17 March a small group caravanned from Bakersfield to the Desert Tortoise Preserve's new parcel adjacent to the Springbok solar power plant near Cantil, California. The plant is located just north of California City and just south of the Honda test track.

12 March I drove our Chevy Bolt to the ChargePoint station at the Palmdale Water District (PWD). I had an interview with the executives there, and, conveniently for me, they had recently installed a 24 kW DCFC. This is a round trip of about 200 miles. Because of the steep climb from Bakersfield over the Tehachapi Summit, this circuit is near the edge of the Bolt's range. I would charge for a half-hour at the DCFC station and pick up a few kWh as a precaution.

On 12 February 2018 we drove our Chevy Bolt to Grover Beach from Bakersfield, California, a distance of nearly 150 miles. I'd been anticipating this drive for several months. It was a first for us to drive directly from Bakersfield to Grover Beach in an electric vehicle (EV). We've driven to the coast several times before in our Leaf, but the Leaf's limited range necessitated a circuitous route that added 100 miles to the trip and many hours of charging en route.