Travel – My ActiveE Made Me Accidentally Environmental

Traveling without your EV? Here’s how we do it, most recent stop, Perth, Australia

We love to travel.

Even before our many roadtrips in the Model S, we used to fly all over the place. However, the past few years, we’ve done more driving than flying.

When we went on airplane trips, we always made note of EVs and EV infrastructure wherever we went.

From visiting the BMWi Park Lane store in London when the BMWi brand was still in the concept stage.

To spotting Nissan Leaf at Hong Kong airport.

To EV charging stations throughout Malta.

One of the things that I tried to do during the past few years was to catch up and have dinner or lunch or whatever with someone that I’ve gotten to know in the International EV community. First it was one-on-one meetups with specific people when I visit a country. And then, last year I figured that it would be more fun to get together with groups of fellow rEVolutionaries on my International trips.

Last year, while visiting England for Rugby World cup 2015, I figured to send a message out to meet up with the EV community in the UK. I’m pretty active on the Speak EV forum, even volunteering as a moderator.

Speak EV is a great forum for EV enthusiasts because it is not focused on a specific brand of Electric Vehicle. Many of the really popular ones are. But Speak EV is different and that’s what I like about it. The owner/operator for Speak EV is British and many members are from the UK, the presence outside of the UK is mainly Europeans, though there are quite a few of us from this side of the Pond. I started a thread last year to invite folks for this get together that I called the TransAtlantic EV Social and Drinks.

Here’s a panorama that was taken by Tim Ostler at the event.

TransAtlantic EV Meetup - 2015-October-29

From left to right: @Sussex Trug , @MikeProcter and Hilary Procter, @Dennis and Carolyn Pascual, @dpeilow , @RickMGoldie

And then one which we asked someone to take our picture (to include Tim)

It was funny because it was an EV Meetup without the EVs. We all had a great time and I truly enjoy comparing EV experiences with folks in different countries.

So, last month, we decided to take a trip to Perth, Australia. A distance of 9,528 miles from Los Angeles via Sydney, Australia. Now, I started off by reaching out to a few guys on Twitter who happen to be involved with the AEVA West Coast branch (Australian Electric Vehicle Association) I also figured to reach out to the Tesla Owners Club of Australia and via a post on Teslamotorsclub.com. We haven’t been to Perth since 2005 and it was a chance to spend time and visit my godsiblings and the new baby that joined their family.

So, on Thursday, October 20, 2016, we had a meetup at the Odyssea Restaurant at City Beach.

From left to right: Antony Day, Christopher Cook, Matt (@MDK on TMC) [partially blocked], Chris Jones, Joseph Law, My better half, Me, and my godbrother Aaron.

Here’s a better picture from Twitter… (Matt’s not blocked on this one.)

EV meetup with @dennis_p @electriccarbuyr @g4qber @TransOzTesla pic.twitter.com/37LgFx9Amp

— E.V. Grin (@antday) October 20, 2016

My godbrother chose the restaurant for the food and service, but also for the large parking lot so that we can take these sort of shots.

Not an EV, but a cool vanity plate.

Matt with his cool “plate”

He was the first EV to cross the Null Arbor part of Australia. Basically, the Outback for thousands of kilometers on his Perth to Brisbane and back trip from earlier in the year. For those of us in the US, that’s like crossing the Us from San Diego to Baltimore and back. Where the only supercharging available would be the original one in California. Luckily, Australia has a lot of three phase power and Matt has an older Model S that can still make use of the 22kW available on dual charging.

Besides, it’s always fun when we visit different places and spot interesting road crossing signs. Our first trip to Australia in 2003, we had my godparents drive us all over WA to look for a Kangaroo crossing sign and tried to capture a Kookaburra sitting on a gum tree. We’ve been to visit Oz many times since, so I didn’t go out of my way to spot any of these things… However, whilst out and about the city, we did spot some interesting signs.

Spotted the ultra aggressive Black Swans that the river in Perth was named after.

Funny enough, our first trip here over a dozen years ago, we were chased by a Black Swan, so my better half took this shot using the zoom lens on her camera.

Also get to see a magpie… And now I understand why the Collingwood Magpies have them as a mascot. This particular bird was also unperturbed by our presence at the park when we were hanging out and enjoying time with our godsister’s new baby.

On the Friday of our visit there, we went to catch a basketball game at the Perth Arena.

We parked in the parking garage across from the arena. I was impressed that the parking garage had several charging outlets as well as a dedicated EV charging bay.

The one EV charging bay was respected by the ICE drivers and the first-come-first-serve spots that had plugs still had a spot available for another plug-in vehicle to use.

Since these are first-come-first-serve and not dedicated to EV charging, it was perfectly fine for ICE cars to be using these spots.

And many ICE vehicles did take these spots, but at least respected the dedicated EV spot.

This means that as EVs proliferate in their city, they can start claiming those outlets for EVs easily.

The basketball game itself was quite fun and the Perth Wildcats won that game.

It was impressive to see the winning record and staying power of the Perth basketball team in its league.

It was also quite entertaining seeing the different things that fans do at these games vs. the NBA.

Those crazy huge head signs would not be allowed in the NBA by the competition committee.

Unfortunately, the Super Rugby and AFL were out of season, but I did get a chance to see their various organizations represented.

The Perth Spirit, which is the division below the Western Force Super Rugby team actually had its players getting ready for their trip to the Grand Finals (which they won as an away game over the weekend of our trip to Perth.) Perhaps we brought them luck.

We also passed by Domain Stadium (which I remember as the Subiaco Oval) (where both the West Coast Eagles and Freemantle Dockers have been playing for years, but apparently both abandoning soon.)

Later that weekend, we took time to speak with some of the same AEVA crew as they did their EV advocacy at the Perth Spring Eco-Fest in Perth’s Central Business District (CBD), or “downtown” as we would call it in LA.

It wasn’t all EVs, got to see a really tiny Joey.

Which made me a little guilty that I had the kangaroo at lunch the other day with the AEVA.

I finally got to sit behind the wheel of a RWD Model S…

And one that has the same color as our Model S at that.

Got to see all the different charging plugs that the guys in Australia use for their Model S. Especially in Perth, where there is no supercharging network.

The charging port is on the same side of the car as the US Model S, which means the driver has to walk around to get to it.

EV conversions still have a big presence in the Australian EV scene as is evidenced by this Mazda Miata.

We took a photo with the fellow rEVolutionaries at the Spring Eco-Fest.

From Left to Right: Mitch Bisby, Bruce Armstrong, Robin (or is it Robyn) Dean (Mrs. Blue Heaven on TMC), Me, Better Half, Matt (MDK on TMC), Rob Dean (Mr. Blue Heaven on TMC), and Joseph Law. Unfortunately we didn’t get to be properly introduced or speak with Mitch and Bruce, but had a great time chatting with the others.

It’s interesting to note that many of these rEVolutionaries in Australia had decided to switch to EVs without any of the incentives available to those of us in other parts of the world. Their cost per kWh is also very expensive and they have a government that does not seem to be too friendly for the EV movement. The reason that Tesla has focused its Tesla Energy sales to Australia and Germany has to do with their ability to compete against the utilities in Australia. Solar and battery storage is “on par” with the cost of energy from the grid.

That being said, hats off to these rEVolutionaries in Australia that have decided to take the plunge without the help that many of us get from our government.

On our last day at Perth we went to King’s Park to take a great picture of the city from its vantage point.

And on our last night, we enjoyed a night market before we headed off to fly back home.

All sorts of cuisine and even American food.

We enjoyed our visit and meeting with the local rEVolutionaries and discuss their challenges and triumphs as well as bring some of Australia’s, especially Western Australia (the “other WA State”) best home with us is another highlight.

