Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 22

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the twenty-second in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 21, click here.

Day 22 – Drive on Saturday, May 23, 2015

Omni Hotel Interlocken

If yesterday’s Hyatt Place is the picture of consistency, the Omni Hotel Interlocken is its inverse. We have had nothing but great experience with our lodging at the other Omni Hotels that we’ve stayed at. That’s how we were able to complete enough nights to have a “free night certificate” for last night’s stay. It was free. However, even that price was “too expensive” for the disappointment that was our stay at the Omni Hotel Interlocken.

If you intend on staying at this part of Denver (Broomfield, CO) metro area and expect to stay at a “full service hotel.” Let me advise you to look elsewhere. This hotel needs improvement, a lot of improvement.

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After parking with 199 miles of rated range last night, we’re starting the day at 196 miles, we lost three miles of rated range last night.

When we drove out on our first day, we consciously wanted to drive far from Southern California.  If you remember, we drove 808 miles on our first day. What that day did was sacrifice some of the most beautiful views in the West, the Utah desert.  Today’s goal is to have a plan for either heading home or routing ourselves to the Pacific Northwest. Our main inflection point to make that decision is either Richfield or Beaver, UT.

The next few supercharger stops will be the same ones that we took on our trip East.  With one exception.  We would like to make it to Arches National Park near Moab, UT before or around sunset this evening.  After that, it’s either spend the night in Moab, Green River, or Richfield, UT.

As we were climbing into the Rockies, one of the exits close to the Denver Metro area had a funny sign about a Buffalo or Bison Herd (we were unable to take a picture of the sign.)

However, we were able to take a picture of the herd as we drove by.

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Heading West on I-70 from the Denver Metro area, means a change from the city scenes to the mountain scenes.  Like the Buffalo or Bison herd in the previous photograph.

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It was fairly light rain, to start.

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However, it looks like we were going to be encountering some “weather” on the way to Silverthorne, and perhaps beyond.

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It was getting harder to enjoy the sights outside of the car when the weather starts to be a challenge.

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Some rain starts to turn into showers, and in as cold as it is, some showers turned into snow showers.

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I’ve driven in rain before, not often until this trip (Southern California is in a drought after all).  I’ve driven in snow, not with the Model S, mind you.  But I’ve hardly ever driven in snow showers, and this drive to Silverthorne was the first time that I’ve ever done such a drive in the Model S.

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So, I figured to take my time and go as slow as the traffic will allow it.  We picked the white SUV on the right lane as it was going conservatively, but not irritatingly so.  Additionally, I figured that the SUV is about as heavy as the Model S, so it should react somewhat similarly as the Model S in the current road conditions.

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The weather was quite tough and I was glad that we had a good buffer of rated range miles so that the only thing I had to worry about was the weather and be comfortable in our available charge.

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Did someone not send the memo to tell Colorado that it’s already LATE MAY.

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There’s still snow on the runaway truck ramp

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We used a lot of energy getting to Silverthorne, but it makes for some great energy graphs.

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Just like that, the weather cleared.  It’s as if Silverthorne had a protective bubble from the weather.  We said goodbye to our white SUV guide and exited at Silverthorne.

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Silverthorne Supercharger

We arrived at the Silverthorne Supercharger during the outlet mall’s open hours is different than the last time we stopped here.  Rather than just stay in the car while we charged, we figured to stretch our legs and check out the shops.

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It might only be approximately 90 miles between Silverthorne Supercharger and Glenwood Springs Supercharger, but with the way the weather’s been and the elevation changes, I’m charging it up.

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So, the differential between what we consumed on our drive and the rated range is about 31 miles. The drive from the hotel to Silverthorne was about 76 miles with a consumption of 387 Wh/mi.

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As I mentioned, we got to stretch our legs.  We felt welcome at the Colorado Welcome Center.

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We took the time to enjoy the dry, cool weather at Silverthorne.

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By the time we got back to our car, we had some company.

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These pictures are a reminder of my wife’s suggestion to Tesla that it might be nice for the supercharger stalls to have the name of the location on them for these sort of photo opportunities.

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So, the next supercharger in Glenwood Springs are 92 miles away.

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We have enough for bad weather and elevation and more.  This is significantly more than the 100 mile “whatever” buffer that we’ve settled on.

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But first, it was time to take a picture of dry, happy travelers.

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So with 233 miles of Rated Range in the tank, we drove off toward Glenwood Springs Supercharger.

