Jeep Dent Repair and Renting a Tesla

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In case you missed it, we had experienced a bad storm on our drive from Arizona to western New York State about 2 months ago. Our one night stay in Missouri turned into misery - at least for our 6 month old Jeep Grand Cherokee. We had waited to find a repair facility and file an insurance claim until we were situated at our seasonal site in Waterloo NY. Our research had led us to “The Dent Guy” in Rochester. We had taken the Jeep there early on to get a rough idea of how much damage there was to determine if an insurance claim was warranted. Dan only needed 15 minutes of checking our the car to tell us there was at least $2000 damage which is well above our deductible.

The Two Biggest Dents on the Hood

It took us the past several weeks to get the insurance claim started and get on Dan’s calendar for what he anticipated to be a week long repair. The good news was he believed all the damage could be removed using paintless dent repair. We would need to get a rental car while it was in the shop. Since our insurance only covers $40 per day, we were having problems finding a rental for that cheap but we discovered a Tesla Model 3 from Hertz was the least expensive rental we could find. It was only going to be $11 per day above our allotment and we thought it might be fun to see how an electric car works for us. We arranged to drop off the Jeep first thing Monday morning and get a ride to a nearby Hertz office to get our rental. We had told our insurance that the adjuster assigned to us should show up late Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning since Dan expected to have the vehicle completely marked up and an initial estimate ready to work out with our insurance company.

Tesla Model 3 at Supercharger

We stuck around the Rochester area for the day and headed back late in the day to see how things were progressing with the assessment. The car was covered with hundreds of pink marks or yellow post it notes showing where the hail damage was. Dan was ready for the insurance adjuster to come look it over but neither of us were able to actually get a person to tell us when to expect them to arrive. Dan did a great job of explaining how the insurance industry deals with hail damage. Each body panel with damage is counted separately. The size of the dents are graded into dime, nickel or quarter size - fortunately we didn’t go to anything bigger than a quarter. They are also counted on a per body panel basis in groups like 1 to 5, or 6 to 15. Our hood and roof both were in the 151 to 200 dent range of quarter size. When it was all tallied up, we had at least 385 dents and up to 565! The preliminary estimate not including the replacement windshield and camera alignment was over $8400 - ouch.

100 Plus Hood Dents

Looking Down on the Roof

Passenger Rear Damage

We attempted to get in touch with our agent for the next 24 hours to see when the adjuster would show up since Dan wasn’t able to move forward until that step took place. We finally got a call telling us they would show up on Wednesday morning - bummer one whole day lost. We called on Wednesday afternoon and discovered that the adjuster showed up and Dan had the final tally agreed upon by our insurance including glass repair. We headed back that afternoon to go over the details and make sure we were all on the same page.

One of the workers was diligently working on some of the roof damage. I was fascinated by the whole process of paintless dent repair and the small area already done looked like it did when we picked up the car from the Jeep dealer in Utah! So what was the bottom line total? $9,886.21  We left Dan and his team to work on the car and arrange for replacement windshield to be installed. It was looking like we weren’t going to be getting the car back on Friday like we had hoped since the insurance adjuster delay cost us some time, but I was feeling very confident in the quality level we would get once the car was done.

Now we had about a week to spend with the Tesla rental car. We had watched quite a few YouTube videos regarding the Model 3 since it is not quite like other cars. There are some quirky things like simply opening the doors either from outside or inside. The main display is quite large but centered in the car not in front of the steering wheel. Training my eyes to go right of center to see the speedometer took some getting used to. The menu system to get to the various controls were also different and needed to be learned. Maybe one of the biggest differences compared to the Jeep was how low to the ground the car sits. I used to have a Toyota MR2 sports car so I have driven cars like this before, but that was a dozen years ago and the Grand Cherokee rides quite high so it was challenge to get in and out of.

Obviously the biggest difference for us was the fact that it is all electric. We had investigated where there were charging stations near us. There were two superchargers just off of Interstate 90, one to the east and another to the west but neither would be considered close. In theory, I could charge the car from one of the 50 amp outlets in a vacant site next to us, but the car didn’t come with the proper plug to use what would have allowed for a fairly fast charge. I tried to simply plug into a 15 amp outlet but generally when I did, the display would state it would reach full charge in over 24 hours, so not real helpful.

