u/Faramir1717

Had a curious thing happen yesterday when I brought my 2023 Bolt EV 2LT (in red!) into the dealership where I bought it for regular maintenance. Purchased the car in May 2023 and this was the 37,500 mile checkup, which should be done every 7,500 miles per the owner's manual. I have been doing all of these checkups, partly for the warranty purposes earlier (though the three-year has passed, I guess) and generally I prefer an ounce of prevention to a pound of cure. Something I hated about ICE vehicles is the eternal mystery of which obscure part would break at the worst possible moment or need sudden replacement whenever I went in for an oil change.

This time the dealer service department did a tire rotation and replaced the cabin filter, and I don't mind paying some money to have that done. I understand I can do it for cheaper but I don't want to deal with the PITA of it.

However, this time the dealer quoted something called "A/C System Service" at a price of $213. I declined this. The service is described as "Perform Valvoline A/C system service which includes cleaning and deodorizer. Service recommended every 15,000 miles. Helps to remove debris such as pet hair, dander, pollen, and nicotine residue, as well as neutralize micro-organisms."

I admire the use of micro-organism phobia in their service descriptions, because who doesn't hate micro-organisms? Am I right in supposing this is a rather unnecessary dealer add-on that I was correct in declining? Meanwhile, maybe I can con my daughter into cleaning the car interior again.

Owner of a 2023 Bolt EV 2LT since May 2023 and just passed 36k miles.

Currently waiting in a tire shop on a Sunday afternoon to see if I can get a plug for left rear tire that picked up a screw last night. Slow leak of a few PSI overnight but tolerable. All OEM model tires so far.

If they can plug it, easy enough, but if I need to get a new tire, I'm wondering what is the most sensible way to handle it. I did get one tire replaced after 12k miles. (I can't tell if the current malady occurred to this newer tire or one of the three older ones.)

Thoughts on how to handle? Buying four new tires seems stupid as hell because I'll probably pick up an object every couple years or so. I probably don't have too much longer on the original tires (maybe 50k?), so I'll probably need to replace them all by end of 2027 anyway. Maybe I can replace just two of them? I'm not a tire person and live in the southeast US, so something OEM or similar is fine with me.

Just scribbling some comments about my trip to GCNP this past week for my enjoyment and edification and perhaps to benefit anyone who is thinking about visiting the park.  Mostly this will be about hiking but will touch on other things.

* Wife (45), daughter (16), and me (52M) flew to Phoenix from Atlanta (where we live) on Saturday May 23rd and returned Thursday May 28th, with nearly all of that time in GCNP.  Focus of our trip was a rim to rim excursion on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th, north to south, with an overnight in Phantom Ranch on the Tuesday.  In early April my wife managed to snag a spot that came available for May 26th at Phantom Ranch and that was the catalyst for getting going.

* Back in April after wife booked the spot, I posted here asking if it was realistic for us to do the full rim to rim from north to south and got some good advice on preparation, training, and nutrition (many thanks!).  Wife got some good advice as well from more hiking specific forums.  In my own training, for the 6-7 weeks before, and based on the advice I received here, I was doing some hikes with weighted backpack when I had the time, but also going to the gym to do low-weight / high-rep leg presses, stair master torture (boring but effective), and even some stints in the sauna.  For anyone reading this in the Atlanta area, I thought Kennesaw Mountain was a good training venue to prepare for GCNP – can’t replicate the altitude nor the full effect of heat, but the terrain was similar.  For training, my wife would simply go up and down Kennesaw.  Daughter is sporty with excellent cardio and I was never particularly worried about her.  (I wanted her there to drag me out if needed.)

* We drove to the north rim on Monday afternoon with a couple stops at Navajo Bridge and Jacob Lake.  We stayed at the Kaibab Lodge, which was charming and in a beautiful setting in a broad meadow fringed by evergreens.  The north rim plateau is rather remarkable, very different climate from the south, which I’d heard but still struck me.  We drove to the North Kaibab trailhead in the early evening to see it in daylight.  There was a light rain and rather brisk wind, and this was the coldest moment of the trip.  I was a little nervous.  Went back to the lodge and got organized and got to bed.

