, "Raise your hand if you've driven your EV 95 mph."), etcetera etcetera.  

When the M.C. was ready to award the longest trip in an EV, one other driver and myself were left with our hands raised.  We both drove from Canada to Mexico, and back, this past summer; David and his wife drove their gorgeous Tesla Model S and me, of course, in a LEAF.  I thought I'd better try to one-up the sexy car, so I raised my voice and shouted to the crowd:  "This summer, I drove thirty-six hundred miles over seventeen days in our Nissan LEAF...with my 5-year-old daughter!"  

The wildcard, Sabrina, was the money play once again!  The crowd applauded and I was awarded the "Longest Electric Trip" certificate.  My Award is proudly displayed on our refrigerator!

I may just have to get a frame for My Award.