On 11 April I bought a Cajun Red Tintcoat CBEV Premier with Driver Confidence Package and fast-charging capability from Ted Britt Chevrolet in Sterling VA. I drove it 283 miles to my home in Blacksburg VA charging 30 minutes each at 3 CCS charging stations. The web page http://www.roperld.com/Science/cbevroperfirsttrip.pdf gives details about the journey.
A) If you have the driver's instrument cluster in "Enhanced Mode" you'll see on the left alternating dark and light green bars. Each bar represents 5% of SOC. There are 3 white marks to denote the 25, 50 and 75 percent thresholds. It's a crude scale, but gets the job done. With the higher capacity of the Bolt's battery pack, getting down to 1% SOC increments is less necessary.
B) You can get the exact SOC% from the myChevrolet app which will give you it in the 1% increments you want.
C) You could have easily skipped at least 1 of the DC Fast Charging stops, and possibly 2 of them, and potentially just made it home with one stop. But given that this was your first outing with the car, and a long distance one at that, being cautious was the smart play.
D) If you charge at a high SOC, you won't get as much in 30 minutes as if you charge at a lower SOC. Best to charge when SOC is between 20% and 50% SOC to maximize your bang for your buck. I went from 21% to 60% in 30 minutes and got 22 kWh and 76 miles of range.
And most importantly, welcome to being a Bolt owner! Since you are coming from a Leaf, it will be good to hear what you have to say about the difference between the two cars.
In the first week the main differences to the LEAF I have noticed:
* The ride is a little rougher; I feel the rode bumps more.
* The steering-to-wheels ratio is smaller; it took me a few minutes to learn to not over-correct when the car got too close to a lane marker.
* The trunk is smaller; my dog soft crate barely fits in it with the false floor taken out.
*Of course, the one-pedal driving took some getting used to, but it did not take long for me to love it. I wish there was a way to have the car remember the L setting.