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On June 27, 2022, Rivian opened its first Rivian Adventure Network (RAN) DC fast charging station, located in Salida, Colorado. The company noted: "Thanks to its natural beauty and abundant nearby recreational opportunities, Salida is an ideal location for Rivian’s first fast charging site."

Two more stations will be opened today (June 28) in (Inyokern and Bishop, California, as Rivian explains: "These California sites support frequently visited areas like Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Mammoth Lakes, and Death Valley National Park."

The station in Salida is equipped with two 300 kW cabinets (power electronics), about which we heard in February 2021, and four DC dispensers (individual stalls) - two per cabinet, described as 1A/1B and 2A/2B (similar to some Tesla Superchargers).

The stalls are sharing power from the cabinets (up to over 200 kW), which helps to minimize the infrastructure costs. The range replenishing rate is, according to Rivian, about 140 miles (225 km) in 20 minutes.

An important thing is that one of four stalls is a pull-through type, envisioned for vehicles towing trailers. The site hosts also four AC Level 2 Rivian Waypoints charging points (11.5 kW). All of the charging points are powered by 100% renewable energy (contracted).

The Rivian Adventure Network DC fast-charging stations are currently exclusive and free for Rivian drivers - charging starts automatically after plugging in. The AC charging points are available for use by any EV – not just Rivian vehicles – through the Rivian smartphone app.

Rivian has set an initial goal of 3,500 fast chargers at 600 sites across North America. However, in the most recent press release, there is no info about the deadline "by the end of 2023", which we saw in early 2021.

Below we attached interesting videos from the launch event in Salida:

Trent Warnke, Rivian’s Senior Director of Energy and Charging Solutions said:

“We designed Rivian charging to support electrified adventure, and these first sites demonstrate how we’re enabling drivers to responsibly reach some of the nation’s most breathtaking natural spaces. In addition to scenic or off-the-beaten-path destinations, our fast charging rollout is designed to ensure travelers have places to charge along major transportation corridors coast to coast.”

After making it big in California and skating in competitions around the world, Derek Scott wanted to give kids in his hometown the chance to skate like pros.

SALIDA, Colo. — Progress takes time. Time to build, get better, and grow.

Derek Scott learned that in a graffiti-covered skate park in Salida.

"If anything gets me emotional it’s this place," said Scott while skating in the old Salida Skatepark in the center of town. "I learned everything I know in this little hole in the ground right here."

But even this pro skater realizes his sport has never been big in his hometown.

"We're known for the Arkansas River. It's a huge rafting town," Scott said.

Tucked away between some of Colorado's highest peaks, the old skate park in Salida never stood out.

"This is one of the first skateparks built in Colorado actually. It was the third. I think. Maybe don’t quote me on that one," Scott joked.

But just like his skills, Scott's hometown is growing.

After making it big in California and skating in competitions around the world, he wanted to come home and give kids in his hometown the chance to skate like pros.

And so he helped find funding and worked with the town to plan and build a skatepark that would do just that. The group Friends of Salida Skateparks was started to helped bring the new park to the town.

"Once we get started, we’re not stopping. We’re not stopping," Scott yelled into a microphone on a recent Saturday as dozens of kids skated in the new skatepark in Salida. "Judges are you ready? Salida are you ready? Let’s get it. Drop in."

A skate competition opened the new park that Scott helped bring to Salida. Funding, planning and building isn’t what a pro athlete usually focuses on. This project is worth it.

"I think skateboarding should be for everybody. Not just for boys," said 10-year-old Emma Litwiller, who drove with her family from Breckenridge to skate in the competition at the new park. "I love having girls skating with me because it doesn’t feel like it’s just me out there."

And Scott liked what he saw.

"Emma is destroying this whole entire park!" he yelled into the microphone as Litwiller pulled off a trick. "Ohhhhh Emma with the varial kickflip! Nice!"

It's a sport that's now teaching kids more than just tricks. When Scott grew up in Salida, there was only a small skatepark that had aged over the decades.

A hole in the ground and a piece of wood took Scott a long way. Now, the future pros have a place to grow at the new park.

"A skateboard has taken me all around the world," Scott said. "It's created a life for me. I want the youth here and the people around my area to know what this little piece of wood can do for you. It's an escape and it's a passion. Even when I'm most down that I've ever been, I've picked up the skateboard and I've been able to clear my conscience. When I'm on this thing, there's nothing else I'm thinking about other than skateboarding. There's nothing else that's on my mind."

Scott skates in competitions all around the world on the pro tour. He hopes to bring professional skate events to Salida in the future, and host them at the new skate park.

