Road Trips

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SageBrush said:
No so.
The car has to be able to take the high power, and for long enough to make a difference.
Charging rates and capacity you think are worse boasting about right now, would be paltry "nothing to talk about" in the near future. It is just the beginning, there was no any break through yet.
 
Charging rates and capacity you think are worse boasting about right now, would be paltry "nothing to talk about" in the near future.
I understand that many of you folks post here using a phone and voice to text, but could you possibly proofread your posts a bit before sending them? They often get garbled fairly badly...
 
Leaf15 said:
...As opposed to adequacy of driving car on highway for long hours is as exciting as watching paint dry? Some folks are caught in the hype bubble, when they get exciting about upcoming visit to son's family because they need to use 30 charing stations? not spending all this extra time with him, this adequacy?
You are projecting your own feelings and opinions on others and then grading them? That is seriously disturbed behavior. I'm done, welcome to "ignore."
 
dgpcolorado said:
You are projecting your own feelings and opinions on others and then grading them? That is seriously disturbed behavior. I'm done, welcome to "ignore."
Sorry pal, but I did not ask you about my feelings or opinions. Stay on topic , as you did not add anything to the discussion. Those "adequate" posts speak up a volume about posters and their "adequacy".
 
Since the mods saw fit to create a "Road Trips" thread it seems appropriate to include an actual road trip:

Just got back from a long-planned road trip to Oregon, Vancouver Island BC and Yellowstone National Park. Sixteen days and 4752 miles. The goals of the trip were:

•A routine visit with family in Oregon.
•To visit The Butchart Gardens in Victoria BC, a place I haven't been since I was 12 years old.
•A visit to Tofino, a beach town on the west coast of Vancouver Island and quite different from my longtime home in the rural Colorado mountains. (By the way, I grew up on the beach in Hawai'i, being fifth generation Hawaiian-born.)
•A visit to Yellowstone National Park, for the first time in thirty years (the year after the fires), in part to see how the plants are recovering.
•A chance to "collect" more Supercharger Stations for my list and join the "century club" of Tesla drivers that have Supercharged at 100 different Supercharger Stations.

Some pictures from the trip:


^ Leaving Port Angeles WA on the ferry.


^ I was the second to last "wait list" car to get on board the ferry, which made for a nice picture of my car at the back of the ship's hold.

In Victoria I camped at an RV park just outside of the city. I had a blast driving the curving, narrow roads in the hills around Victoria in the rain: many kilometers of roads with no straight sections nor any level sections at all, with traffic moving at twice the 30 km/h speed limit. Put my well-honed Colorado mountain driving skills to the test! I got a chance to visit The Butchart Gardens, a goal of the trip. It was raining but they supply umbrellas to visitors, a nice touch. The rain did stop while I was there and the gardens were well worth the visit and cost. A couple of pictures that barely scratch the surface of the gardens:




I spent three nights at Ocean Village Resort on Mackenzie Beach in Tofino BC. The resort had EV charging:


^ The charging included a Clipper Creek J1772 and a Tesla EVSE. This was necessary for me to get my small battery S-60 back to the Nanaimo BC Supercharger Station. (As some here already know, Tesla supplies these charge stations to hotels and other destinations for free — yes, even the Clipper Creek J1772 for all EVs to use.)


^ Mackenzie Beach at Tofino. I lucked out with the weather and had sun my first day and just a few brief rain showers the second day, albeit with grey skies. It was sunny again the morning I left for Vancouver so I took another long walk on the beach before heading back to Nanaimo for the ferry.


^ High tide.

^Low tide — it was quite a change!

I managed to collect some Supercharger Stations in the Vancouver area, including Whistler and Squamish; the latter is a town on a fijord at the base of a glacial cliff with a waterfall and the geology is reminiscent of Yosemite. Very scenic. It took more than 80 minutes to cross the border back to the USA since I don't have a Nexus pass. Of course I chose the wrong line: if you head south toward the border at Vancouver and don't have a pass for the Nexus line, be sure to stay in the left lane — it gets easier access to more border kiosks.

From the border I managed to collect Supercharger Stations in NW Washington. It was weird driving in British Columbia and NW Washington because my car was the only "exotic" license plate I saw. Every other car I saw for five days was from BC or WA. It is completely different at home in Colorado and Utah, where I routinely see plates from many states and Canadian provinces.

On the way to Yellowstone NP I stopped at Snoqualmie Falls in Washington:


Supercharging at Superior MT:

^ This was my 100th different Supercharger Station, making me the 58th member of the "century club" at TMC. I ended up with 110. That's a far cry from the game leader, who has 695 last I checked!