So, the next time you travel without your EV, you can always see if you can make it a visit with other rEVolutionaries. There are plenty of friendly EV folks out there.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 06

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

Missed Day 5, click here.

Day 6 – Drive on Thursday, May 7, 2015

Our goal today is to get to Copley, OH. A day earlier than we had adjusted to, but enough time to catch dinner with my cousin and his family. Luckily, we eat dinner late, so that can be a lot later than when other people “usually” have dinner.

Hampton Inn South Bend

We ended the previous evening’s rated range at 79 miles when we parked the car and woke the car up the next morning with 80 miles of rated range. Another one of those days where the mileage went up from when we turned in.

This time, I was able to take a picture.

I remembered to mute the audio before I started the drive to reposition the car to the front of the hotel to make it easier to load it when we drive off for the day. No “Van Halen” surprises this morning.

Mishawaka Supercharger

The Mishawaka Supercharger was about four miles from our hotel. We took surface streets to get there because that’s what the navigation provided us. So, I don’t know how difficult or easy it is to get to this charger from the Interstate/Turnpike.

What’s the difference between an Interstate and a Turnpike anyway? Well… It would seem that the difference is the “toll”. Once we entered Illinois the previous day, they started to charge us for driving on the road. I thought my taxes already covered the highway system, apparently I was wrong. So, have to get used to that and factor that in the drive. So, I guess I should be happy that the navigation took us on a surface street to get to the Mishawaka Supercharger from the hotel.

If comparing the mileage between the 80 that I had in the morning with the 72 on the dash when we started charging with the 4 or so miles to get there, please note that I remembered to COOL the car down with pre-conditioning as it was a HOT (the temperature at 10:00 am was already 85F/29.4C, without wind) day in South Bend when we decided to pull out of the hotel and I turned the air conditioning on full blast.

When one is traveling on electricity, it’s easy to turn the car on for “convenience” reasons.

Another one of these mall locations that are located at the far edge.

We just hung out at the car for this charge. We get a chance to make calls, check e-mails, and the like when we supercharge the car. That Barnes and Noble looks big and as with most Barnes and Noble offer free wi-fi.

Yes, as usual… a WATER TOWER picture.

Which leads to something that my wife wanted to suggest to the Tesla Supercharger folks. Why not add a LOCATION sign to each supercharger? Whether painted on the supercharger itself or in the location. That way, when one takes a picture of a supercharger, the location is embedded in the photo.

I told her, I didn’t know why, but agreed that this is a good idea.

So, we headed out of Mishawaka on the way to Copley, OH.

The Indiana countryside had a more interesting view.

Before we left Indiana for Ohio, we stopped off at the Angola Supercharger.

Angola Supercharger

We had enough range to skip this supercharger, but we did tell our friends at Teslarati that we would be helping with the beta of the (now released) Teslarati App for iOS and post content for the stop, so, we decided to swing by and stop.

We were thrown off by the location of the Angola Supercharger. There is an outlet mall nearly adjacent to the exit from the Turnpike/I-80/I-90, but the supercharger was not located there.

Instead it is located just below a Ramada Hotel a few miles away. This location has a great view of the valley below, but I was concerned that in the winter, with ice and snow, the ascent to the superchargers might be “tough.”

We tried to capture the steepness of the drive into the supercharger location, but we were unable to get it with the photograph.

Our friends from @TeslaRoadtrip stuck a sticker at one of the chargers from their 2014 cross-country trip to TMC Connect 2014. I wonder if they’ll be doing the same thing when they head West from the East Coast for TMC Connect 2015.

Once again, not a necessary stop, but nice views from the supercharger station.

This might be the best way to show how steep it was from the driveway to the supercharger. It’s a view from the base of the driveway toward the superchargers.

We had a quick charge and headed to Ohio, and the short trek through the state to get to Copley, OH.

We had some pretty interesting things that we saw in Ohio, on the way to Maumee Supercharger.

First, we crossed into Ohio.

Some cool Ohio farms.

Some really old barns… (shouldn’t they be demolished if they looked like this.)

It’s interesting to note that folks who live so far apart from their neighbors like they do in the Ohio farm communities.

Probably know their neighbors better than we do in suburban Southern California. At least I would venture to guess that would be the case.

We had SOME excitement on the drive to the Maumee supercharger, we got some confirmation on how they repair such large power lines.

I would be SO freaked out by that, and these guys made it look “easy.”

Maumee Supercharger

The supercharger in Maumee, OH was difficult to find. It was not very close to the highway. It was located toward the back of the road that it was installed in.

Hiding the superchargers from the road were several fast food restaurants in front of chargers.

The Steak Escape was entrepreneurial in that they offer Tesla travelers a discount.

Since we were planning on having dinner with family, we didn’t take them up on their discounted meal for Tesla travelers.

As you can see from the statistics, we could easily have made it here and skipped Angola, but was glad to have stopped there, if anything just to take pictures and make notes.

And with that, we decided to press on. Our original plan was to go to charge at Macedonia, OH as those superchargers are close to Copley. But decided to skip that and just head to my cousin’s house.

More barns on the way to Copley.

Was that hay or a roll of fiber optics?

Sunset over Ohio.

Copley, OH

And with that, we finally made our goal for the next few days. We made it to Copley, OH. To minimize losing the ten miles that we did at our worst stop, we plug at my cousin’s home at 110V and get 12A of charging.

As we used to do with the Active E and to prevent the temptation to steal our really long extension cord, we drive the car on top of the cable so that it can not be taken without rolling the car.

We’re getting three miles per hour on this connection. (It actually speeds up to four miles per hour later in the cycle.) We plugged in the evening with 75 Miles of Rated Range and went in to have dinner with the family.

Go on to Day 7. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 05

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

Missed Day 4, click here.

Day 5 – Drive on Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Our personal goal today is to get to Chicago and take a picture with “Cloud Gate” aka “The Bean.” Like the previous day, we didn’t book something specifically, but figured we would find a place “on the route.” Additionally, we contacted our friend Cara, in Aurora, IL, to see if she would like to spend some time with us for a meal or coffee (or wine for her, as she isn’t on a long roadtrip) as we decided to charge the car at the Aurora, IL supercharger.

Hampton Inn Rochester

Didn’t take any pictures at Hampton Inn. But this stay was interesting in that the actual rated miles went up to 176 miles in the morning when I moved the car for us to load (we were parked in the back). We had a funny thing happen when I was moving the car. The Model S is so quiet that I started to hear a strange noise as I moved the car from the back of the hotel to the front of the hotel. I started to hear a strange sound, and wondered to myself, “Oh no, what the %*!$ is that!” It took me a few seconds before I realized that it was the Internet Radio and the start of Van Halen’s “Hot for the Teacher.” So, in the future, before you freak out, mute the radio when you hear a “strange sound.”

Additionally, we took advantage of the manual car wash that was adjacent to the property and took the opportunity to clean the car. Rochester, MN is not in a drought and we were collecting quite a few dead bugs on the car.

Believe me, there’s an impressive lake on the other side of the road…

We just couldn’t get a picture of it before we got to La Crosse, unless you squint past my face.

Just before La Crosse was some construction. It looks like they’re working on a bridge, or fixing a bridge.

…and we cross into Wisconsin…

La Crosse Supercharger

The La Crosse Supercharger is in a “weird” location. There really isn’t anything around its immediate location. It’s located in a business park and there seems to be two restaurants behind chargers and at the edge of shopping center. It is located across from Home Depot. Beyond Home Depot away from the chargers is a Walmart.

