How far are you willing to go?

Smoke

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At least I'm aware of just how spoiled I am... There's so much good stuff around northern California. In fact, I spent the entire weekend in Oakland attending the GSBF Mammoth Bazaar and stocked up on future projects and pots. It's a shame that the rest of the Us doesn't enjoy the same luxuries, but I think in time the lack of material for sale will cause more collecting, hopefully.
There is more than enough material. I see a lack of people with the resources to purchase it.

Friend of mine just put in another 1000 trident maples. This along with the other 20,000 trees he has for sale.
trident field0001.JPG
 

Adair M

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Isn't fuel ...fuel? I never have to go to the supercharger station. There is always going to be time made for refueling.
I only have to go to the Supercharger on rare occasions. I charge at home. Every night, I plug the car in. It's ready to go the next day. If the car were empty, and I wanted to put s full charge on it AT HOME, it takes 4 hours. That's ok, I'm at home eating dinner, repotting trees, or typing on my iPhone on BonsaiNut. It's like a cell phone, plug it I every night. You can set it to start charging at whatever time you want to take advantage of off peak pricing.

You only Supercharge on road trips. The idea is for daily driving, you charge at home. Road trips require fast charging away from home. They put the Superchargers every 100 to 200 miles on the Interstate. 200 miles is about 3 hours of driving.

At the Supercharger, you can put 200 miles in the battery in about 30 minutes. So, the idea is you plug in, go find a rest room, get a bite to eat, when you're done, the car is ready to go. It send you a message on your smartphone, in fact.

The car is designed to swap batteries. There's one experimental station open now, but still in testing. The swap is supposed to be faster than filling a car with gas.

I have used the Superchargers in Chattanooga when I went to pick up a shohin stand Tom Scott made for me. I have student I give private bonsai lessons to in Macon, GA. There's one there. Those have been the only two I've actually "needed" to use. I have used the ones in Atlanta a couple of times for the novelty of it. It was lunch time, so I charged up during lunch!

There's more: no oil changes, no fan belts to break, no transmission to go bad, no spark plugs, no catalytic converter, no timing belt/chain, even brakes last longer because when you ease off the accelerator, the regen braking kicks in: using the motor to flow the car, and put more energy back into the battery.

It DOES use tires faster. It's a heavy car.

In case you're wondering "what if I'm going off the Interstate?", there are apps to find other charging locations. Most RV parks have 50 amp circuits for RVs. You can use those to charge. Many hotels are installing chargers. Yes, it might take a bit of planning, but there are tools to help. The car's navigation system can find all the Siperchargers and other Tesla chargers nearby.

That's enough hijacking of this thread!
 
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Smoke

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I don't think its hijacking at all. This thread is about going places and this seems to work for you. I still think the future of travel is in fuel cells or nuclear. The diminishing gain on solar is just not great enough to transfer to all aspects of daily life. (aircraft, trains, heavy equipment and trucking.)
 

milehigh_7

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All things being equal I am willing to do a great deal and go a great distance. However, wife and kids come first. So... I enjoy making so so trees out of what I can find. I make enough selling to buy a few things I want. I enjoy it even though I may never be able to allocate the resources required to excel. I am cognizant that one must invest to make a return. I just have more important priorities at this time. I will show you a picture of where I intend to go collecting one day soon in Colorado. I promise not a soul has ever collected there. Every inch in this picture is private land that I have access to if I have the time and money to get there. Maybe I can get a few of you guys to go with me and show me how it's done. BTW these are Ponderosa, RMJ and Pinonhome1.JPG
 

sorce

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From what I gather.......

As long as you're willing to go further than the keyboard \ phone you will do better, and it's worth it.

I had a chance to go to my 35min away Hidden Gardens, some nice stuff, but only been there once, I think the nice collected RMJ's and Ponderosa's were from Natures Way cuz W.P. was there later that day!

Maybe get there in spring for some soil, and another look!

All the regular nurseries sell BS . Pot and tray glued together stuff.

Kind of feeling spoiled and lazy to hear of your trips Smoke! Couldn't even make it out to the Midwest show less than an hour away!

Got the wife convinced of Rochester this year!
Hope that can happen!

Sorce
 

M. Frary

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I am driving 3 hrs one way to go to shows this year.
I will be driving my 1998 Ford Explorer with 302 cubic inch displacement. 15mpg chucking Styrofoam boxes out along the way. Not electric. Can you haul bass boats with them electric cars?
 

BrianBay9

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I started this activity in N California with easy access to material. I've continued it through moves to San Diego, Colorado, Indiana and now Wisconsin. Each place has been challenging in its own way. Now I have a 4 hr drive one way to my closest collecting site, two hours to a good nursery growing ground, and I'm thrilled to be only two hours away from the Midwest show in Chicago. As long as I'm having fun there's always a way to make it work.
Brian
 

markyscott

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Er, what subsidy are you referring to, Smoke?

Tesla puts the Superchargers along the Interstates every hundred miles or so. It's free for Model S drivers to use. As I understand it, $2000 of the price I paid for the car is earmarked to pay for the installation and operation of the Supercharger network.

Tesla pays for the installation of the Superchargers and the electricity. As I understand it, the long term goal is to have solar panels installed to collect the electricity used by the Superchargers.

Solar should work as long as they only sell a few Tesla's

Scott
 

Dav4

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I am driving 3 hrs one way to go to shows this year.
I will be driving my 1998 Ford Explorer with 302 cubic inch displacement. 15mpg chucking Styrofoam boxes out along the way. Not electric. Can you haul bass boats with them electric cars?

I don't know about hauling bass boats, but can your '98' explorer go from 0 to 60 in less then 4 seconds?
 