The last time we were at the Breckenridge exit, it was Winter. We didn’t stop off at Breckenridge, CO on this trip, but the thing with Breckenridge is the altitude sickness when visiting the resort.  Each time I visit Breckenridge from Southern California, I have to take at least a day and a half to adjust to the altitude.  So, if you’re prone to bad altitude sickness, be prepared for it when you visit Breckenridge.

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We’re passing another set of ski runs that would’ve been fun to ski.  Unless it was the same ski run that we photographed on Day 2.

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The drive to Glenwood Springs Supercharger is made easier by the fellow Grey Colorado Model S.

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When the weather turned bad again, we figured to follow the Grey Colorado Model S. He looked like he knew what he was doing.

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This sort of energy usage tells us that there are lots of ups and downs on this route.

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There is hope and a clearing ahead.

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Through inclement weather and clear and sunny routes, it’s always more pleasant to be driving behind another Model S. No fumes.

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I wonder if he’s getting tired of the Blue Califonia plated Model S behind him.

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Now that’s the sight that I was expecting for Colorado in May, and not the snow showers we were being challenged by earlier.

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Still some snow on those mountains.

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I wonder if that Grey Colorado Model S will be supercharging at Glenwood Springs with us.

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My wife is getting good at these interior panoramic shots.

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Before we enter into the White River National Forest part of this drive, we spotted a familiar sight on the Southern side of I-70.  Costco Hot Dogs, anyone? Not us.

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Just before the Glenwood Springs is the White River National Forest, it is the coolest part of this drive.  And it looks like the Grey Model S really enjoyed it ’cause they pretty much disappeared ahead of us.

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The speed limit on this leg seems unusually low for me, it was difficult to stay there. The drive was too tempting. Here’s a fun video of the ride through a tunnel with us. Please don’t mind the person singing along to the music, he didn’t know that he was being filmed. 😉

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With much to see above, we remembered to take some photographs through the panoramic roof.

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And with that, we reached Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

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Looks like our Grey Colorado Model S did exit at Glenwood Springs.

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We crossed over a bridge and saw some rapid seeking adventurers enjoying the Colorado River.

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Glenwood Springs Supercharger

The Glenwood Springs Supercharger were empty when we arrived here.

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Our drive to Glenwood Springs was surprisingly efficient at 232 Wh/mi.  Adding the 93 miles consumed to the 156 remaining rated range puts us at a start mile of 249 miles, since we left Silverthorne at 233 miles mean that the consumption rate was quite efficient.

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It was interesting that we were alone supercharging. The Grey Model S parked in one of the regular spots in the same parking lot and met with people who they obviously knew. We didn’t get a chance to thank the Grey Model S folks for being our guide through the weather. I figured that they must be locals, because they drove off without stopping off at the supercharger.

We charged up to a bit before we rolled out to Grand Junction since it’s only 91 miles.

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We really enjoyed the calm weather that we had on the drive to Grand Junction.  The calm weather was a welcome respite from the rain and snow showers that we went through the first two legs of today’s drive.

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Always like spotting solar panels, I wonder what these ones were used for.

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This drive to Grand Junction gets us really close to the Colorado River.

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We’re really close to Grand Junction now…

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We were able to take a photograph of the grapes and Colorado wine country.

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Grand Junction Supercharger

When we got to Grand Junction, we figured to look up some hotels in the Moab area, but they were all booked up. The challenge with making plans at the last minute during a holiday weekend is the higher demand areas get full fast.  We looked at Green River, but settled on the Holiday Inn Express at Richfield.  After all, we seek to give back to those that are enabling the operation and expansion of the Tesla Supercharger network.

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We met with a Green Colorado Model S that was on its way as we arrived.  They were friendly and on their way toward Denver.

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Our charge was close to 90% as we roll out to our first new stop on this drive Moab Supercharger.  Which means a chance to add another entry in the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS.

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The last time we did this drive, the route was at the end of our 808 mile Day 1 adventure.

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We know that we’re back in Utah because the speed limits start to increase.

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We didn’t see this sign the last time we left Colorado, then again that was later at night.

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So, we crossed into Utah again.  It is such a cool state sign.

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And we got an even better shot of the welcome to Utah sign.

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We saw a rest stop and decided to stop and take a photo of the car with a desert background.

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Yeah, it was a little windy here.