We arrived there as the Tesla Supercharger maintenance guy was working on the Wisconsin SCs. though some of the superchargers looked to have had pieces pulled off, the supercharger was operational. The Tesla Supercharger Maintenance Employee was very friendly. I got to peek at the innards, but wasn’t allowed to take a picture. So, I didn’t take any pictures. It was nice to see someone working on maintaining these superchargers. I thanked him for his work and let him know how happy we were for the work that he and his colleagues are doing to enable our travel.

Because we were seeking coffee and there was not a convenient place beside the superchargers, we decided to find the nearest Starbucks according to the Model S navigation system (9432 WI-16, Onsalaka, WI) is a drive through and easy to get to or from the superchargers.

The drive to Mauston is all Interstates. So, the view was

Mauston Supercharger

The Mauston Supercharger is located at the parking lot of Culver’s. I noticed that they sold Frozen Custard there, and since I wanted to know what the difference between Frozen Custard and Ice Cream, I decided to try it there.

I’m a BIG fan of Ice Cream, especially Soft Ice Cream. Frozen Custard reminds me of a mix of Soft Ice Cream and Gelato. (And yes, I meant to capitalize all these in this paragraph.)

Now, as we pulled out of the Mauston Supercharger, the navigation changed our route from the Interstate to alternate highways. It seems that there were some accidents and/or slow-downs on the direct Interstate route so I decided to give the navigation suggestions a try.

The first route actually tried to route us through a closed road. This would be the second time that the navigation tried to direct us to a closed road (remember the drive to Rapid City for a charge at the Mall, the road was closed.)

This redirection would normally have resulted in my taking the direct Interstate, but I decided to zoom out and see if there could be another alternate highway to use, and started to direct myself in that direction and see if the Model S navigation would adjust itself into that direction.

It did… and a new guiding principle popped up from this experience.

“Sometimes you have to get off the Interstate, you’re on vacation, and it makes for a nice drive.”

So, it was a pleasant detour and we got to Madison, WI within a few minutes of the originally projected time via the more direct Interstate route.

Madison Supercharger

Another supercharger at a mall. This trip could get expensive with all the shopping versus the gasoline.

We didn’t really get out of the car here. Took the time to catch up with friends and commiserate about “deflate gate” findings and Tom Brady’s role in it.

I jumped out to go look around and figured to take a photo of the business hours for Buffalo Wild Wings.

If you’re at this charger late, Buffalo Wild Wings is open late.

So, we’re on our way from Madison to Rockford…

And we’re crossing the border into Illinois.

As we were entering the toll plaza in Illinois, a nice young lady in an ICE car was pacing us and got my wife’s attention. Apparently we got a nice thumbs up and she mouthed the words “Nice Car.” I guess the car wash at the start of the day, helped :-).

Rockford Supercharger

The superchargers at Rockford are located at the Cherryvale Mall. It was placed far from the mall crowd to minimize being ICEd and I have to commend Tesla on the strategy. They’ve done well on this plan.

Because I like my “frozen” treats. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is a Red Mango Yogurt at the mall, on the side closest to the superchargers.

Are those windmills that I see on the way to Aurora?

Have to squint to see…

They ARE windmills!

Well, that’s cool. I hope they get pretty windy this close to the Windy City. Regardless, good for you Illinois!

Aurora Supercharger

The Tesla Model S navigation was routing us to a different location. Luckily, we used the Teslarati App for iOS and noted that there is a TEMPORARY supercharger location in Aurora at the Two Brothers Roundhouse.

The food and coffee at the Two Brothers is great. However, this is a temporary location that the car (when using Navigation) does not direct you to, so, use the address on the app (or the website above provides.)

According to our friend, Cara (an Aurora resident,) this part of town is “sketchy”. As a matter of fact, when we were saying goodbye, an inebriated non-customer approached us and was panhandling before security showed up. This experience made us painfully aware of how unaware we are of the locations that we’re driving through and we decided to research locations on teslamotorsclub.com before we plan on stopping there in “odd” hours.

That said, I would only come here in an emergency and only when the restaurant/cafe is open.

I wonder if these were the same ones that were in Barstow when they upgraded the location

As we said our goodbyes to our friend and her kids in Aurora, we were determined to get a picture with Cloud Gate.

So we proceeded to go to Chicago.

Chicago

While on our drive to Chicago, we had a nice red Random Model S sighting of a local Model S that slowed down, acknowledged us, and went on his way. Since we were unsure where to get the next charge, we were driving conservatively and at the speed limit. Something locals seem to ignore.

After many days of traveling in rather sparse four lane divided highways, it was comforting to be back in our minimal eight lanes of traffic with buildings surrounding us. No agoraphobia here. Mild claustrophobia, perhaps. 😉

Cloud Gate AKA The Bean

Doing my “Finding Nemo” impression of the “Touch the Boat” scene.

Our reflection on a curved space…

Selfie with a curved Chicago reflection.

And another picture of me… (’cause the wife said, that picture of you looks good)

The view from Millenium Park.

Decided to stay in South Bend, IN. Using the same theory that netted us the stay at Rochester, MN, we hypothesized South Bend, IN would be an ideal place to stop in the evening. Additionally, South Bend is only a few miles from the next SC for the next morning Mishawaka, IN. When using this theory, it’s important to ensure that there is “nothing” huge going on that weekend, a College Football game, Graduation, that sort of thing. We lucked out in that Notre Dame University’s graduation isn’t until the following week.

On the drive to South Bend, the moon was particularly interesting.

Hampton Inn South Bend

With over 500 miles of driving today, dinner with a friend, and achieving the goal of a picture at “Cloud Gate”, I would consider today’s drive a big “win.”

Go on to Day 6. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 04

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

Missed Day 3, click here.

Day 4 – Drive on Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The ride’s been good so far, but today’s drive is one of those where we had no real goals, aside from helping our friends at Teslarati fill out the information on the Teslarati App for iOS. Our personal goal is to get to Minnesota, if we can make it to Wisconsin, even better. We didn’t book something specifically, but figured we would find a place “on the route.”

Hilton Garden Inn Rapid City

The hotel and the accommodations were comfortable. At breakfast, I met a gentleman on a business trip and we spoke about traveling great distances in an EV. He was interested, but was on his way to a meeting.

We left the hotel at 236 Rated Miles in the morning. That meant that ten miles of range was lost by vampire losses overnight.

In driving through these areas, one would notice advertisements for Wall Drug. Apparently, one of the things that Wall Drug is known for is its “dinosaur.” Not really something we will be stopping for, but here’s a picture that we took while driving by the Wall Drug dinosaur. They label themselves as “America’s Favorite Roadside Attraction” but we opted to keep on driving.

There was a sign we saw on this drive, after Wall Drug that was for the Minuteman National Historic Site.

If I had known earlier, we could’ve planned a stop here, but we were planning on using this day for a “drive as far as we can” day, so skipped it. Here’s a link to it, so if you happen to be by this way, you can tell us what you think.

Lots of grassland… Not even trees.

Not much on the map between Rapid City and Murdo…

Wait, is that a BLUE Water Tower… You can see how loopy we can get on long “empty” stretches of grassland.

Murdo Supercharger

Finally got to Murdo!

The superchargers are right there…

…but if you didn’t spot it from the road as we did, look for the two tall pines.

Got some great panoramics here.

The folks at the hotel were very friendly,

The hotel has nice and clean restrooms in the lobby. I was advised that the lobby is open until approximately midnight and may close earlier and may open close to 6am, but could open later. Especially in the winter.

The cell service in Murdo, SD on AT&T iPhone is 1 bar, nonexistent on Virgin/Sprint and T-Mobile is spotty. We don’t have Verizon, so I have no comment on that.