With knowledge of other chargers options we set off on a trip back down to the Penn Yan area. Our goal was to head to Keuka Lake State Park for a hike. It isn’t a huge park and there is only about 5 miles of hiking trails there, and there aren’t any geocaches placed there! But we still decide to give it a go. We park near the boat launch and head up the Yellow and Blue Trail Loop. This one is only 1.5 miles but from our starting point we have a rather steep climb for the first quarter mile or so.

Along the Yellow and Blue Trail

Just before the half mile mark, we come into a section of the campgrounds at the park. We saw we could walk along the campground road and intersect the second hiking trail in the park. The Green and Orange Trail Loop is 3.2 miles and we weren’t looking to tack on that much more to our planned hike, but upon studying the trail map, we saw the trail really consisted of two loops and if we limit it to the closer one, we would only be adding another 1.5 to 2 miles so we decided to go for it.

As we walked through the campground, I tried to remember the place since we have camped here before. Of course it was back in 2012 when we still had our 22 foot travel trailer. I wouldn’t say that our current motorhome couldn’t fit in some of the sites, but this campground really isn’t geared for large rigs. We enjoyed this part of the trail and actually saw a few other hikers although I suspect they were all camping here.

We continued on this loop and stumbled upon something rather unusual. A fire hydrant in the middle of the woods just off the hiking trail. It didn’t seem like we were near any buildings or roads, so it did seem to be a bit out of place. We enjoyed this loop and made our way back to the campground and continued on our original trail. Our trail came back out onto the main park road, but it wasn’t clear where we needed to go if we wanted to continue on the intended hiking trail. So we decide to just walk down the road back past the boat launch. The views of the lake from the road was quite nice. Our route was likely in the 3 to 4 mile range and not too strenuous once we got past that initial quarter mile.

Mystery Fire Hydrant

Grassy Trail Thru the Woods

Overlooking Keuka Lake

We sat at the picnic table overlooking the water and had our lunch before moving on to our next stop. Hunt Country Vineyards is only a few miles from the state park in the town of Branchport. We figured we deserved a wine tasting after our morning hike but the choice of winery was totally determined by the fact that this one has several free electric vehicle charging stations. We arrived and found all five of the chargers available so we parked, plugged in and headed in for a wine tasting. Being a Tuesday afternoon, the place was almost completely empty. We looked over the wine list and made our five picks. With our flights in hand, we headed out to the covered deck that overlooks the fields. There were a few hummingbird feeders and occasionally a  bird would come and get a drink of their nectar.

On the Deck at Hunt Country Vineyards

We decided to take our time. The place wasn’t too busy so we weren’t occupying space for other customers and the weather and view were great. We knew the Tesla wasn’t completely charged and we each had discovered a wine we liked so we opted to each get a glass and stay longer to enjoy the afternoon and charge the car. This winery has a boatload of solar - 348 panels to be exact! I guess that explains why they can offer free electric vehicle chargers for customers. After lingering for too long, we stopped to buy a bottle of wine to go. All told, our “free” charging cost us $40, but at least we got some enjoyment out of it.

Grape Vines at Hunt Country

Deck at Tasting Building and Red Barn

A couple days later, we would head back to one of our favorite parks in the region. Taughannock Falls State Park just north of Ithaca. This town has the tourism motto of “Ithaca is Gorges” and one of the more popular gorges in the area is at Taughannock. We had another reason for coming here. There are two free charging stations in one of the parking lots. We arrived to find one charger open so we plugged in and headed out for our hike. Just across the street from the charging station is the very beautiful Inn at Taughannock. While not part of the park, it is pretty much surrounded by state park land.

The Inn at Taughannock

There are two main hikes within the park. The Gorge Trail heads up the gorge created by Taughannock Creek. This trail is just under one mile each way. It starts out near a broad set of smaller falls just up from where the creek exits into Cayuga Lake. It is a very pretty hike down near creek level in a 300 plus foot gorge. The trail follows the south side of the creek since the gorge wall on this side isn’t as steep as the shear rock wall of the north side. There was a large group of schoolchildren out for a field trip but we managed to get past them and fortunately they stopped frequently to be taught a lesson about the gorge so we were able to maintain a good distance from the rather loud group.

