Otmar at the Maker Faire

The Maker Faire is always a good time but while checking in I spotted a double VW Westfalia - two campers welded together to make one long bus.

I only heard of one of these creations and it belonged to Otmar - creator of the Zilla controller. Finding it had Oregon plates and a Biodiesel sticker confirmed my suspicion. 

No sign of him on Saturday, but on Sunday, my dad flagged me down to talk with a guy wearing a goofy purple hat - it was Otmar. He asked how I liked my Zilla (which I love) and we talked for 15 or 20 minutes about the state of the conversion market and the different projects he's working on. I asked him to sign my Zilla 

And I got a picture with him. It was an ethereal experience, which my smudged camera lens can attest to.

 

Maker Faire

The Maker Faire turned out to be a great event - I'm definitely planning to go next year.

It was a little beyond my range and, as you know from following the blog, my controller was "in the shop" so I had planned to tow it down to the event. I rented a truck and tow dolly from U-Haul and just as I had talked my neighbor into helping push the car on to the dolly, the UPS man showed up with my controller!

45 minutes later, I was driving onto the dolly. My dad helped me load and unload the car and even bought lunch along the way. We were assigned a space in a hall with 1 and a half Teslas (one was missing the body and interior), Cal Cars doing a Prius conversion and a converted dune buggy.

The SFEVA arranged for volunteers to help talk up electric cars and conversions in general which was a tremendous help. I talked to a LOT of people, some where new to the concept, some were thinking about converting a car of their own and even a few who follow this blog!

All in all it was a great event that I'll try to make an annual thing.