We switched drivers at Murdo, and the better half decided to drive the next leg or two… This freed me up to play with Periscope.

[Click on the image and let it play from the Flickr photostream]

or play on YouTube –

There were lots of wide open spaces between Murdo, SD and Mitchell, SD.

Ooh a truck…

This was not something we expected… a Lake along the highway.

While we were driving along, we got another signal, so I figured to try another Periscope session…

[Click on the image and let it play from the Flickr photostream]

or play on YouTube –

We had a random sighting of a Signature Red Model S heading West when we were about fifty miles to Mitchell. We didn’t flash lights because the better half was driving and I forgot to let her know how to do that. But that was exciting.

Then, just like that, we made it to Mitchell, SD

Mitchell Supercharger

The Mitchell, SD location is right beside a Goodwill store. So, if you’re here during hours, it’s a good place to just browse through. You never know what you’ll find. I picked up a few books. Sue Grafton hardbound books.

There is a Dairy Queen next door that is open 10-10 and I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream. Aside from that, there is a County Fair Food Store that is open 24 hours adjacent to these stores as well.

I chose Ice Cream and books.

And then we’re off… Minnesota is next…

One of our favorite State Line signs…

You can tell the California traveler, we’re obsessed with water

You can tell that we’re rEVolutionaries as we get really excited when we see renewable energy sites…

Good for you Minnesota! Love to see places use what they get power from renewables. Seeing that it was all foggy when we were driving through, wind power might be a better solution there than solar power.

Worthington Supercharger

Next up is Worthington, MN.

There is a hotel right beside this supercharger, but we still feel like we can keep going, so we took the time while in the car to figure out where to stay for the night. My original plan had us in Madison, WI after staying the night at Rapid City, SD. That’s not going to happen tonight. That drive is just too far. So, we started looking at places to stay near superchargers; however, there were no hotels that really appealed to us.

So, we figured to look for something where there is either a University or something else on the way and settled on Rochester, MN. Rochester is about sixty to seventy miles past the Albert Lea, MN Supercharger and before the La Crosse, WI Supercharger. Rochester, MN is a good place to shop for hotels because it is located where the Mayo Clinic is located and large, world-class hospitals have to have good lodging for a transient population of patients and their families.

So, we now have a plan of where to go next, and that means going past the Albert Lea, MN Supercharger.

The drive to Albert Lea was in the dark and we didn’t take any pictures, but we got there fine.

Albert Lea Supercharger

If looking for the chargers, look for the hotel sign…

The superchargers are just on the other side.

It was late, but as friendly as the inn keepers were at this supercharger location, it was not the type of hotel that we’re used to staying at, and we were determined to get to the Hampton Inn at Rochester, MN.

Besides at sixty-five miles per hour, it’s about an hour to our next hotel.

Now, this should’ve been fine, but we didn’t realize how thick the fog gets in this part of Minnesota. At least it did during our drive. Now, we ordered our Model S with the fog lights and they’ve helped us on our drive down from our factory pickup weekend but the fog was nowhere near the “soup” we found ourselves in.

The drive was a little scary, and the persistent “Deer Crossing” signs are a little rattling for a couple of “city” kids from Southern California where the only wildlife we normally have to watch out for are “party animals”.

This drive also reminded me of my high school drivers’ education courses on why a driver does not use the high beams in fog. And I was glad to have remembered it and turned the fog lights on.

Hampton Inn Rochester

So, the hour estimate was a little off. But, we did arrive in Rochester, MN before midnight.

We turned in with 175 Miles of Rated Range when we parked the car for the evening.

After 583 miles of driving, it was time to get some rest. Our goal for tomorrow is to get to Chicago. As many times as we’ve visited Chicago, we have yet to take a picture with “Cloud Gate” or as locals call it “The Bean.”

Go on to Day 5. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 03

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

Missed Day 2, click here.

Day 3 – Drive on Monday, May 4, 2015

So, after a short day in the Rockies, and an adjustment to our plans, we’ve figured that for Day 3, we would like to make it to Mount Rushmore at a minimum, if not somewhere passed Murdo, SD or to Mitchell, SD.

Hampton Inn Cheyenne Wyoming

The Hampton Inn Cheyenne Wyoming has a very good spread for breakfast.

I was intrigued by the make your own waffles and enjoyed the novelty of making my own waffles. Needless to say, the idea was better than the actual execution.

Looks like we have almost 100 miles to get to a supercharger a few miles away.

We lost two miles overnight. That’s not bad. However, as you can see, there is a limit (the dashed yellow lines) on the regenerative braking, and power (subsequent picture, see below). Not being based anywhere one can reasonably call a “cold” climate, these limits were not what we’re used to seeing. Our car is normally parked in the garage and therefore, well taken care off before we roll out, even in the coldest of Southern California days.

Regardless, these limit bars are common in cold weather and when the car starts to warm up, the limits disappear (we called Tesla Service to verify what we suspected and they confirmed it.) Additionally, if one shows up at the supercharger with these limits, the supercharger will operate at a slower speed. So, it behooves one to warm the car up, before rolling. Either by preconditioning the car or driving further as it warms up.

Cheyenne Supercharger

This was the first time we used the “hint” from our fellow Model S traveler from Colorado and used the Satellite view to find the superchargers. This was a good idea at this location as the parking lot around the chargers were turned into a “pop-up” RV trailer store.

So, though the site was encircled by a “pop-up” RV trailer store, the superchargers are actually located in a mall location.

We didn’t need to do anything at the mall, so we just stuck around the car. We spoke with one of the RV Trailer salespeople and did our best to educate him about the car and electric vehicles in general. He was thankful to get to see the car up-close and ensured that none of the trailers blocked access to the chargers.

After getting the charge that made us comfortable to reach Lusk, we headed out.

One of the things that changes as you visit other states is the name of gas stations and grocery stores. There are few “national” brands that market with one name in the country. I was amused by the name of this gas station chain in Wyoming (and Colorado too, I believe) called “Loaf N Jug”. Especially since they’re mainly a gas/petrol station. Something tells me they make more money on that than any Loaf or Jug.

As we drove toward Lusk, we were reminded that the drive won’t be on Interstates and that divided highways would be minimal on this leg in Wyoming.

Furthermore, not only is the drive going to be on undivided highways, construction “season” is starting and we need to be aware that when the weather warms up in the rest of the country, that is when a lot of states start repairing their roads. We have to be cognizant of the start of construction “season.”

This was one of those drives that reminded us that the United States is one big country. We’re not even half-way to the East Coast and we’ve already seen so much of the country. Being “city” kids, a mild sense of agoraphobia seems to permeate both my better half and I as we drive in these “wide open spaces.”

We would take pictures of things we don’t normally see… Like steak, I mean cattle grazing… 😉

A wide, empty road without anyone else in it with us… If we were back in Southern California, we’d probably be speeding in it, but we don’t know what’s ahead, so we’re going the speed limit.

When they say a “Wide Load” in one of these two lane highways, it actually encroaches on the OTHER SIDE of the road. Had to remember my driver’s education course and remember the rules on passing a car on a two-lane road. Not a skill I normally need to use in Southern California.

Hey… Or in this case, hay!

Lusk Supercharger

Then we got the sign we were hoping for… Lusk, Wyoming.

We figured to get our charge and keep heading toward Mount Rushmore National Monument. But first, find the superchargers. If one is in Lusk, Wyoming and looking for the superchargers, look for the following sign (below) and get to the back of the motel. They’re there.

Looks like we were somewhat efficient in our drive from Cheyenne. 282 Wh per mile.