In Yellowstone I had miserable weather, which I suppose helped me reserve a campsite since they had been full a week earlier. Rather than camp in freezing wet weather in a tent I just slept in my warm and dry car. I was at Madison campground in the park which is nicely laid out and has heated rest rooms. The morning I arrived I saw a grizzly and two cubs cross the road right in front of my car a few feet from the campground entrance. Headed toward the campground! I later learned from a campground receptionist that rangers had intercepted the grizzlies and convinced them to go elsewhere. One reason I chose Madison campground, the largest in Yellowstone with 238 spaces, is that I figured I'd be safer from bears in a bigger "herd" of campers!


^ My car will easily hold a full length air mattress for sleeping in the car, something I routinely do at RV parks and highway rest areas. The hatchback makes getting in and out very easy.

Some Yellowstone pictures:


^Bison at Yellowstone. The calves were quite frisky.

^Level 2 charging at Mammoth Hot Springs, just to check it out. There are several L2 charging options in the area according to Plugshare. Most of my charging was at the West Yellowstone Supercharger Station. A reason I chose the Madison campground was that it was closest to West Yellowstone, so I could easily charge up in the morning before exploring the park.

^ Lower Geyser Basin

^ Meadow and bison

^ Bison jam on the road. I ended up stopped for about fifteen minutes before a ranger managed to haze the bison herd off the road, after several unsuccessful tries. Yes, that's fresh snow on the trees. On May 20th. Did I say "miserable weather?"

^ Emerald Spring.

^ Yellowstone Canyon.

^ Lower Yellowstone Falls.

^ Of course, a picture of Old Faithful Geyser, which was running a few minutes early on my visits.

Of interest to the "other EVs" forum at MNL, on this trip I saw my first ever Kia Niro, Jaguar iPace, and Hundai Kona EVs. We don't have them out in the boondocks where I live. I also saw hordes of LEAFs in Victoria BC and Portland OR, no surprise. The Kia Niro I saw at the Centralia WA Supercharger Station:

^ Brand new Kia Niro driver trying to plug-in to a Supercharger stall! After a couple of minutes she realized it wasn't going to work and drove off.

The Jaguar iPace and Hundai Kona I saw in Victoria BC. It was fun to see these rare EVs in person for the first time.

And, in answer to the question of how a solo driver manages to enjoy thousand mile road trips: I listen to audio books! It is something I've been doing since my ICE driving days and it makes long stretches of road more fun. I do have to turn the audio books off when dealing with traffic in cities because we don't have traffic where I live (or even multi-lane roads) so I have to concentrate on my driving and the other cars.
 
Nice photos. None of the grizzlies looking for a long pig breakfast? ;)

Since the mods saw fit to create a "Road Trips" thread it seems appropriate to include an actual road trip:

Few topics are created by Moderators, as any registered member can do it.
 
Great adventure! I am guessing the other guy did 650 stations at less locations? Didn't think there was that many SCs in North America
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Great adventure! I am guessing the other guy did 650 stations at less locations? Didn't think there was that many SCs in North America
According to supercharge.info/charts, as of May 2019 there are over 1500 SuperCharger stations with over 13,000 charging positions in the US alone. Quite possible to use over 650 stations. There is one member of the Tesla forums who logs well over 80,000 miles per year all over North America and is the person holding the record. No doubt he’s done at least that number of stations.

To @OP, thanks for sharing the details on your excellent trip!
 
LeftieBiker said:
Nice photos. None of the grizzlies looking for a long pig breakfast? ;)

Since the mods saw fit to create a "Road Trips" thread it seems appropriate to include an actual road trip:

Few topics are created by Moderators, as any registered member can do it.
While I am aware of how to create a thread, but almost never have done so, this thread was split off from the Model 3 thread as part of an off-topic discussion (not that there aren't hordes of off-topic discussions in that and other threads).
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Great adventure! I am guessing the other guy did 650 stations at less locations? Didn't think there was that many SCs in North America
That road warrior just nabbed his 700th different Supercharger Station yesterday, Del Mar Heights Rd in San Diego.

The main resource for monitoring the Supercharger network, besides Tesla's own map, is supercharge.info. According to that database, there are currently 726 open Supercharger Stations in North America, with lots more in permitting and construction, of course. There are 649 in the USA, which is 42% of the worldwide total.

It is possible to do the "century club" just in California nowadays. There are century club members in Europe as well.
 
Great trip report--and you did all that in an S60! That shows the utility of the Supercharger network. Musk got that right.

I remember early June in Yellowstone in '68. I was hitchhiking and had to sleep in one of those heated restrooms as we didn't have the gear for snow. ;)

Paul
 
dgpcolorado said:
^ This was my 100th different Supercharger Station, making me the 58th member of the "century club" at TMC. I ended up with 110. That's a far cry from the game leader, who has 695 last I checked!
Congratulations! Those are great pictures.
 
paulgipe said:
Great trip report--and you did all that in an S60! That shows the utility of the Supercharger network. Musk got that right.

