Destination #2 Old Orchard Beach, Maine

I had a great time seeing everyone in the Buffalo area, love you Grace, Tom, Gordon, Dan and Traci! Shout out to Chris and Red, it was nice to meet you and I now have a new show I need to watch. LOL

The drive from Buffalo to Old Orchard Beach Maine was a great one, I stopped once in Syracuse, NY (think it was actually Lockport) and once in Lee, Mass. The Lockport charger was just off the highway at the Holiday Inn. The convention Center doors were unlocked so I was able to use the restroom, then I read a little bit of my book while I waited for the car to charge. Overall I was there for about 30 minutes.  I was the only car using the charge stop so I got full juice from the station. The entrance back onto the highway was right there at the stoplight to leave the parking lot, so this was a very easy stop to make. Actually easier than it would have been to go to a gas station up the road.

The charger at Lee, Mass has one nose-in spot which was great, I LOVE those spots! It was at a grocery store so I was able to grab some lunch and eat while I charged. I also took a short nap here b/c it was going to be a long session, about 50 minutes. I did have a friend when I woke up from my nap, a model S was parked a few spots away.  I had some friends at the Buffalo charger as well, there were three of us there so I thought two had to share the charge regardless. I was thankfully wrong about how the charge sharing worked though so we were all good. :-)

The weather was great and I made really good time on this part of the trip until I got to Boston. Traffic in Boston was atrocious. I was doing 17 mph in a 55 mph zone, and that was my top speed. It was mostly start & stop for an hour going around the city. On the plus side, this was the least stressful rush hour traffic/massive traffic jam I have ever been in thanks to Nik doing all the driving for me. Yay for autopilot! It did an excellent job of maintaining not only my position in traffic, but also my sanity. LOL It was really nice to not have to worry about gas/brake/gas/brake constantly and it handled it like a champ when people cut in between me and the car in front of me (I had my distance set at 7 seconds, I did actually end up making it 4 seconds for this part of the drive to keep the cut-ins from happening constantly).

I made it all the way to the house in Old Orchard Beach without having to charge again, despite being behind a car accident at one other point in addition to the Boston traffic delay. My friend (hey Shamus) met me in the driveway, helped unload the car, and got me plugged into his 10-30 wall outlet in the garage via an adapter. We dialed down the charge to 24 amps and let it go (if you don't manually dial it down you can start a fire since it is a non-tesla adapter b/c the car still thinks it is on a 14-50).  Charging this way was a bit slower than my home charger because of the lower power of the outlet, but we still charged up in about 8 hours, so overnight. I spent a couple of days of beach and games with my friend here in OOB (it really is a nice beach) and had a great relaxing time, all rested up to head out on the road again.  In the meantime, enjoy the beach!

Destination #1 Buffalo, NY area

Day 2 & 3 of the drive went smoothly with no issues. I went through torrential downpours near Louisville for about 45 minutes, so bad that people were pulled off the side of the road waiting it out. I thought about doing the same, but with the ceramic coating and the wipers on high I really could see just fine so I kept going, albeit at a slower pace (didn't trust that the other 2 people on the road could still see). Autopilot was fabulous, it saw the lanes and other cars without a problem, even in the hard rain. The car felt really good and still anchored to the highway.

I ended up getting to Akron about 6pm on day 2 (remember I went the extra 90ish minutes that first night b/c of the malfunctioning chargepoint station) and had heavy storms ahead of me if I continued, plus I couldn't find a good place to stop around the time I had planned to so I went ahead and stayed in Akron for the night. Since I got there early I decided to get a hotel and relax at the pool for a few hours before bed. For the record, a hotel is always my preference over the car-camping, I just couldnt find one near the station the night before, then at the final stop I didn't want to pay $100 for only half a nights sleep.  So, the hotel.... I was at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn - love this hotel! They have a really nice outdoor pool and a fabulous indoor pool and hot tub. They also have a fitness center, restaurant (expensive- it IS a Hilton) and several really nice outdoor seating areas along with a courtyard pond complete with a family of ducks. I used the pool areas for several hours before bed and found the water in the pool to be the perfect temperature and the water in the hot tub not too hot. The doors to the outside open to let in a breeze or close off when it is cooler outside, a really nice setup! Clean room, comfy bed, nice staff, couldn't ask for a better place.

