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