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We figure to take a few more Model S nature shots.

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Or at least shots of the car in a Utah rest stop.

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The weather was better than what we’ve had earlier on our drive, but it was still cloudy.  But at least it was dry.

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Things kept looking up as we were getting closer to Moab.  The weather was clearing up and we still have a bit of sunlight as we headed into Moab for the sunset.

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The rocks were amazing, and we’re not even at Arches National Park, yet.

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The folks were making use of the smooth sand to sled down. The dessert [thanks for the edit Brian H, I do tend toward desserts] desert toward Moab looked strangely full of people. It probably has to do with the Memorial Day Weekend.

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The entrance to Arches is before the Moab supercharger, I don’t know how many miles the drive around the Arches National Park is, but we wanted to have enough to do the drive and head to Green River for the night.

So, we tried to find the information out at the visitor center for the park.  We stopped by first before we went to the Moab Supercharger, however, it was after hours and the visitor center was closed.

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Since the visitor center was closed, we couldn’t pick up a map, so I took pictures of the map to help us find our way on the drive.

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Even though we have three different mobile providers on our trip, I don’t expect ANY coverage on mobile during the drive into Arches National Park.

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Rather than find any information from the visitor center, I actually got the information that we needed from a fellow visitor.  They said that the drive around was approximately 40 miles.  Now, we had about 90 miles of range left in the car, so we had enough to do the drive, but I wanted to also have enough to get to Green River, so we headed into Moab to get a charge.

The drive to Moab would have been faster, but since the town was full for the weekend, it did take a little bit longer because of the traffic.

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Moab Supercharger

The Moab Supercharger is located in the parking lot of the Best Western in Moab.

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After we plugged in, the occupants of the SUV parked by our car at the superchargers arrived and was admiring our car and the white Model S parked beside us.  The SUV was filled by a family that was visiting Moab from Colorado.  They were curious about the Model S and EVs and we took the time to talk to them about Model S and EVs in general.

We found a White Nevada Model S occupying a charging stall.  After we finished our conversation with the SUV family, the owner of the white Model S came out to check on his car.

Apparently this person was staying at the hotel.  Rather than move from the supercharger to a parking spot, he mentioned that he was planning on using the supercharger stall as his spot for the evening. He made the comment that he’s never seen the supercharger stalls full the last few times that he has visited this location.  I reminded him that perhaps it would be a good idea to put his contact information on his car, just in case four other Model S showed up to use the chargers, he scoffed at what I presume was his way of taking the suggestion under advisement.  He was not the friendliest or most considerate person we’ve met on this trip.

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And with the necessary and buffer charge completed, we rolled back out to Arches National Park.

Arches National Park

Not being much of a “nature” guy, I really enjoy the Arches National Park way of visiting.  Many of the places in the park can be visited by driving through the park.  No hiking required.

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So, we entered the park and headed in with the express purpose of “having a nice drive” and to get some great pictures of our car for the Model S Nature Pictures thread on Tesla Motors Club.

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The navigation had signal near the entrance to the park, but we will soon lose it when we get deeper into the drive.

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We were soon reminded that not only do we have a panoramic roof that we can OPEN that panoramic roof for better, untinted shots of the view.

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We took many pictures of our visit to Arches National Park, so enjoy.  They say that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and it’s not often that you will find me “speechless.”

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I imagine that in the future the National Park system may want to consider the fact that EVs have less of an impact on driving routes like this than our ICE brethren.  Unfortunately that is not the case right now.

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These rock formations looked like a sculpture of people facing to the right from the shot above. And they look like they’re in a meeting in this closer shot.

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Not sure if we can get to another stop for our Model S Nature Pictures, we stopped off in the first one that had space.

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This one is in the Ancient Sand Dunes part of the park.

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Our next stop was the Balanced Rock section.

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Can you spot the rainbow in the next couple of pictures?

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We headed down to the valley for the Delicate Arch.

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We tried to see if we can see the Delicate Arch from the car.  However on the way there there were several warnings of flash floods and evidence of roads that were washed out (not pictured, unfortunately).  Since we’ve been through a bit of weather before we got here and those rain clouds look like they’re getting closer, we decided to find a different place to take another set of Model S Nature Pictures thread worthy shots.

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We figured to find another point on higher ground so we don’t have to worry about it.

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Our next stop was at the aptly named Panorama Point.

And the next shots are what we plan to enter into Model S Nature Pictures thread.