Overlooking Smaller Falls

Heading Up the Gorge

Trail Follows the Creek

Near the end of this trail, the gorge opens up into more of a bowl shape and there is a bridge that takes the trail over the creek to get a better view the 215 foot tall Taughannock Falls. We got lucky and only had to share this special place with a handful of others. There was a pretty good flow of water which makes the falls that much better.

Approaching Falls and Bridge

215 Foot Taughannock Falls

Long Exposure

As we turned around and crossed the bridge to head back for our next hike, the 40 children were just arriving. Even the sound of the water crashing over the falls wasn’t going to drown out their voices. Perfect timing on our part. Back near the entrance to the park, right next to the inn is the South Rim Trail. This trail combined with the North Rim Trail will create a 3 mile loop with about 500 feet of elevation gain. As expected from the name, this trail will work its way up to the rim of the gorge so there is a good amount of climbing at the start. The very steep sections have beautiful stone stairs to get up the grade.

Start of South Rim Trail

Unusual Moth

Old Stone Stairs Up

Near the western end of the trail, a bridge gets us over the creek so we can continue back on the North Rim Trail. There are some smaller cascades and a beautiful stone bridge for the nearby road.

Looking Down the Gorge

Closer View of Stone Bridge

The trail from this point is predominantly downhill and quite scenic as well. There are a lot of views of the gorge or falls until 3/4 mile from the turn. More stone stairs and a large viewing platform provides for a wonderful view of the falls from a completely different perspective. As we continue down the trail, we get some good views of the eastern end of the creek and a portion of Cayuga Lake. This was a very nice hike that we likely have done several times in the past but that was so long ago that it seemed all new to us. As we got back to the car, I opened it up to see that we had recharged to 98%. This was a much better “deal” - a free charging, and a beautiful hike.

Falls Overlook

Looking Out Towards Cayuga Lake

Butterfly

Our plan now was to head into Ithaca to one of our favorite restaurants. The Moosewood has been around since the mid 1970’s, well before we even lived in the region. It is a natural food vegetarian restaurant with quite interesting dishes. We are not vegetarians but they seem to always have something that sounds and tastes great. After lunch, we walked thru the Ithaca Commons part of town. This is a couple block section of shops along a now closed road allowing for a great casual stroll and window shopping. Ithaca is a very unique town with an all natural almost hippie vibe. It is also home to Cornell University so there is also that college feel to things. We also headed to the south end of the lake to try out the Lighthouse Trail. This is accessed by walking around one of the local golf courses. It was a pretty walk but we discovered that in order to get out to the very point of the trail (for a geocache), we would need to wade thru some water. We weren’t in the mood for wet feet so we passed on that one.

Cornell University in Distance

Lighthouse Trail

We found that by having an electric car but not having a home with a charging station in the garage, we were constantly planning out outings based on where we could get a charge. One day we headed into downtown Geneva. The visitor center on the northern end of Seneca Lake has 4 free charging stations. We got lucky and scored one on the Saturday afternoon we arrived. We did a short walk along the waterfront trail to take in some of the beauty.

I Heart New York at Finger Lakes Visitor Center in Geneva

Waterfront Hotel

Direction and Distance to 14 Other Genevas

Next we walked a couple blocks into the heart of town to try out one of the local breweries. Twisted Rail Brewing Company is located in an old theater building. They had a pretty wide selection of beers and we each found one that sounded good and went to one of the table inside near the old stage and movie screen. It was an interesting contrast between the old architecture of the 1915 theater and the new stainless steel tanks where the beer is brewed. It was a neat place and we picked good beers. We knew our car wasn’t charged yet so we walked down the block to Lake Drum Brewing. This place is in a less ornate building but we grabbed another beer and sat outside watching people pass by.

A Skeleton Crew on the Tandem

Brewery Equipment with Original Stage in Background

It took a couple weeks early in our stay before somebody showed up to mow the grass in the campground but the guy eventually settled into a pattern of mowing on Mondays. Some kid showed up once with a weed whacker to trim around where the mower couldn’t reach, but after seeing how poorly he did, I decided to get some hand trimmers to get the couple of areas that don’t get mowed. The one day, I went to trim underneath one of our slides and found a very small bunny sitting in the shade of our rig. It didn’t seem at all so concerned with me being this close and just watched me as I worked.

