Back to Lusk!

A beautiful day to drive today -- sunny, clear, no wind, moderate temperatures, and even other Teslas at the superchargers!

I started at Moab and headed north and then east to Grand Junction. There are two ways to go -- 191 to I-70, or cut the corner with Scenic Byway 128 to I-70 -- one of those "fewer miles but more minutes" options. Well, if you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend the Scenic Byway! You drive along the Colorado River, the road running between the river and the red cliffs, and it is indeed Scenic. My guess is that it gets busy at some times of the year -- lots of camp sites and bike paths and boat launches and even horse ranches -- but this morning I pretty much had the road to myself.

Scenic Byway 128, Moab Utah

The yellow diamond road sign collection added HORSES and HORSES WITH PEOPLE ON THEM. Across the Rockies you also see those good ones about trucks. There is the standard truck on a downward-inclined triangle "steep grade" one, but the one I like better warns trucks about curvy roads and shows the truck leaning crazily to the side with loose gravel coming out from under its tires...

On the way West I was able to skip the charger at Glenwood Springs and go straight from Silverthorne to Grand Junction (all down hill), but today I stopped at all three. Had I patiently charged all the way up at Grand Junction I could have skipped Glenwood Springs again, which I know because there was a green Tesla charging at Grand Junction who was still there when I drove away, but when I drove into Silverthorne he was already there ahead of me! I was still glad to check out the Glenwood Springs charger site and painted on the asphalt by the supercharger were these cool icons in every parking space, kind of like the handicap icons on the spaces near the door.

Glenwood Springs

All downhill after the continental divide! 

Since you lose 2700 feet of elevation between Silverthorne and Cheyenne, despite a couple of highway accidents that made for slow going around Denver, I only used 140 miles of range to travel the 167 mile distance. A brief plug in amongst the campers in Cheyenne, and off to Lusk in the darkening night. Although they had yellow deer and elk silhouette warning signs, I almost hit two big BIRDS of all things! The first I thought was a hawk. The second looked an awful lot like at big owl in the brief look I got of it in the headlights. I asked the lady here at the Covered Wagon Motel if that was possible, and she said she often sees owls sitting on fenceposts near the road, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

The Cheyenne Supercharger (small white rectangular box on the right next to the pickup) is sandwiched in among camper trailers in the mall parking lot. Even the Google Map picture of the area shows the trailer array, so I don't think it is a temporary phenomenon!