When I arrived the front desk was really excited, they had just recently installed their 4 Tesla destination chargers along with 1 or 2 J1772 chargers on site between the Hilton and the Double Tree so I was the first person to ask to use them. They told me where to look, just around the corner from the entrance so a convenient location, but when I drove over all of the spots were ICED (gas cars parked in them). I let the front desk guys know and they took down my cell and room number and said they would find someone to move and block off a spot for me. They apologized profusely and "just can't believe people would not pay attention." I explained this actually happens a lot (if you are guilty please stop doing it- it is like an EV blocking a gas pump) and assured them it would be fine as long as I could plug in before I go to bed. I also gently suggested some better signage and that they not share the spots with general restaurant parking (the signs actually still say restaurant parking instead of EV parking). It only took about 20 minutes for them to call me to let me know I could move so I grabbed the umbrella and went to go move the car and plug in (not sure the logic in the umbrella since I went straight to the pool when I got back inside and even used the outdoor pool some since there was no lightning) lol.  Anyway, the ICE problem was resolved very quickly by the staff so no problem at all for me and I woke up with a full charge and ready to go again.

When I left the hotel, I made the short drive to my friend's house (hey Grace/Tom) to stay for a few days. I had an uneventful last few hours on the road and other than that first non-Tesla charger mishap at the unnamed dealership in Evansville, the trip has been super easy to make.  It has taken a little longer than it would have in a gas car, but not by much. My time on the road in the EV was just under 17 hours.  The average time it used to take in a gas car was 14-16 hours depending on how long we stopped for meals (and if my sister is driving or not). With the EV I just ate while I charged so, even using a best-case drive time for the gas car, charging still only added about 2 1/2 hours to the total trip time for this leg.

Summary
So far this trip I have gone a total of 1117 miles with an overall efficiency of 96%, charged at Tesla superchargers and destination chargers (remember the non-Tesla charger didn't work), had the air & seat heaters on for part of the drive due to it being in the upper 50's to low 60's for a while in the morning (seriously- it was JUST 103 degrees and needed the A/C, gotta love the midwest), plus had the front and rear defrosters on during the rain.  Comparable cost of gas to make this part of the drive  would have been $127.28. What was my actual total fuel cost for this part of the trip? Wait for it..... I have spent $8.20 on electricity.  Not bad! :-)

I will jump back on later, for now I will leave you with pictures of the pond and ducks :-)

always have a backup plan (and the car outlasts me on the road)

Disclaimer: I won't make a habit of posting every day, just every few days, but I woke up early today because I needed to use the restroom so I'm going to throw a post out there while I wait the last 30 minutes of charge time.  I don't really need the juice to get to the next stop, but it's free and I don't like to cut it close on power (you will see why this is a good thing below- skip to the last paragraph if you want to just read that part) so I might as well.

Yesterday's numbers actually came in really good. I went 208.9 miles and used 209 miles worth of energy- that is 100% efficiency at highway speeds. The speed limit on that stretch of road was 70mph. I had my car navigation on and when I got to the St Charles supercharger I still had just under 100 miles left on the battery. Range anxiety? What's that? :-) Oh AND that 100% efficiency at 70 mph was also in the RAIN! I hit some pretty heavy downpours 3 times and some good long supersoaking medium rains twice.

Side note- shout out to www.kcelitecarcare.com for my crystal serum ceramic coating- I only used the windshield wipers twice the whole trip because the water just sheeted right off!

I skipped the Columbia supercharger because I was going to have 25% battery left in St Charles and knew where I was going. This brings me to another side note- the tesla trips app has you stopping more often than the in-car navigation does. The in-car navigation will let you run pretty low on juice before it stops you to fill up again, but you can adjust your stops yourself by adding charge stops to the route anyway.