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Now it’s just a matter of picking which one(s).

We were at our final stop before sunset.

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Arches National Park is what I envision when I think of Utah.

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Time to start heading out of the park as the darkness will drop quickly in the dessert.

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Heading out

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We made it back to the parking lot of the visitor center as the rain started to fall.

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And I for one was glad to be away from the “flash flood” signs that we passed inside the park.

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I took the opportunity to see what our energy consumption was on the drive within Arches.  So, it looks like we used less than the 40 rated miles that we had been told the drive would take.  Then again, we didn’t drive all the routes.

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It looks like our drive through Arches was fun.  Take a look at the energy consumption chart on the right.  However, the 278 Wh/mi since the charge says that we had fun efficiently.

With the sun setting fast, we were on our way back to Green River.

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Green River Supercharger

The last time that we charged at Green River Supercharger it was the middle of the night, now it’s just the night.

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We got to the Green River Supercharger and decided to make our decision on whether to continue the trip North and through the Coast or choose the more direct route home.

After much consideration we figured that it was time to head toward home.  We still have to figure out whether we’re staying in Utah longer or just head to Vegas tomorrow.

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Holiday Inn Express Richfield

We didn’t figure out what to do on the drive to Richfield.  It’s been a long day and the drive to the Holiday Inn Express actually consumed more energy than the drive through Colorado and the Rockies.

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The great thing about checking into a hotel that is supercharger equipped is that we don’t have to worry about the vampire loss.  Besides, we can always park at the supercharger stall overnight if its more convenient for us. (Just kidding) ;-).

Go on to Day 23. Click here.

22_Broomfield to Richfield

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 21

A quick note of thanks to the Beatles for inspiring the title for this series of posts. This is the twenty-first in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Missed Day 20, click here.

Day 21 – Drive on Friday, May 22, 2015

Predictability in experience is one of the strengths of Hyatt and its Hyatt Place brands. It’s interesting to me because everytime I stay at a Hyatt Place, I can’t tell where I am (as in city). They all look and feel the same. And when one has been on the road for 21 days, a sense of familiarity is good.

Hyatt Place Topeka

If the following pictures had not been geo-tagged, it could have been any Hyatt Place at any city.

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The design of the front lobby desk is definitely one of those “things” that shout out Hyatt Place to me.

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It could be at Nashville or Las Vegas or Topeka, as is the case in this particular location.

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And that’s not a bad thing. Many times a surprise in hotel lodging is usually a “bad” surprise versus a “good” one. So, I’ll take consistent (when it comes to lodging) any day.

With that in mind, we had an ambitious goal to make it to Denver this evening. We normally travel a lot (via airplanes and rentals, and not driving trips in our Model S) and as a result have membership with many hotel and airline programs.

One of the things that we “cashed in” was a “free night certificate” from the Omni Hotel. The certificate actually was expiring as we were leaving for a trip, so we redeemed it. In considering the locations that we will be driving to and from, we redeemed the certificate for the Omni Hotel Interlocken in the Denver metropolitan area. The stipulation on the certificate is that it must be booked ahead and only if the room type and rate was available. After booking, we can only move the room to another date in the same hotel if the same conditions exist. Once redeemed, we can not get the certificate back nor change the certificate to another hotel.

Since we didn’t know when we were going to make it to Denver, we kept moving the booking, and the hotel was not available on Saturday night, so it was either Friday or Sunday, and today was a better day for this attempt.

Besides, we’ve always had very good stays at Omni Hotels and expected the Omni Hotel Interlocken to live up to those experiences. It is, after all, a “proper hotel.”

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Looks like there was no rated range lost last night.

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Well rested, bright-eyed, and bushy tailed. We headed off to the Salina Supercharger.

We saw signs on the road directing travelers to visit the “Little Apple”, Manhattan, KS.  Didn’t have a hankering for that, so we continued on.  Just passed the Manhattan, KS exits, was Fort Riley, home of the Big Red One. The only thing I really know about the Big Red One is what I saw in the movie of the same name.

I spotted the “really cool” helicopters on the side of the highway and we tried to take some pictures.

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And soon after that, we noticed a sign on the side of the road.

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President Dwight David (“Ike”) Eisonhower’s Presidential Library and Museum was ahead in Abilene, Kansas.

We had so much fun visiting the President Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum with the Orange County Tesla Club that we thought that it would be cool to visit President Eisonhower’s Museum.