Now, that we’re in Lusk, what do we do while waiting for a supercharge…

…sunbathing?

Hang out at the supercharger.

Here’s a panoramic of the fun little “park”/courtyard for the motel. So, if traveling with kids, they at least have a playground.

I spy a place for espresso on the other side of the street from the superchargers. However, it was closed when we got there… So, no latte for me, I was too late. (pardon the pun, I am a little tired from all the driving ;-))

And just like that, we’re off… Back on the road to Mount Rushmore.

The drive between Cheyenne and Mount Rushmore through Lusk is through undivided highways and lots of open roads, but the good folk of South Dakota made sure that they denoted the border between Wyoming and South Dakota with their welcome sign.

Then more open road…

We took a picture of this advertisement for the Flintstones RV Park because the first time, in my youth, that I visited the Mount Rushmore area, I really wanted to stop off, and we didn’t. Now, that I’m an adult, we STILL opted to skip it.

On the Northbound drive from Cheyenne, the Crazy Horse Memorial is on the way to Mount Rushmore, we skipped it, but here’s a view from the highway.

Mount Rushmore National Monument

So, our goal for the day was to make it to Mount Rushmore, and we made it. The visitor area for the monument looks like it was refurbished since the last time I’ve been here. The parking for the monument is good for the entire year, but this is attached to the specific vehicle that you used to get into the monument. So, if you’re visiting Mount Rushmore in a rental car, then the arrangement isn’t really very useful to you, and, if like us, you’re visiting from over 1000 miles away, then that just means that you need to make the drive to the location again.

The monument is actually lit up in the evening, we got there in the afternoon, seeing that they would light up the monument at sunset and we were several hours away from that, we decided to enjoy it in the afternoon and then move on.

Everyone has a favorite on Mount Rushmore, I think mine is President Lincoln.

Here’s the mandatory picture with the Presidents.

And a rare sighting of the better half on the blog.

How was the drive to Mount Rushmore? Not bad actually. It was a lot of uphill to get here, but only used 322 Wh per mile on the average, so we did pretty good on the climb.

So, the drive to Rapid City, SD from Mount Rushmore is mostly down-hill. Which means a LOT of opportunity to use Regen for the drive.

a LOT of Regen. Love seeing charts that look like this…

The drive to Rapid City, SD is quite fun, and after all the wide open spaces we welcomed the opportunity to see buildings and the like.

It was a little strange to see a replica of Independence Hall on the way back to Rapid City, SD made us think if we wanted to swing over to Philly on this trip. I guess we’ll figure it out as we get closer to the East Coast.

One thing that we did experience on the way to Rapid City Supercharger was a “Navigation Failure”… Not a technical one, just that the navigation system directed us to the superchargers through a road that was “under construction/repair”. So, we had to zoom out and figure out an alternate way there.

Rapid City Supercharger

Once we got to the superchargers, we figured to charge up. This was another location in a mall, the Rushmore Mall, and there were several restaurants behind the superchargers.

The road that was closed/under repair is pictured below.

There is a mall in front. There is a Starbucks and beside it is a Fuddruckers. Behind the superchargers is a Texas Roadhouse and Red Lobster. We decided to give Texas Roadhouse a try. Figured, seafood in South Dakota might be a bit of a challenge.

The next stop on the route in South Dakota would be Murdo, SD and as lovely as the town sounds, we were a little “wiggy” about staying in a town that sounds like murder. So, we either make the decision to stop in Rapid City for the night OR drive all the way to Mitchell or somewhere in between Murdo and Mitchell while budgeting in at least a five mile loss (double what we lost overnight in Cheyenne plus one additional rated mile). We decided to book a hotel in Rapid City that just ended up being a mile away from the superchargers.

Hilton Garden Inn Rapid City

The hotel we chose to stay in for the evening was the one we originally planned on stopping at the night before. Since they were gracious enough to let us cancel the previous stay without penalty we would reward that generosity by choosing to stay there and let them recapture the “lost” revenue.

It was a pretty short day of travel for us today, but a fulfilling one as we got to visit Mount Rushmore, I’ve been there before, but my wife has not. A little short on the checkins for the beta version of the (now released) Teslarati App for the iPhone but we do have thousands of miles to go, and ample opportunity to get more content in there.

We figured that we won’t have to supercharge on our next day’s trip. We checked into the hotel with 246 Rated Miles in the predicted range overnight.

Go on to Day 4. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 02

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

Missed Day 1, click here.

Day 2 – Drive on Sunday, May 3, 2015

So, what did the first day of 808 miles teach us…

It’s not that fun to drive so far in one day. So, we cancelled our scheduled hotels in Rapid City, SD and in Madison, WI and adjusted our plan to get to OH from Tuesday to around Friday, which is when we intended to get there after making a swing to the East Coast on Wednesday-Thursday.

It helps to have booked the first few hotels in a chain that we have “status” in and are able to appeal to the hotel chain’s loyalty program for help with the “non”-refundable first nights.

Doubletree Grand Junction CO

The Doubletree was very comfortable and the cookies were great. We were well rested, after getting to the hotel at an ungodly hour of 4:00 am local time, (3:00 am biological time, since we crossed from Pacific into Mountain timezone in our drive), we slept in.

We didn’t start to roll out until around 2:13 PM

In looking at the dash and comparing it with the previous night’s dash, it looks like we didn’t have any vampire losses overnight in Grand Junction. We parked the car at 89 Rated miles, we rolled out at 89 Rated miles.

Grand Junction Supercharger

Since we were staying in a hotel six miles away from the supercharger, we decided to go straight to the hotel the previous night. Even if the car were to lose ten miles on vampire losses overnight, we would have been able to make it to the supercharger.

Our first supercharger stop in Colorado is located in the Mesa Mall. This was one of the first stops outside of California where we checked in on the beta version of the (now released) Teslarati App for the iPhone and there was already content there. (thanks to @DanielSparks for the content.)

Didn’t feel like shopping, so we didn’t really go into the mall. There was a Taco Bell and IHOP behind the chargers. If you’re visiting this location with kids, there is a Chuck E. Cheese just across the parking lot.

So we spent the time figuring out what we needed to adjust to get to OH by the Friday deadline. Where we wanted to be by the “end of the day”. Our original plan was to be in Rapid City, SD, but we knew that wasn’t going to happen, so we had to come up with a new plan.

By the time we rolled out, we figured to target Cheyenne, WY for tonight’s stop. We didn’t want to be in Denver as we figured Cheyenne was closer to where we wanted to be and lodging would probably be less expensive than Denver.

So, we headed off toward Cheyenne, WY… A much more manageable approximately 350 mile journey vs the much longer drive to Rapid City, SD or the 808 mile drive the night before.

Went by our hotel as we headed East.

Then the Colorado drive. The drive to Glenwood Springs is a fairly mild climb and through “Colorado Wine Country”. We didn’t stop to try any Colorado Wines, because, namely, we’re in a drive and drinking and driving doesn’t really mix well.

The drive was interesting, but not the most memorable one for Colorado, that’s upcoming.

Glenwood Springs Supercharger

We made it to the Glenwood Springs supercharger as the fourth car there…

We spoke with a local who just took delivery of an 85D a few months earlier and just getting a “top up” with his wife in between their kid’s Little League games and he was full of local information. There was another car that parked beside ours, but she took off soon after we got there.

The one car that hung out with us was an experienced Colorado owner that was on his way to Santa Barbara. He gave us a piece of advice that we’ve found to be invaluable since. We were discussing our relative difficulty of finding superchargers using Tesla’s navigation and he told us his trick for new charging locations. He turns on the satellite view, and zooms in. This gives him the perspective of what the area looks like from space and gives a better way of finding the superchargers with less challenge than using the map view.