"It’s awesome to see the youth come out and really utilize this park the way that I envisioned it to be used," said Scott. "That kind of positivity goes so far for kids this age. For any age really. You get that kind of positivity and that kind of upbringing, it’s destined for success."

As part of the first nationwide See You at the Library Day on Saturday, families at the Salida Library were read “books of godly virtue,” according to the Escalon church that hosted the event.

Such story times reportedly were held across the nation Saturday in response to actor and filmmaker Kirk Cameron being denied story-hour slots at some public libraries for the reading of faith-based children’s books.

Cameron himself was at a story hour Saturday in Huntsville, Alabama, hosted by the group Moms for Liberty, according to Fox News. The previously scheduled event had been canceled “purportedly due to capacity concerns,” but on Friday, the library acquiesced, Fox reported.

The reading room at the Salida Library was filled to capacity with about 250 children and adults.

In addition to supporting the call by Cameron’s publisher Brave Books for a national movement for free speech, the Salida event clearly was an answer to the LGBTQ+ Rainbow Story Time held in June, which was Pride Month, at the same library.

A Heritage Church Facebook post promoting the event said, “With the recent Woke agenda to indoctrinate our kids with LGBTQ stories, this is a great opportunity to share a story of bravery and standing for Truth with our kids. Please join us as Pastor Morgan reads one of Kirk Cameron’s children’s storybooks on National ‘See You at the Library’ Day. This reading time is geared towards 6 to 12-year-olds, and we look forward to seeing you there.”

According to Bee staff at the event, pastor Morgan Lawrence ended up not reading books by Cameron but rather a book about gender identity, “Elephants are Not Birds,” by Ashley St. Clair, and “It Will Be Okay: Trusting God Through Fear and Change,” by Lysa TerKeurst.

The story time also included songs and prayer, the Facebook post said.

Another longtime Central Valley-born brand has been sold. But this time the sale is only a small part of its parent business.

Boyett Petroleum, a Modesto presence in the fuel business since 1940, has sold its Cruisers convenience stores to a Southern California company. The sale was part of a deal that included Boyett purchasing 200 distribution stations from United Pacific, a Long Beach-based company known for running the Rocket brand of gas-station retail stores.

The 10 Cruisers stations operated by Boyett, which range from Modesto to Manteca and as far away as Arnold, all are being converted into Rocket stations. Customers already have began noticing the new name on their gas station receipts, and new signs should be going up soon. Rocket has some 500 stores across the Western United States, with most in Southern California.

Third-generation Boyett Petroleum owner and CEO Dale Boyett said the sale will help expand the company’s much larger fuel distribution business, which has been and continues to be the core of its company. The independent wholesale supplier, whose headquarters are on McHenry Avenue, now delivers its wholesale gas to some 700 to 800 stations from California to Oklahoma.

The decision to sell their Cruisers stores and acquire more distribution sites made sense for both companies, Boyett said.

“It feels a little weird to not have these stores anymore,” Boyett said in a phone interview about the sales this week. “But it was the right thing to do. Our wholesale business has been growing for a long time. Our retail has, too, but not as fast.”

He said United Pacific specializes in operating its Rocket convenience stores and can get more competitive prices on merchandise and inventory. With both businesses playing to their strengths, he said, Valley customers should benefit.

“Ultimately, this is a Class-A organization that has bought (Cruisers). They’re still the best corners and still the best sites,” he said. “They certainly didn’t buy (the stores) to run them into the ground.”

The acquisitions came with swapping of employees, too. The about 100 retail employees working at the Cruisers sites all were offered jobs with Rocket, with the vast majority transferring. Boyett in turn has acquired eight employees from United Pacific. The corporate staff working on the Modesto company’s retail side have been retained and reassigned as well, Boyett said.

Boyett Petroleum now has about 110 employees. The Modesto company also is keeping its Cruise Americard fleet business, which allows employees from other businesses to fuel up at its stations. The company still has about 70 gas-only sites, including the high-profile corner at Ninth and D streets in downtown Modesto. Boyett said they have about 1,500 of the fleet business-to-business accounts, working with private companies and municipalities across the region.

The namesake Modesto company was started by Stan and Carol Boyett, Dale Boyett’s grandparents, in 1940. They opened their first gas stations in the region in 1948. They were succeeded by their son Carl Boyett, who passed away in 2015 at age 70. The Cruisers brand was launched in 2007.

Since last year, a handful of longtime Central Valley-based brands have been sold after decades of family ownership. Modesto-born Save Mart Supermarkets was acquired by Los Angeles-based private equity firm in March 2022, ending 70 years of family ownership. That was followed in June that same year by the sale of Livingston-based poultry processing giant Foster Farms to Connecticut holding company, which ended 83 years of family ownership.