* Early rise on the Tuesday 26th for the first segment of our R2R.  We were accompanied by two friends who walked with us a little but then returned to the car and would drive it to meet us back at the South Rim.  Our first steps on the North Kaibab were at 4:24 am.  We moved extremely slowly, taking our time, taking a lot of photos, and in the early going we were passed by a bunch of people.  In fact, we reached Phantom Ranch at 3:15 pm, close to 11 hours of hiking.  Thankfully the weather was good, maybe peaking at around 90 degrees in the afternoon at Phantom Ranch (according to forecasts I’d seen a day or two before), and there were a few clouds to break up the sun.

* Responses to my earlier post here asking for advice mentioned the difficulties of the downhill portion of the North Kaibab, and so the part I was most nervous about was the steep descent to Manzanita.  Being 52, nearly 6’4” and about 195 pounds, and carrying ~20 pounds of stuff, I was concerned about getting injured or some other debilitating ailment (like bad blisters) too early in the hike.  So I really focused on using my poles to support my weight on the step downs as much as I could.  I’m not crazy about heights so some of the stretches were a bit hair-raising but I just hugged the wall and kept moving forward.

* The scenery of the descent through Roaring Springs Canyon during dawn was of course amazing.  I didn’t see much evidence of the fires but maybe I’m too stupid to notice.  At this time of year, we didn’t need our headlamps beyond 4:45 am or so, and it was warm enough that I peeled off one of my two thin layers – leaving a sunshirt – by 5 am.  Glad I didn’t pack anything for the cold.  Wore shorts both days, wool socks, and shoes were Salomon Genesis.

* At Manzanita, the terrain began to level out a bit more, though still generally downhill all the way to the Colorado.  But obviously it’s a long way!  Wife and daughter had a long side excursion to Ribbon Falls that I didn’t join, because I didn’t want to scramble over the rocks on Bright Angel Creek.  So I climbed the hill (Asinine Hill, I think?) and waited for more than an hour for them to re-join the trail.  Kind of a neat but unsettling experience, waiting on the trail in the wilderness, seeing maybe only five people over the course of an hour.  On a hotter day, I would have been more concerned.  From that spot I could see the South Rim looming in the distance.  So far to go.

* Got back on the trail and walked the long miles to Phantom Ranch.  Again, the weather was warm but not too hot and we had plenty of water.  I started with four liters (all Smartwater bottles) and re-filled a little at Manzanita.  I had prepared a bottle with an LMNT packet earlier and I drank that through the final miles.  Also ate some PayDays.  Down through the Box was warm but we were never too uncomfortable.  However, I could certainly imagine the brutality of it on a hotter day.  Over the course of about six miles I don’t think we saw but one person, who I think had walked up from Phantom Ranch to hang out at one of the bridges.  Just the three of us, picking our way alongside the creek flowing beneath ancient rocks.

* Applause to everything and everyone at Phantom Ranch.  What a special place.  Given the limitations enforced by the location, they do a fantastic job catering to through-hikers, campers, and guests.  For uncertain hikers such as us, being able to stay there saved immense trouble, not to mention the weight that would come with tent, food, etc.  When we arrived, we had some lemonade and rested a bit.  Before dinner, we checked out the Colorado, the Black Bridge, and Boat Beach to see them in daylight.  So quiet at the bottom of the canyon, enclosed by the towering cliffs but I didn’t feel claustrophobic at all.  An oasis, in a way.  As guests of the lodge, we were able to use the dorm-style showers before dinner.  What a treat – felt criminally luxurious.  And the family-style dinner and company were really good; I enjoyed the beef stew.  Got to bed early.  Bunk a little cramped for a tall person but did fine.  We stayed in cabin 5.