The Glenwood Springs location is another location that had at least one hotel attached to it. So, if you need to rest on your journey, it is good to identify the superchargers with hotels next to it. Glenwood Springs has a Courtyard and a Residence Inn adjacent to it.

Additionally, you will note the huge cones that are at this location. Apparently this has been the only proven way to minimize supercharger ICEing. So, if you arrive at this location and the cones are in the way, do not fret. Chances are the superchargers are operational.

Before rolling off, the view of the mountain behind the Residence Inn is quite spectacular, so take the opportunity to look behind it. There is also a community garden that seemed to be well taken care off in that vicinity as well.

Off we go toward Silverthorne, CO. This drive was stunning not only in the natural beauty but also in the engineering that was executed to create the split highway with the upper level going Westbound and the lower level that was headed Eastbound.

Some of the Colorado cities and towns along the way were quite picturesque.

Additionally, there was still snow in the beginning of May! Yes, you read correctly, there is still snow on the ground.

One can still ski those runs, with beater skis, but still ski them.

Really beautiful snow covered Rockies!

And soon after that, we’re in Silverthorne.

Silverthorne Supercharger

Silverthorne is a different matter than Glenwood Springs. We arrived at this Outlet Mall location as the stores had either closed or were closing.

Another eight supercharger location at an outlet mall this time.

The outlet stores may be closed, but Chipotle is still open. So, if you need food, or other things, they’re normally open until late.

Here is the view of the superchargers from Chipotle. It’s an easy walk without snow or weather, but then again, I’m from Southern California, so not really the best judge of how far this walk will be in winter weather.

Heading into Cheyenne, Wyoming…

A really blurry Wyoming State Line. Probably a good idea to go to sleep when the state line looks this blurry.

Hampton Inn Cheyenne Wyoming

Checked into the hotel with 100 miles Rated Range. It’s amazing to get a 305 Wh per mile for the day through the Rockies. That’s better than what we get in SoCal without the elevation changes.

Go on to Day 3. Click here.

Here, There, and EVerywhere – Day 01

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

A few weeks prior to the start of our trip, a bunch of Teslas decided to get together at Ocean City, MD for the third annual Tesla Road Trip. These folks were the same group that set out to debunk the controversial NY Times Supercharging hack job that was written early in the Model S launch.

We wanted to join them, but didn’t have the time to do so at their event. However, this was without much consternation and effort to plan a Coast-to-Coast U.S. Roundtrip. This is the first in a series of posts written about our trip that will be published four weeks to the day of the trip.

Day 1 – Drive on Saturday, May 2, 2015

Aside from the pre-trip planning that I wrote about in the previous post there were some things we wanted to do and document before we leave home.

How clean the car is (because, we don’t expect it to stay that way throughout the trip)

And what the car statistics are… i.e.

The car’s mileage at departure is 34,697 miles and the Rated Range at 90% daily charge was 229 miles (didn’t do a Max charge for the start of the trip, but it has been around 254 to 255 miles the last time that we did.) Additionally, our average consumption since the factory has gone back to 308 Wh per mile

Figured to also use the Trip meters on the car for additional logging. So, we logged that Trip A is used from the statistics since we picked up the car at the factory. We will reset Trip B and used that for the current daily totals. And the automated Since Last Charge is exactly that. Which means, plug it in for a few minutes, and that counter resets back to zero.

Additionally, we also were approached by our friends at teslarati.com to help with the beta version of the (now released) Teslarati App for the iPhone. Namely, help fill out the information for each spot as we get to it with hints. We committed to at least including a photograph for the site.

So, what is our route… Today? or in general? The answer is complicated. But, to map out scenarios, we used the EV Trip Planner website to help map out guidelines and what we could expect on this trip. So, we figured to use that as a draft and we plotted our trip.

So, to answer the question. The goal for the trip, at least in the immediate plan, was to make it to Grand Junction, CO for the evening. Furthermore, we wanted to be around Akron, OH by Friday, May 8, but felt confident that we could be there by Tuesday evening, so figured that we would go all the way to New Jersey and be back in Akron, OH by Friday and then head back to the East Coast on Sunday, May 10. Since we figured that all plans have to be flexible as to the situation, I only made two other hotel reservations after Grand Junction, CO. They are, Sunday evening to be in Rapid City, SD and Madison, WI on Monday evening and not much else until we got on the road.

EV Trip Planner advised a stop at the Rancho Cucamonga Supercharger, but we’ve done the drive to Las Vegas and back before (as Southern California residents often do) and decided to just charge to 90% and roll out around 9am.

Of course as we rolled out of home on our trip, we realized that May 2nd may not have been the best day to travel toward Las Vegas. There are a ton of sports going on this day.

1) The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight was going on in Vegas.
2) Game 7 of the first Round NBA series between the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs
3) The Kentucky Derby

There may have been something else, but I forget. So, we rolled out anyway, with the expectation of traffic for these sporting events.

Barstow Supercharger.

So, approximately 124 miles later…

We’re in Barstow. Well, that was easy.

A few changes have happened in Barstow since we were last here.

1) The construction of the additional 4 Superchargers was completed.

2) The location now has a solar panel canopy over the original four stalls.

We arrived around 10:30 AM and Chili’s was closed until 11:00 AM. Had to use the “facilities”, so I went to the Country Inn and Suites on the other side of the parking lot and they graciously let me use the “facilities”.

Since we were still on a familiar part of our trip, we figured that we would test out the “Beta” Navigation through superchargers option that was rolled out as part of the latest Over the Air (OTA) Firmware upgrade

One of the things it does is when you plug in, it gives you an estimate in time of how long to charge so that you get enough to continue your journey. Additionally, the latest version of the software also gives an estimate (while supercharging) of the time it will take to get to full.

With the latest release, the system will let you know when it thinks that you’re ready to go. It pops up with this message:

We didn’t unplug right away, we added a few more miles, of “just in case miles”.

While waiting at Barstow, we met this nice couple from Nevada on their way to California. They made some recommendations on the route and we made a note of their advice. They had a nice white Model S with some Carbon Fiber wrap on it.

So, we rolled out toward Primm, NV with the recommended charge plus a small buffer and went merrily on our way.

Even R2-D2 was happy…

That is, until we saw the following message:

So, we thought… That’s not a good sign. So, we slowed down. Experts have noted that 62 miles per hour is the “ideal” mix of travel speed and “refuel” time to optimize time spent “moving forward” with “stopped and charging.” We were going a bit faster than that.

My wife, who was driving at the time, did what we do when we need to “eek out” those miles and found a slower moving, larger vehicle. (Now this was easier back when we drove the Active E, a LOT easier in the Roadster, not so much in a Model S.) However, being the experienced EV driver that she is, we did fine.

So, she picked a few trailers, big rigs, and campers to get behind and the differential in what our expected State of Charge (SOC) on reaching Primm, NV will be. The nasty “slow down” message went away, but the feeling that it gave stayed behind. That is, until we hit some “traffic.”

We never did hit the “now” expected traffic for the “sports” day for Las Vegas betting, but between Baker and Primm, NV, there was some traffic and we crawled to a stop. Now the beta software wanted us to slow down, but we were STOPPED.

and we were operating with the margin that we added on top of the beta Navigation recommendations (plus a few miles that we added ourselves) so we did what any experienced EV users would do and lightened the accessory load on the car and turned off air conditioning, unplugged all devices and waited until the traffic cleared.

We passed the time by taking nice pictures out of the window.