I remember early June in Yellowstone in '68. I was hitchhiking and had to sleep in one of those heated restrooms as we didn't have the gear for snow. ;)

Paul
Hah! Back when I was a scoutmaster I had my entire troop sleep in the restroom at Grover Hot Springs S.P. in Markleeville sometime in the '80s. It was supposed to be a ski camping trip, but it rained all the way over Carson Pass and down to Markleeville. We were still hoping the temps would drop overnight and it would be safe to take them out to ski and camp, so slept in the bathroom to keep everyone from starting out with wet, heavy tents and gear the next day. Temps stayed in the high 30s or low forties the next day while it continued to rain/sleet with an occasional snow flurry, so we bagged the skiing, spent the morning soaking in the hot spring, and then drove over to Sorensen's resort and got a cabin for the rest of the weekend. Probably a good thing, as the senior scout responsible for the food planning had decided he was going to try and make fondue (on a backpacking stove), which would have been an ordeal by itself if done in a tent vestibule. The fondue was quite good, though!

Oh, and nice photos of DGP's trip. I've only been to Yellowstone once around '90, with a friend who'd worked there for a summer or two in the '70s or '80s, as he also wanted to see how the place was recovering from the '88 fires. Were the usual tourist idiots ignoring the risks and trying to pose themselves/their kids next to/on buffalo, or did the weather keep them away?

Can't say Yellowstone is really my kind of place, as I prefer to be above timberline so I can see long distances (we'd been backpacking in the Wind Rivers, and then spent a couple of days in the Tetons before Yellowstone), although I expect I'd like it a lot more in winter. , At least I would if they banned snowmobiles. They've apparently toned things down a bit since the bad old days:

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/22/239705610/new-rules-mean-more-and-cleaner-snow-mobiles-in-yellowstone
 
“Road Trip.” Interesting concept with varying definitions. Until I bought my LEAF, a road trip was a highway excursion to something new or to distant relatives or vacations to places we liked. That was with all of my many ICE vehicles over the years, and today also in my Model 3. When I got the LEAF back in early 2012 however, a road trip was anywhere I could go within 35 miles of my home charging station. At the time there were almost no L2 stations anywhere near me and absolutely zero L3 stations within several states. Today, even with many many more L2 and L3 charging stations, my LEAF road trip is anywhere I can go within 17 miles of my home charging station. So yeah, without changing the definition of “road trip,” the LEAF is def not road-trippable.
 
Well...there was the guy who drove the entire length of Africa in a Leaf. Now THAT was a road-trip!

But yeah, I agree in most part. My Leaf is my commuter and errand car. I take an ICE car for trans-continental journeys or honestly - most often these days - I will fly and borrow or rent at car at my destination.

On the other hand, I don't drive that much. I've put 5k miles on my ICE car in the last 2 years. A bunch of that is just because it needs to be driven periodically since it sits so much, so I try to take it on an errand every week or so. In that period, I've put 13k miles on my Leaf.
 
I have done 200+ mile "road trips" in one day on the Leaf... However, the purpose was not to reach a particular destination. If you need to get somewhere, your trip is insanely long on a standard Leaf. Since most chargers are only Level II, then you need to wait one hour of charging for every 30 miles of driving. Slow.

The trips were made were as an exercise in petroleum independence. And the excitement of the experience was to feel the Leaf cruising around in far away places. The fun was from leapfrogging and finding charger to charger in unknown places. I guess the fun was like a person having fun leapfrogging around the world in a small sailboat.... It cannot go long distances, but can make short hops..
 
Step up to a Leaf+ . In my SV, I have done back to back 350 mile days for some college visits with son (another set of back to back 250 mile days). I passed 242 miles on a charge on this last trip all freeway (you do need to watch your efficiency when traveling over 210-220 miles on a charge).
 
powersurge said:
I have done 200+ mile "road trips" in one day on the Leaf... However, the purpose was not to reach a particular destination. If you need to get somewhere, your trip is insanely long on a standard Leaf. Since most chargers are only Level II, then you need to wait one hour of charging for every 30 miles of driving. Slow.

The trips were made were as an exercise in petroleum independence. And the excitement of the experience was to feel the Leaf cruising around in far away places. The fun was from leapfrogging and finding charger to charger in unknown places. I guess the fun was like a person having fun leapfrogging around the world in a small sailboat.... It cannot go long distances, but can make short hops..
I get your point, but is a bad analogy.

A small sailboat can travel around the world, non-stop. Several have. Smallest I'm aware of was 21 feet, 6.5 meters.

https://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/elaine-bunting/mini-sailor-claims-record-8064

Food is the limiting factor, and a sizable fraction of what you need can be caught while you sail. Someone getting ready to try for the record smallest boat round the world non-stop.

http://www.yrvind.com/
 
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