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After all, the Interstate Highway system that we’ve been traveling on may not have happened had it not been for President Eisonhower and his championship. Besides, this was the start of the Memorial Day Weekend and President Eisonhower was Supereme Commander Allied Forces Europe and one of the architects of the victory in Europe.

Eisonhower Presidential Library and Museum

The parking lot had its fair share of visitors, no other Model S, but quite a bit of folks from many states.

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One of the interesting facets of this Presidential Library and Museum is that it was built around President Eisonhower’s childhood home.  The trustees actually bought out the homes and businesses around his childhood home to create the space for the Presidential Library and Museum.

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Visitors can actually take a tour inside the home as part of their entry to the museum.

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So, we figured, why not.

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The tour was only in the ground floor and we were not allowed to go upstairs.  They at least provided a photograph to show the upstairs rooms.

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The downstairs rooms were quite modest.

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The front door.

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The Front Salon was rarely used and only such when there are distinguished guests.

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The Family Bible where they recorded the births in the family was opened to the page of President Eisonhower’s entry.

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There was a room that the family converted into an indoor restroom

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that is adjacent to the kitchen.  Notice the old phone on the wall.  Apparently it was in the same state as it was when the foundation acquired the home and land around it.

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A shot of President Eisonhower’s family (parents and siblings.)

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And then we headed back to his museum.

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Since President Eisonhower spent most of his adult life as a military man, a good portion of the Eisonhower Presidential Library and Museum covers military stuff, for more pictures, let me refer you to my Flickr album.

The military things were cool, but I’d like to highlight a few of the things at the museum that were not military themed (as well as some military vehicles and technology.)

The first is to highlight that President Eisonhower actually drove an Electric Vehicle.

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It was a 1914 Rauch and Lang Electric Automobile with a maximum 100 mile range when driven at 13 miles per hour (top speed was 19 miles per hour.)

We took a photograph of the write-up that was provided for guests beside the vehicle.

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The car itself looked like many cars of the era.

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There were also other vehicles (mainly military) in the museum.

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A Jeep.

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I think that this was an Armored personnel carrier.

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And the sort of vehicle befitting transporting members of the command staff.

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It was interesting to see technology that inspired the modern mobile telephone.

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The Interstate highway system was named in honor of President Eisonhower for a reason.

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And look who took the time to be a little presidential. Or at least a Press Secretary, perhaps?

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This stop was another of those that “just happened” because of a road sign. We were glad to have spotted the sign for the Eisonhower Presidential Library and Museum and glad to have made the stop. Especially for the Friday that started Memorial Day celebrations.

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Besides Abilene, KS is along the route (86 miles) between Topeka and Salina and is definitely worth it. The diversion was probably close to a three mile round trip off I-70.

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Besides, it’s even closer to Salina Supercharger (less than 30 miles away) than the Topeka Supercharger.

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And we were headed to Salina.

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No tour for Russell Stover unfortunately. Besides it’s no Hershey’s (is that a good thing or a bad thing?)

One of the biggest complaints that Model S owners have is the cost of replacement tires. The 21 inch tires are much more expensive than the 19 inch ones.  For those that worry about the cost of tires. I wonder how much these tires cost.  I would guess that these tires are over 15 feet.

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The weather ahead is cloudy and cool. So, I would guess that we won’t have to worry about tornadoes as much. Though I wonder if this is foreboding of pending weather ahead.

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How many of these trucks are there? And what is the vehicle that they need to provide the spare tires for?

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I also wonder how big the nail is that will puncture that tire.

You know that you’re really bored in the Kansas drive when a curve excites you.

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We reached the Salina Supercharger. This supercharger is also hotel adjacent. A Holiday Inn Express this time.

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Salina Supercharger

We arrived at Salina with plenty of rated range to spare.

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When we got to the supercharger stall, another Model S was already charging. We didn’t head into the lobby and the owner of this vehicle was not near the car, so we didn’t meet the owner of this grey Tesla.

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Soon after we started to charge, another grey Model S arrived.  It was driven by a new local Kansas owner who just took delivery of their Model S the prior week.

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I was curious as to why it had temporary Colorado tags. Apparently, Kansas Tesla Model S purchasers need to go to Colorado to buy their car.  It seems that he was unable to purchase the car in a state that has many supercharger locations and stalls. I take it that this means that there probably are no service centers in Kansas either.