Adair M

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Solar should work as long as they only sell a few Tesla's

Scott
When Tesla gets the Gigafactory (a huge lithium ion battery factory) up and going, they're planning on building a half million less expensive cars a year. Yeah, I don't know how solar panels would be able to keep up.

Smoke, it's funny you mention fuel cells... The car manufacturers that are pushing that technology ARE asking the State of California to subsidize the cost of building fuel cell refueling stations. Tesla is building their Supercharger network on their own dime.

Right now, I believe there is exactly ONE fuel cell refueling station open to the public in the entire nation. It's somewhere near Los Angeles. So, if you have a fuel cell car, you can drive around LA, just make sure you can get back to the hydrogen station.

The hydrogen, by the way, is made by stripping hydrogen atoms from methane (natural gas). Then the hydrogen is compressed for storage. (Which uses electricity to accomplish). Im not an engineer, but I understand it's not very efficient. And, finally, hydrogen is very hard to store. It leaks very easily. All the cars filled up with hydrogen would all slowly leak the stuff away!
 

M. Frary

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I don't know about hauling bass boats, but can your '98' explorer go from 0 to 60 in less then 4 seconds?
Never timed it but am willing to say pretty close. 5.0 litre HO. Detroit muscle. Only a little longer with boat attached. It is a little brute. Does donuts like Grave digger too! And the big plus is I can drive it in 2 feet of snow.
 

Adair M

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Can you haul bass boats with them electric cars?
The issue isn't power. Yes, the model S has the power to pull a bass boat. Mine has 470 hp. Thd new ones have over 700. The issue isn't power. It's range. How far do I have to pull that bass boat?

Freight trains are driven by electric motors. Yes, electric motors provide the torque to pull the train. The diesel engines are generators providing the electricity to power the electric motors. That's why they're called "diesel-electric" trains.

Tesla has on its long range plans the desire to build a pickup truck.
 

M. Frary

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The issue isn't power. Yes, the model S has the power to pull a bass boat. Mine has 470 hp. Thd new ones have over 700. The issue isn't power. It's range. How far do I have to pull that bass boat?

Freight trains are driven by electric motors. Yes, electric motors provide the torque to pull the train. The diesel engines are generators providing the electricity to power the electric motors. That's why they're called "diesel-electric" trains.

Tesla has on its long range plans the desire to build a pickup truck.

I'm not trying to get danders up here. I sometimes have tournaments on Lake Eerie as far away as 250 miles ome way. Mostly only no more than 100 miles one way.
The truck would be cool but I will never be able to even buy a used one. Electric cars are very cool but they will only be for people who can afford them. The rest will still drive cars that run on dinosaur juice.
Besides, does the Tesla roar? My V8 rattles windows! Noise and air pollution.
 

Paradox

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2 years ago went to NEBG in Mass, 10+ hours round trip.

Last year went to MABS show in NJ. 4 hour drive, stayed there 2 for nights at the hotel for it. Going again this year; taking one workshop.

Driving to Baltimore in June for the ABS Learning Symposium. 6+ hour drive one way. Staying 3 nights, taking 3 workshops.

Starting Kaikou bonsai school at NEBG in April, meeting 4x per year for 2 years.

Drive 1 hour from work in the opposite direction from home for a club, then drive 1.5 hours home.

Hoping to get to Rochester in September in 2016
 
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Mmm, being new in the hobby I haven't had to drive far yet. I did attend the Atlanta Bonsai Show that was held with the Atlanta Koi Show. It was awesome and inspiring. A buddy and I did drive 3hr RT to check out a bonsai place, it was cool. So for shows I would think I would travel up t0 8hours one way. As for collecting, for native material it is easy for me to come by within an hour or two drive for pretty much anything. For me it's not the travel time, but collection, transport and potting time. Collecting one or two trees could take several hours and travel and repot will make it a full day. So driving several hours to just buy a tree takes less time. The work is in the scouting, digging, transporting and potting- not the driving 75mph for a couple hours.
 

crust

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For things bonzo I unequivocally go to third base right away, I can't help it, but I usually am a sucker for the ones with the ones with the big shoulders or quirky eye-teeth like Patrica Arquette or squatty demons hunched in a impossibly inaccessible crack just out of reach---sigh.
 

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ColinFraser

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My monthly club meetings are about an hour from home, and Muranaka's is about an hour the other way. This weekend I will be driving about 3 hours to attend the 'Bonsai-a-thon" at The Huntington. In fact, I may drive there and back twice; it's still cheaper than a hotel if I want to attend both days- more money for the sales area!
 

barrosinc

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Down here... there are no bonsai planting fields... There are a lot of regular nurseries, so most stuff is years behind.
There are basically 3 bonsai nurseries down here:
1. My teacher and club. (check link to see her trees if you like)
2. and a second guy you has a small growing field just for his production. ( www.bonsaichile.cl )
3. another importer of mallsai and very lousy soil. ( www.chilebonsai.cl )

The deshojo tree I got was from bonsaiist#2 sold to bonsaiist #1 because he was her teacher and I took all the photos for her website. I would have never been able to buy it from #2 if it weren't through her. He keeps all the stuff for himself.

I can either import or buy chinese entry level tools. Most varieties are non-existant. And lets not even get started with border fiscalization (agriculture is protected by the Andes mountains) and free of most plagues of the region, so imports besides elms is prohibited (don't know why elms are allowed).

So, how far are you willing to go?? Not too many options... 45 minute round trip?
If I want lava or pumice, the drive is like 10 hours or I can buy it for pretty much the price it would cost to drive and use a shovel and bucket.


So what is there to do besides get seeds and nursery trees, trees from houses getting demolished, some yamadoris (my teacher is really good at getting elms and olives and prunus serrulata, and wait and ask tons of questions to the point of driving smoke mad...
 
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