 * Set out from our cabin at 4:30 am on Wednesday 28th for the climb up South Kaibab.  With Silver Bridge and River Trail closed, we decided it made no sense to cut across to Bright Angel Trail via Tonto.  Not just the additional 4.2 miles or so, but also the added risk if something went wrong.  We made much better time, relatively speaking, than on the NK, taking six hours to finish at the South Rim.  My daughter probably could have done it in five.  I knew it would be a struggle to get to the top but it was a straightforward struggle, whereas the North Kaibab had more mystery and uncertainty to it.  Climb, rest, repeat.  We’d gone down below Ooh Ah Point for sunrise on our first day, so we were familiar with the finish.  The stretch from Tipoff to Cedar Ridge had some moments of slog, for sure, but I never felt out of control.  However, after taking a rest at Skeleton Point I forgot to put my hat back on and we were a fair bit up the trail before I realized I’d left it.  So if you find my hat – simple khaki bucket hat – you are welcome to use it.  Finished at 10:30 am, took some photos, then chilled and celebrated.

* Rest of time at the park… this was my third time there, once years ago and the second time in March 2025.  Both times I stayed in Tusayan and dabbled in some of the South Rim stuff.  This time we tried the red shuttle, which I hadn’t done before, and enjoyed a sunset at Hopi Point the first night.  Better, I thought, was the second night, when we took the red shuttle to the farthest stop at Hermit’s Rest to take in the sunset there, standing maybe fifty yards past the snack shop.  Just us, no one else around, with a great view as the sun dropped beneath gray clouds with occasional streaks of lightning.  If we’d had more time on our visit, I would have liked to do more exploring of the red area.

* Elsewhere, we stayed in the Juniper building at the Maswik Lodge for two nights and our last night was at the Bright Angel Lodge.  All fine.  Probably slept 30 yards from the rim at BAL, and quite nice to make a cup or two of coffee in the room and then step out to watch the sunrise.  After finishing the R2R, we went to Plaza Bonita in Tusayan and that was pretty good.  Food everywhere was expensive, but that’s supply and demand, I suppose.

* I enjoyed the R2R experience and the opportunity to get down into the depths of the rocks, a space that you can’t comprehend from above.  Certainly a dimension of the canyon I didn’t know before.  Not sure I’d do R2R again, and I’d have a hard time if we had to use campgrounds.  I don’t think I’d want to try it in one day either.  We were able to savor it. The trip is expensive with the flights and logistics and all that, and there’s a long list of places I’ve never been.  But I’ve got a lot of good pictures and memories of the Grand Canyon, and as I get older I hope I can continue to cherish them.  Love to all.

While driving around this morning, the operating display - with the current speed, the guess-o-meter, and energy usage - went totally black. I was at 65 mph on the highway at 6:56 am. I immediately switched to the outside lane and feared the worst. But car kept driving as normal and after a few seconds the display came back on and everything seemed fine.

Anyone experience this before? Car is a 2023 EV 2LT bought new in May 2023 with just over 35k miles.

A few possibilities come to mind...

1. this isn't a good sign for the 12V battery and I should consider getting it replaced. I've had ICE cars that started to have electrical flake outs before the battery went dead, so maybe I should heed the warning.

2. my usual charging routine is to have the charge overnight stop at 7 am. Last night I set it to finish at 6 am since I had to take the kid to school early, which is why I was driving back home at 6:56 am. On the way to school (like 6:40 am) I'd gotten the usual warning saying that car might not be able to complete charge by 7 am. This has never been an issue before but who knows.

3. maybe something in the visual sensor about transition from night to day? Not exactly a bright morning, but sky was getting lighter certainly.

A simple ode to a simple item, the Acrobat Shoes. You can buy these for pretty cheap from Barcus, at least while he's hanging out at Last Light Inn if not elsewhere. The Acrobat Shoes give +1 to Acrobatics and advantage on DEX saving throws.

It's the latter feature that piqued my interest. If you were to say, put the Acrobat Shoes on a 12th level monk with 20 DEX, as well as the Graceful Cloth, and maybe have a bless effect on (thanks Umberlee), you'd have at least a 87.75% chance to take no damage at all from big blasts of lightning, even when intentionally triggering them. Groovy.

Of course, when you get around to actually facing the big blasts of lightning, you can still roll consecutive turns of a 2 and a 4 (even with advantage!), but that's what lightning resistance is for.