Bunny Rabbit

With the delay in getting the insurance estimate approved for the Jeep repair, we knew the car wasn’t going to be ready in the week. Plus even though the windshield had been replaced with OEM glass, we still needed to get the lane departure camera tested and verified by a guy who couldn’t show up until Tuesday. So we extended the car rental by a day and headed to Chimney Bluffs State Park along the shores of Lake Ontario.

Entrance to Chimney Bluffs SP

We have been here before but that was almost 13 years ago so it was nice to come back to revisit the place. There are a few miles of trails although the one along the beach is closed. We pick a combination of the Bluff, Drumlin and Meadow Trails to get about a 2.5 mile loop. The trail starts out with a view over the lake but does cut into the woods pretty far so it is mainly a woods walk for the first mile. The trail does come back up to the top of the bluffs the park is named for. It is pretty neat to see although I was remembering them as more substantial. Obviously weather and erosion changes these over time so maybe they are quite different from our last time here. Or maybe we have seen other “badland” type earth formations in our travels that are bigger and better than this one. Don’t get me wrong, this is still very special, especially for this part of the country but it won’t compare to Badlands National Park.

Start of the Bluff Trail

Overlooking Lake Ontario

Fragile Looking Bluffs

They do make it quite clear that climbing on the bluffs isn’t permitted. A little over a mile into the hike, our return trail heads into the woods but we decide to continue on the Bluff Trail for a quarter mile down the steep path towards the parking area on the east where there is beach access. There were a few people here but it didn’t look like we could get to a spot along the lake to see the bluffs from below.

Don't Approach the Bluffs

Beach Area at Chimney Bluffs

Another Bluff View

It was a good workout to climb up the steps to reach the Drumlin Trail that would get us back to the main part of the park. It was pretty, but the mosquitoes were persistent. As long as we kept moving we were okay, just don’t stop to tie your boot laces. Back at the main trail near parking, we saw a mowed side trail that wasn’t marked but we decided to follow it. The trail ended at an opening with a nice view of the lake and a distance view of the bluffs.

Area of Bluffs from Distance

Back in the car, we drove over to Sodus Point on the opposite side of Sodus Bay. The Big Sodus Light was already closed for the day so we didn’t get a chance to see inside, but it was a beautiful afternoon and quite nice to walk around and check out the grounds. The first lighthouse was built here in 1825 but the present building is from 1870. This was a great stop at the end of our outing.

Big Sodus Light

Side View of Lighthouse

Lighthouse Themed Little Free Library

It sounded like the Jeep would be ready for us by the end of the day on Tuesday. I had to head in to Geneva for a couple quick tests my doctor had ordered, but then we could head over to Rochester. We made a lunch stop at another local favorite - Tom Wahl’s. Then we headed to the Victor Mall in order to use one of the Tesla superchargers so we could return the rental with the required minimum 70% charge. We wandered around the mall while the car charged then headed into Rochester. Chris dropped me off at the Dent Guy and the Jeep was sitting out front. We took a close look at the car and were astonished at how good it looked. If we didn’t know the car had nearly $10K in damage, we wouldn’t even think it had been damaged by hail. I needed to wait for the other technician to arrive to verify the lane departure camera was still properly aligned after the windshield was replaced. Once that was done, I settled up with them and headed over to pick up Chris after returning the rental Tesla.

So what is my takeaway from our Jeep hail damage experience? First off, if at all possible get the vehicle out of the way of potential hail. While our out of pocket cost was very minimal, the inconvenience of needing to deal with the repair, insurance and rental car was definitely a pain in the butt. Next, if you are in the greater Rochester New York area and have hail damage or other dents in your car, I can highly recommend “The Dent Guy”. What about the Tesla Model 3 rental? Well I’m sure we aren’t converts to electric vehicles in general. Maybe if I was still working, had a home and a consistent commute, an electric vehicle might work for us. But given our present lifestyle, an EV isn’t right for us. I seem to have a bad case of "range anxiety" when driving the car. The Tesla itself was okay but I think it might be just a bit too quirky for my tastes.