 |
| Here the Delaware River divides New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This picture is from the Pennsylvania side. |
The Delaware Water Gap is a National Recreation area that encompasses roughly 70,000 acres of land in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. At one point the Delaware River passes by Mt. Minsi in Pennsylvania and Mt. Tammany in New Jersey and is the dividing line between the two states. It's about a 43 mile drive from my house in Chester, NJ which gives me just enough range to get there, drive around a bit and make it home without recharging. When I had the MINI-E I would visit the area every now and again because it's such a beautiful area.
There are tours, hiking, canoeing and historic places to visit there, but my favorite thing to do is just lower the windows turn off the radio and cruise around in my quiet AE. The roads are windy and usually empty so all I hear are my tires on the pavement and the sounds of nature as I roll along slowly and take in the views. BMW may tell you that EV's are better suited for inner city driving - hell, they even gave the i3 the codename 'megacity car' but I still say the most enjoyable place to drive them is in windy rural roads. There is no other noise to interfere with your driving pleasure other than birds, rushing river water and crickets at night.
We stopped a few times for some pictures and to get some coffee and then headed home. The trip odometer said we drove 91 miles and the state of charge was at 8%, pretty much right on a 100 mile range which is pretty good since about 80% of the driving was at highway (70-75mph) speeds. Unfortunately I don't think many other ActiveE drivers could make it to the Gap because of the range. There probably aren't many electronauts that live as far West in New Jersey as I do. I know Chris Neff and Rory Cupen, fellow electronauts who live near me could also make it, but that's all I can think of that live far enough West to do it. It's too bad because in my opinion it's a great place to drive around in an EV. Hopefully they will put a couple charging stations up there and then others could make the trip and enjoy it as I do. In fact, thinking about it now I'm going to contact the tourism department there and see if I can help inspire them to do just that!