After charging in Salina, we needed to make a stop at a Post Office. We had to mail several parcels that required a post office stop. We headed to the Salina post office.

When we were departing the post office we met with the gentleman who was parked beside us in his Ford C-Max Plug-in Hybrid. He was admiring our Model S and was friendly. So, we struck up conversation with him. He spoke how he loves driving an EV. He communicated that he and his family rarely go beyond the 20 mile EV limit of the vehicle.  However, when they do, he appreciates the ability to go beyond. He told us a funny story of how smooth the electric drive train was that he didn’t realize that he had hit 100 MPH when he was driving on the highway.

We had a good laugh and left our new-found PHEV friend and headed to the Hays Supercharger.

Another long day of relatively flat and straight terrain.

The cows must not be worried about that giant snake on the billboard.

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Check out those horses.

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Wait, are those windmills I see?

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They are windmills!  Well, that’s cool.

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The windmills distract me enough that I didn’t even notice that there was our nemesis, the “Deer Crossing” sign in the picture. Besides, I’m only worried about the “Deer Crossing” at night when I sens that they’re just lurking there.

This windmill design seems to be prevalent in the windmills that we’ve seen around the country.

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Windmills near and windmills far.

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It’s quite a sight.

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Good for you Kansas.  I wonder how much of the wind power generated by these windmills find their way to the superchargers that we’ve been visiting.

We discovered taking panoramics while driving.

This is our first attempt.

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I think the second attempt was better.

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But the built in panoramic function on my iPhone doesn’t seem to like to work in moving vehicles.

Some more windmill shots.  This team, really close to the highway.

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On the way to Hays, we spotted an interesting structure in the distance.

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This is the Cathedral of the Plains – the Basilica of St. Fidelis.

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The structure was impressive from the highway, but we didn’t feel like stopping there, so we continued on.  Perhaps next time.

Hays Supercharger

The distances between superchargers on the I-70 route seem to be quite close to each other.  I suppose the effect of winter weather needs to be part of the planning on these parts of the country.  We continued to stop at each location to make sure that we provide content for the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS.  Besides, we’re a lot more conservative when it comes to charging “insurance miles” than many folks out there.

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The Hays Supercharger is located at an Applebee’s Restaurant. I have not had a meal at an Applebee’s in many years and thought that it is good idea to try to have a meal at the restaurants that had the forethought to support the Tesla Supercharger network.

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The lunch hit the spot, but we had Denver in our target and we need to keep moving.

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It’s been a rather cloudy day today.  Though the clouds make the weather cool, it also signifies the potential for rain.  And the cloud cover looked foreboding.

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It seems that people in Kansas like to build some impressive looking churches. This is another one that we spotted in the distance and decided to skip. I didn’t catch the name of it, but it looked interesting.

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All the lemonade at Applebee’s forced us to seek a rest stop before we got to Goodland, KS. We took the opportunity to take a photo of the Eisonhower Interstate System sign at this stop.

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There was an interesting map of Kansas that was placed at the rest stop building.

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Just before the Goodland, KS supercharger is this giant replica of Van Gogh’s “Three Sunflowers in a Vase.”

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The easel is huge, it’s as big as the water towers that we’ve been obsessively photographing on this trip.

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A photograph of your guides on this journey with the Giant Van Gogh.

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The Goodland Supercharger is a short drive from the Van Gogh that we took local streets to get there from the giant reproduction.

The view of the Goodland Supercharger as we approach it.

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Goodland Supercharger

The drive from Hays to Goodland was a good time to discuss our plans for the rest of the trip.  Denver is approximately 1,000 miles of driving to home if we return along the same route that took us East.  At this time, we were toying with the “crazy” idea of heading North to Washington State and go home along the Pacific coast.  But we’ve been on our drive for 21 days and we need to figure out where to go.  The last point of inflection for us to make that decision is around Beaver, UT or Richfield, UT. If we decide to “take the long way home,” we can expect to be on the road for another week.

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The navigation to the Omni Hotel Interlocken had us skipping the Limon Supercharger.  But we figured that we were stopping at each charger to make our entries into the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS, so we figured to charge on the upcoming climb and still stop at Limon.

We made sure to note that the supercharger at yet another Holiday Inn Express was adjacent to a Steak N Shake that was currently closed.