What’s a fried treat that’s round, often comes glazed and has a hole in the middle?

If you said doughnuts, you’re only half right. The latest food trend to hit the Central Valley is mochi donuts, inspired by the popular Japanese delicacy. Two new pop-up businesses started making and selling the sweet snack in Stanislaus County in the past few months — Dough-Chii Mochi in Salida and Mochi Mi in Modesto.

Unlike it’s more well-known doughnut cousins, mochi donuts are typically made with rice flour instead of (or sometimes in addition to) traditional flour. They also look little different, a bit like a baby’s teething ring, with connected dough rounds forming a circle.

The taste also stands out, thanks to the different flour mixture. The result is an often crunchier and definitely chewier texture that melts away with each bite. In short, they’re darn tasty — and popular, often selling out at the two pop-up locations in the area.

Dough-Chii Mochi operates weekends out of the Salida Donuts shop. Married co-owners and operators Hellen Vath and Zack Inthavong have doughnut glaze running through their veins, so to speak. They come from a family of doughnut makers and owned Glaze Donuts themselves in Ceres for several years before selling the shop in 2013.

Vath’s parents owned several doughnut shops in the region as well, so she grew up with a family of bakers. The Bee even ran a feature on them opening their fourth store in the area in 1994. Her aunt, Tonya Lim, owns and still operates Salida Donuts for the past 28 years. But Vath and her husband had left the baking world for corporate jobs (him with PG&E and her with Sutter Health).

Still after trips to Hawaii, where mochi donuts are popular, they were lured back to the business. Vath said she was tired of the Central Valley missing out on popular food trends, and wanted to bring the treat to Modesto sooner rather than later.

The pandemic also gave them a push to try something new, and near the start they began researching recipes and trying mochi donuts from other shops.

“We realized this is something we need in the valley. All we have is regular doughnuts,” Vath said. “So we said, ‘Let’s bring it here.’”

In December they launched Dough-Chii Mochi and started making and selling them out of Salida Donuts in the afternoons when the business was closed for the day on Saturday and Sunday. They quickly caught on, thanks to colorful Instagram and social media posts, and now sell out many days.

Like Vath, Modesto resident Danika Kham started making her own mochi donuts at home during the pandemic. She gave them to friends and acquaintances, and then realized it could become something more. In December she partnered with the Asian Market on McHenry Avenue to sell her cottage bakery creations as Mochi Mi.

The Asian specialty grocery store gets fresh deliveries of the donuts Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday afternoons.

Kham’s mochi donuts combine rice flour and traditional flour, and have a darker and flatter appearance than the Dough-Chii Mochi varieties. She has emphasized bringing Asian flavors to the sweets, and said their springy, chewy consistency has already won loyal fans who come each day she delivers fresh batches.

“When we first started we would always have a line waiting at the Asian Market,” Kham said. “Even as I drop them off to this day I see many familiar faces.”

Kham rotates through about 13 flavors, from matcha to chocolate pretzel to Harry Potter-inspired Butter Beer for her Mochi Mi creations. Vath’s Dough-Chii Mochi makes some 30 flavors and offers about half a dozen each weekend day, ranging from Japanese flavors like ube (a purple Japanese sweet potato) to cinnamon-sugar churro and strawberry crunch.

Mochi donuts sell for a little more than your average doughnuts, thanks largely to their special ingredients. Mochi Mi creations are $2.99 apiece, or custom orders are $15 for half a dozen, $25 for a dozen and $5 for a box of 15 mochi donut holes. At Dough-Chii Mochi the treats are $2.50 apiece, or $13 for a half dozen and $25 for a full dozen.

Both pop-up places open in the afternoons, with Kham bringing hers to the Asian Market at around 1:30 p.m. on delivery days. And Vath and her husband opening the Salida Donuts location from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Dough-Chii Mochi also sells an assortment of boba and bubble tea drinks. The brightly colored treats from both pop-up bakeries are a hit on social media and sharing and tagging photos of the treats is encouraged.

For Vath, who never thought she’d be back running a doughnut shop, it’s been fun to return to her sweet roots.

“I used to hate it, I hated working in a doughnut shop,” she said. “But we missed it. This is something to bring to the community and something everyone can enjoy.”

For more on Dough-Chii Mochi, at Salida Donuts at 4520 Broadway Ave., visit www.facebook.com/doughchiimochi209 and for more on Mochi Mi, in the Asian Marker at 2425 McHenry Ave. in Modesto, visit www.facebook.com/officialmochimi.

This story was originally published May 6, 2021, 6:00 AM.