Dulles Parking

[bmc]

My second trip to dulles in the tesla, had a few thoughts...

1. First minor gripe on Nav.
Nav to Dulles seems to want to route me to the runway. Not useful. Not sure if this is a gap between google maps and the nav system. Workaround is to just select any other address on a street near the airport.

2. 5 Teslas at daily parking today.
It's cool that there are so many, but not cool that 3 of them were parked in charging spots but not charging.
I understand the desire to park really close to the walkway, but it would be considerate to not take up charging spots. I was hoping to charge.

3. 110V plugs around daily parking garage
I decided to drive around the garage in search of 110v outlets. I was fortunate enough to find 5-20 receptacles scattered throughout the garage.
You'll find them on pillars maybe 100 yards apart from each other. I'm charging at 5mph off of them.

4. Saw someone in a model S using an extension cord to charge at 110V on the chargepoint site.
The extension cord led into the back window that was cracked. The charger was then connected to the extension cable in the back seat.
I'm guessing that was someone thinking that the mobile connector might be vulnerable to theft? If this is someone on this forum, I wanted to let you know that probably isn't the best way to use a chargepoint site and you also don't have to worry about mobile connector theft.

 

[Plug Me In]

There are one or two threads here on Dulles. I live 160 miles away and this summer drove to Dulles for our family trip to Europe. The charger spots were all full including 3 Teslas not plugged in. I couldn't find a spot with a 120 outlet and so when we got back from our trip we had to make a jet lagged trip 2 hours out of our way to the Woodbridge SC to get back home.

 

[GOPJEW]

I was parked next to the Tesla with the extension cord for 5 days - it was actually pretty ingenious and courteous - here's why:

1. With the adapter on the Mobile Connector the door on the ChargePonint cannot close and lock - by using the extension cord it was possible to use th 110 and allow it to lock, securing it so no one could unplug it - believe it or not there are bitter people out there.

2. I was gone for five days and one day 2 I got a message that my car was fully charged - at that point the L2 charger stopped charging my car - with the 110 plug it would take days to hit full, allowing your car to maintain a higher charge longer.

3. In addition, using the 110 allows the L2 charger to be available for people who need it for shorter trips or with cars who can't use the 110.

I was worried about some jerk putting something down the window but overall I thought the owner was smart and courteous at the same time.

I could not agree more that parking there without charging is OBNOXIOUS - if you won't be gone long and won't need the charger don't park there.