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I haven’t counted all the hotel collocated superchargers, but there seems to be a fair share of Holiday Inns that have one on property. At least two in Kansas.  We don’t normally stay at Holiday Inns, but their support of supercharging needs to be rewarded with a stay.

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The weather was turning chilly and precipitation threatened our continuing journey.  We still had a lot of light and we had “crossed the Rubicon” with our “free hotel certificate” at the Omni Hotel Interlocken.  So, we were committed to sleep there tonight.

When the drive ahead of you is fairly flat, large buildings tend to stand out.  You’ve seen the two churches that have drawn our attention.  One of the other things that seem to pop up were these buildings.  I think they are grain silos, but I’m not sure.

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Ooh cows. (See, I’m getting better with being in the country, I’m not referring to them as steak.)

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We found ourselves departing Kansas and crossing back into Colorado during sunlight.

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The climb to Denver was not the sudden climb that I was expecting. It was a gradual one. I thought that the elevation changes would be more pronounced and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. However, the clouds really are starting to look threatening.

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We had the promise of sunshine ahead, and with it, the sunset photographs that my wife had enjoyed taking.

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We switched panoramic devices to an older Pano App that played with the moving vehicle better.

My wife was able to capture the rainy weather ahead in panoramic.

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She was also playing with taking inside the car panoramic shots.

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And then the rain started to drop.

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The rain was quite refreshing.  After being threatened by it for the day, it was nice to finally have it pour.  Nature is definitely impressive and the backdrop of the country beside it makes one appreciate how much smaller we are in comparison to it.

The majesty of the sunset ahead as the rain took a break was a sight to behold.

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Some chase rainbows, others are chased by rainbows.

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And as we headed toward Limon, we see windmills in Colorado.

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The Colorado windfarms look a lot more dense than the ones to their neighbor East, Kansas.

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I wonder if they get more wind in Colorado, or if it’s a case of “Keeping up with the Kansans.”

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Either way, the pursuit of renewable energy is something to be commended and good for you Colorado!

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Looking at the inclement weather in our rearview side mirror we made it to the Limon Supercharger.

Limon Supercharger

The Limon Supercharger is also located at an Arby’s (like the Topeka, Kansas one.) As much as I like to support those businesses that promote supercharging, we were still full from the stop at Applebee’s. Now if it was an Ice Cream or Ice Custard stop, I might have been able to be convinced.

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It was actively raining at the Limon Supercharger stop.

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In fact, some small hail pellets started to fall. The sunset and rain coupled with the red of the Tesla signs made for some interesting photo opportunities for the car as we charged.

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Now, this was one of those stops that was “not required” by our range, so we intended to take a quick break, charge a few miles and then head on our way.

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As I was taking panoramic pictures of the car with the supercharger and Arby’s behind it,

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another Tesla Model S from California drove in.

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We introduced ourselves to the nice couple that was driving the California Model S. It turned out that not only were they from California, they are from the same city that we live in. What are the odds to run into a fellow Model S traveler from our own city? They were proceeding Eastward to Iowa as we were headed West.

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We rolled out of Limon with 201 Rated Range to get to the Denver/Aurora Supercharger.

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Figured we were still climbing the Rockies here so I wanted to make sure we had lots of charge.  Additionally, I photographed the trip meters because I wanted to see what the effect of this elevation and weather would have on our consumption of rated range.  After all, the day’s consumption was at a pretty inefficient 351 Wh/mi per Trip B, was that the rain or elevation?  Probably both.

Denver Supercharger

It was only 77 miles away, but we used 91 rated miles to travel. So, the usage wasn’t as bad as I thought.

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The drive to Denver from Limon was actually more efficient than the drive through Kansas to Limon. Our day’s efficiency went down from 351 Wh/mi to 347 Wh/mi.

Now, the hotel we’re staying at is around 30 miles away and we wanted to get to Silverthorne tomorrow without having to charge overnight, so we charged up close to full again.

It was raining while we charged in Denver/Aurora, so we stayed in the car.  It was another hotel location.

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It was getting late and we were looking at the promise of a “full service hotel”, so we charged close to 90% state of charge (SOC.)

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Took a photograph again as I was interested in seeing the consumption from the charger across a rainy Denver metro area.

Omni Hotel Interlocken

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We arrived at the hotel with 199 Miles of rated range overnight. and an improvement from our 347 Wh/mi consumption to 346 Wh/mi.

Go on to Day 22. Click here.

21_Topeka to Broomfield