I mentioned in the title that the car outlasts me on the road- this is because I seriously had to pee when I stopped in St Louis at the supercharger. LOL I didn't want to make a special stop just for a bathroom break. I really needed to stop and the car could have kept going another 90 miles! When I got close I called up a friend to see if he wanted to grab dinner while I charged. (Hey Frut!) He met up with me at the supercharger and we ate at a place called Smash Burger that was literally right there- never heard of it but the burgers were fabulous and their fries covered in garlic and herbs were to die for! We chatted for a while then went for a short ride before I topped off and then left for the next half of the drive. I was planning to end up in Evansville Indiana. Note I said planning to....

Now for the "I'm sooooo glad I'm a planner" part. LOL

I had stopped for a boost between St Charles and Evansville even though the in-car nav said I didn't need to. Why did I stop? Because it also said I would have about 5% battery left when I arrived. That is cutting it too close for comfort for me. Turns out, I'm glad I did, because I actually stayed in a little town called Jasper Indiana instead! (shout out to LittlD from M3OC forums for letting me know about this little gem) The Evansville stop was a chargepoint charger, not a Tesla charger, so I was plugging in overnight. I called to make sure it was going to be available AND that it was ok to use it b/c it was at a car dealership that will remain unnamed (you can google it or look on the CP app though). Anyway, I got there and the station was not working. I tried a few times on my own, then broke down and called chargepoint. The station would not connect to the car or to the CP network so they couldn't get it started either. They were very apologetic and going to investigate. Fabulous.

Good thing there is a plan B- off to Jasper and the Tesla destination charger in the parking lot between the Schnitzlebank restaurant and the Hampton Inn. That is an extra 59 miles (1 hour and 11 minutes at 1130 at night for those of you wondering) to get me to a working charger. 5% battery on my 310 mile range car is 15.5 miles. See now why it's good to make the extra boost stop? I made it here though with no problem, 7% battery left (about 20 miles) at 1230 for me (time change meant really it was 1:30) and the charger worked. Yay! Starting off with adventure already! LOL I have one more CP stop tonight, the rest are all Tesla stations so hopefully no more issues with non-working chargers. Overall efficiency was 98%!

Car camping :-)

*edit: I did look at the chargepoint app a bit closer later and realized that I had the "free" filter selected and there were other places I could have plugged in at in Evansville had I removed the "free" filter. Sigh. I wish I would have noticed that sooner! LOL

and.... I'm off!

It's time to leave, setting off on the road for the first leg of the trip. I have about a 7 hour drive ahead of me including charge time. I contacted the location for my overnight charge to make sure it will be available, Nik is all sparkly clean, and am all packed up so I'm as ready as I will ever be.

The first 3(ish) days are on the road. For my friends at the first stop, see you this weekend!

I'm excited to get going so, without further ado, off we go!

The Plan- 19 days on the road in an electric vehicle!

Hey guys, I am starting this blog because I am about to embark on an exciting adventure, driving across the country in an electric vehicle! :-) 

I'm thrilled to have finally gotten my Model 3 about 6 weeks ago, and officially joined the electric vehicle (EV) community.  I am now doing more of my part to reduce my carbon footprint (plus it is just really dang fun to drive) woohoo!  I have gotten used to all the ins and outs that make it different from an ICE car (stands for "internal combustion engine" or a gas engine car) and am now preparing for a long road trip in "Nik" to visit friends all throughout northeastern North America. For this trip I will be spending almost 3 weeks on the road, covering ~4200 miles.  Subscribe and stay tuned for my upcoming blog of day 1! :-)

I will be covering 10 states and 1 Canadian province, and will be charging at a variety of locations including: Tesla superchargers, Tesla destination chargers, home wall outlets (both 110 and 220) and non-Tesla J1772 chargers. 

Many thanks and a shout out to my dad, mom, and sister who will be taking turns house-sitting for me with the dog and cat while I am on my adventure.  I can't wait to get on the road and share the EV road tripping experience with everyone, both the good and the bad. I will do my best to post often, I am aiming for every couple of days as a realistic goal. Follow my blog here so you can read all the latest posts and let’s explore the USA and Canada electric style!

Car: Tesla Model 3 (avg 4.1 miles per kWhr)
Driver: Travelwolf (aka Val, aka Tess)
Miles: ~4200
Time: just under 3 weeks


Car used for ICE fuel comparisons: Pontiac G6 (avg 25 mpg- my previous all gas car)

Gas calculation: used prices obtained at each charge stop