(as well as re-thinking our initial plan of following the Beta software.) Part of me was wondering if our trip was over before it even began at this point. (not going to lie to you, it was tense in the car, my better half wanted to go with our “usual” buffer of at least 40 miles, if not more, and I wanted to give the Beta a “chance”.)

Needless to say, after this “experiment” we went back to our “regular” method of adding at least 40-60 miles to the range. (since we’re on vacation and decided to have the option to “go off trail” we upped this to 100 miles, where possible, i.e. where the range to the next SC is lesser than 155 miles away.)

The downhill ride toward Primm, NV had a lot of regeneration on it that we were gaining rated miles as we neared it. Took some fun shots of the rather impressive Solar Farm that was built and activated recently at the California and Nevada borders.

Additionally, there were some folks that were enjoying the desert that fine Saturday. Now, if they used an EV to bring their land yachts/sand yachts then they could have been powered by all renewable energy. One could only hope. But considering the number of folks who bring ATVs, and the like, have to be thankful for those enjoying the desert with wind power instead.

Primm Supercharger

So, our next stop was at “the Border”. Primm, NV has been a popular Southern California to Vegas or back stop for as long as I’ve been an “adult” and it’s gone through a bust to boom to bust cycle. The superchargers are located in the edge of the parking lot near McDonald’s and the gas station. There are a total of eight superchargers there and there are “lots” to do in the area.

The Primm Valley Casino and Resort has a factory outlet mall attached to it for those that do not feel like gambling or “gaming” as they call it.

Needless to say, with the challenge that we faced with the drive from Barstow and leaving with less than what we’re comfortable with, my wife had to be very efficient in her Model S drive, and as you can see, she was. Averaging 292 Wh per mile on a series of climbs and descents is pretty impressive.

As you can see, our 40 mile “regular” buffer would not have been enough.

So, this is where we decided to really just go ahead and up our buffer for this trip and not worry about it again. The algorithm that Tesla has created are for those that can follow the car and be as efficient as it wants them to be, but we’re not in a rush, and we’re on a vacation, for crying out loud.

Las Vegas Supercharger

The Las Vegas Supercharger is only 44 miles away from the Primm Supercharger. Not really worth a stop. But, when heading into Utah, and after our “experiment”, we both agreed to get a supercharge “security” charge in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Supercharger is in the middle of Downtown Las Vegas, in a “sketchy” part of town.

As “sketchy” as the location is, it is quite busy. But like superchargers in the LA area, there are a lot of folks getting charge here.

However, like in most urban superchargers, we all pretty much stayed in our cars and didn’t socialize with the other Model S charging at the location.

I was surprised to enter Arizona on the way to Utah, didn’t really think about it. But get camera ready as the canyon passes in the 15 are very iconic West

St George Supercharger

So, the first supercharger stop outside of our “normal” range of travel is the supercharger in St. George, UT. This supercharger is different from others in that the location is deep within the city and further off the highway. Now, if we used the app from teslarati.com that we were beta testing or the fairly reliable plugshare app, it would’ve mentioned the Starbucks prominently, but we used the in-car navigation and it gets a little confusing to find superchargers in that way.

Regardless, we found the chargers.

I would advise those that are backing into these chargers to be wary, as the curb is a hazard and they really should put air suspension on “high” as one backs into the spots. Additionally, the Starbucks drive-through is in front of these chargers, so watch out for the curving curb of the drive-through.

You can see the curved Starbucks curve here.

This next shot is one of our favorite ones and have shared it on a few forums and Twitter. It’s as close to nature as we’ve been on the trip, so far. There’s a thread on teslamotorsclub.com called Model S Nature Pictures that I was hoping to post a few of our pictures in.

The Tesla beta navigation recommend a very limited stop, however, we recommend a longer one because you get 75- 80 mph speed limit on the drive to Beaver. The inclines feel steep and we’re pretty inefficient in wh use, but a lot of fun to go Zoom, if you ditch Tesla’s recommended charging pattern. Additionally, Utah has some of the highest speed limits and MANY motorists tend to go faster.

Beaver Supercharger

Now, the navigation had us going to Beaver next and skipping Richfield, but, we had a heck of a day so far, so decided to hit both. Boy, was I glad to. The Beaver Supercharger had a Dairy Queen and one of the first ones to have a car wash adjacent to it. So, if you feel like washing your car, this would be a good stop.

Trying to keep up with the speed limit at 80 mph, and a climb will yield a higher than normal average usage of 367 Wh per mile.

However, stopping at this location can reward the traveler with Dairy Queen Ice Cream…

So…

What can I say? I haven’t had DQ in a while.

Richfield Supercharger

The next stop at Richfield has a brand new Holiday Inn Express at the location. We made a mental note of how friendly the staff was when I went inside to use the “facilities” and decided to swap driving duties at this location. The better half has been driving all day, and it’s my turn to drive.

581.5 miles of driving and the stress between Barstow and Primm, I got lucky with finding my wife and partner-in-crime. 😉

If we had not already booked a hotel in Grand Junction, CO I would’ve proposed that we stop at Richfield, UT. However, we had booked a hotel in Grand Junction, CO and pressed on.

Green River Supercharger

Now the next stop was a bit stressful because it was another of those locations that was difficult to find. Even harder in the dark. The four supercharging stations of the Green River UT Supercharger are in a dark parking lot of the John Wesley Powell River History Museum.

Another one of those locations that we had to use plugshare.com to find the location.

We arrived here around 2:00 AM and boy were we tired. I took a quick cat-nap while charging, while my wife stayed awake.

Doubletree Grand Junction CO

So, looking at our mileage and distance from our hotel, made us decide to drive directly to our hotel in Grand Junction for the evening.

The hotel looked like a beacon in the desert and we decided to stop for the night.

Parked the car with full 89 miles of range left and turned the car to full sleep mode (turned off the “always connected” option) as we turned in ourselves.

And the promise of “Doubletree cookies” at the end of this very, very long 808 mile day.

Go on to Day 2. Click here.

Been quiet around here… Orlando EVs? Not so much. I did spot a Zenith Electric Van!

I was a little bummed when the teslamotorsclub.com announced that TMC Connect was going to be this past weekend. You see, we’ve planned an extended family trip with my in-laws and nieces and nephew to Orlando prior to this announcement and it’s hard to coordinate several families to begin with that I was forced to enjoy the festivities with the coverage by @BonnieNorman, Joe Pasqua, @Lanny, Teslarati, @TeslaRoadtrip, and others on Twitter…

The only saving grace was I thought I would be able to reserve and use an EV from @DriveElecOrl, but that turned out to be a bust. I randomly checked their website for the few months leading up to the trip to see if a vehicle had made itself available. Alas, that didn’t happen and I was forced to ICE the trip.

Now, we chose a location that was close to our destinations around the park so as to minimize our driving. Ended up with only 126 ICE miles for the seven days that we were in Orlando, easily doable by an EV with Level 1 (120V) charging. In fact, I was disappointed to having taken until the last day at the airport before I saw an EV (either BEV or PHEV). Luckily it was an interesting one.

Kudos to Doubletree Orlando Airport on using Zenith Motors Electric Vans for at least one hotel shuttle. I’ll have to read more about these vans, but it looks like it had a J1772 port on the rear passenger side [confirmed: J1772 port and published 90-100 mile range per Zenith Motors website]. I will update this post with more pictures when I land as I am currently drafting this post on an airplane. [UPDATED with all my photos 7/23 8:15 PM Pacific / 7/24 03:15 UTC.]

If I ever have to stay by MCO, I now have a hotel to choose… Besides, I’m partial to Hilton family of hotels. Because EV Supporting hotels should be supported, their website and their phone number is 407-856-0100

Vegas Baby, Vegas

In honor of Swingers… Vegas Baby, Vegas.

A week ago was a rite of passage for my EV ownership experience. (Not that I’ve driven any longer than my first weekend with the Model S that I wrote about on my blog a few months ago (start here).) The first was our Model S just passed our Roadster for total miles on the odometer and the second is the somewhat of a Southern California driver tradition to “drive to Vegas” as a young adult. The Sin City drive is one that a lot of my contemporaries did as they turned 21 and most still do. As I’m not nearly as young as I have been, this was a trip I normally would have taken an airplane to, after all I’m about 300 miles from home to Las Vegas.

With some published reports of all these new chargers installed on the Las Vegas Strip coupled with hanging out with more environmentally conscious folks have provided me with a little bit of eco-conscience, so, I figured to try driving EV all the way to Vegas for this conference. Besides’ there is nothing that convinces a Southern California driver more that a vehicle is a worthy one than a positive answer to the question “can I take the car to Vegas”.

Basically, yes… You can take it to Vegas, and refuel in Barstow (like most do). However, your “fuel” is free, courtesy of the Tesla Supercharger installed there. So, drove about 120 miles to Barstow with some wicked elevation changes that was the draining part on the battery.

Barstow supercharger pictures in a beautiful sunny day in the California desert.

The location in Barstow, was tough to find, it’s behind the Chili’s Restaurant and beside a hotel. So, if you arrive there during a meal service, pop in and have something to eat.

Since we did this drive during the day, we got to see the new Solar Plant that was installed on the California side of the border with Nevada. It’s a cool side-note to see the installation of this facility. The last time I did this drive was approximately two years ago and did not notice these plants the last time.

We arrived in Vegas after another 160 mile drive with even more wicked ascents (with consumption above 530 wh/mile) with corresponding descents that recovered some of the charge back with the regenerative braking. My back of the napkin calculation had me lose about 30 miles of range on the ascent and recover about 10 miles on the regenerative braking.

The superchargers in Downtown Las Vegas was in a covered garage in a commercial part of the city. No casinos close by, so saved money by not gambling.

Here are the stats for the LA to Vegas portion of the trip.

We decided to supercharge in Downtown Las Vegas because we arrived in town with only eighty miles on the tank and several days of Vampire Load ahead of us, figured to get some charge back into the car and let park the Model S unplugged at self parking.

On the first day of check in, I didn’t notice that I walked by a construction site that was installing two Chargepoint J1772 EVSEs at my hotel. I was aware that Valet Parking had NEMA 14-50 outlets installed which are ideal for Tesla Roadsters and Model S to charge with (as well as any standard EV that decided to purchase a portable EVSE with this capability). However, I decided to park in self parking when we first checked into the hotel.

On the second day, I had to get something from the car, and noticed the construction site that I obliviously walked right beside the previous day and took some quick snapshots of the installation of some new Chargepoint CT-4023 dual head/single circuit 6.67kw shared J1772 chargers.

I remember reading about these new chargers from Chargepoint and this display clued me into the fact that these newer Chargepoint CT4000 series EVSEs split the power from 32A to 16A when both ports are used. In my experience, the older dual head Chargepoints, the power is 30-32A to each port.

The next day, I decided to contact Aria Guest Services to see if I would be able to use the chargers and were told that I may. On my way to move my Model S and plug in, I met with the Manager for High Voltage services (in their Facilities group) and was in charge of all the EV facilities for the resort and he mentioned that he had a lot of NEMA 14-50 installed in Valet Parking for EVs to use. Most folks that pack their own NEMA 14-50 drive Teslas (Roadsters and Model S use the same port) or use the modified ones from Tony Williams (the JESLA) and now with the release of the Clipper Creek portable EVSEs, other EV drivers can as well.

Since I’m a geek, and more importantly an EV geek, I figured to provide some assistance with testing out these Chargepoint stations. I first plugged into one of the units at full 30A draw and got GFCI a few minutes later. I moved the vehicle and plugged into the other one, and got the same error.

I decided to do something that Teslas do well, but other EVs don’t seem to have readily available and drew down my Amperage request from less than what the pilot was sending. I started the draw at 16A and the EVSE began to work. It projected an eight hour charging session. So, I decided to kick it up to 24A and that continued to work. After I had successfully started the charge at 16A-24A, I did what any responsible EV driver should do and added the station on Plugshare.

After my last meeting, but before the end of my charge station, I decided that I’ve had enough of being in one resort for a few days that I took the car out to see the rest of Vegas for my third evening in town. When I got back to the car I noticed that the car stopped charging and had a Red Fault on the unit and not just a soft GFCI fault (as was earlier) so I reported the fault to the Aria Facilities Manager. I gave him my telephone number. I also gave him as much detail as I could and went to the rest of the town.

One of my other stops in my Vegas trip was to have dinner at the Wynn Hotel and Casino because I figured that the food would be good. Additionally, it was reported that the Wynn Valet would also charge any EV as long as it had a J1772 outlet. Luckily the Model S has an adapter for this and I decided to try them out. One of my favorite games to play with the Model S that the Active E didn’t do was collect “charging spots” on the Navigation. The Model S will put a dot on your Navigation map in all the spots that the car has stopped to charge. It also will store the profile of the type/speed of charge that it encountered at that location. I wanted to populate my Model S visited chargers map with multiple locations in Las Vegas and the Wynn did not disappoint. Though the chargers were J1772, they were full speed 40A ones that would help higher charge vehicles such as the Model S, Roadster, and 2nd Generation Toyota RAV 4 EVs.

While I was out and about in Las Vegas, the Aria Facilities Manager called and told me that both he and Chargepoint needed to do some further testing and repair of the J1772 chargers in Self Parking, and advised that I should use the Valet parking facilities instead. On the wire side of the chargers, he was seeing some “noise” and needed to isolate and clear it so that the Chargepoint chargers would be fully operational. Since we were leaving for home the next day, and wanted to maximize my charge, I did as he requested and parked the vehicle at Valet Parking. The attendants at the Main Valet knew of the Model S and asked if I had my charging bag in the car and I replied affirmatively. I didn’t actually park and charge the car myself, so I took screen shots of what my Tesla App showed.

Before

After (Max charge ’cause we’re driving home on checkout)

Apparently the Valet Parking is directly underneath the main casino complex.

The last day of the conference was just a morning session, so around noon we left the resort and headed out of town. Since this was a travel Wednesday, decided to take a slower pace home. Stopped off at a few casinos that had no chargers (and thus won’t get a mention here) then made the “run to the border.” Both Chargepoint and Plugshare identified a 30A charger at Whiskey Pete’s at Primm, NV.

It was a legacy CT2000 Series dual head J1772 charger at 30A a side with the B side as constantly reported as “failed.” I was lucky enough to have been the only EV around, so I took the port and charged up the car for the drive home.

The irony of having a Chargepoint charger located right beside the gasoline (petrol) station was not lost on me, and I took this shot because it illustrated this best.

It was interesting to note that our rated range was within five miles of our home from the time that we left the border. Understanding the elevation changes ahead of us in our trip coupled with my lead foot we made the decision to stop at the Barstow Supercharger again.

The speed of the charge was enough for us to do a quick stop so that we can continue quickly.

I tweeted this picture commenting how nicely the darkness makes the Model S look a lot cleaner than it actually was.

Our stats at the return stop in Barstow.

We headed back home from Barstow and the descents were definitely more than the ascents on the way to Vegas.

Our ending stats for the entire trip.

So, the Southern California native typical question of “Can you take the car to Vegas?” is a resounding “YES!” and the fuel cost is $0.