A nice east wind blowing -- should be helpful today!
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Murdo
Murdo, South Dakota, population 657 and home to a nice fast supercharger in the lot of the Range Country motel. The motel has a rack of brochures about South Dakota attractions and excellent advice in the rest room...
A nice east wind blowing -- should be helpful today!
A nice east wind blowing -- should be helpful today!
South Dakota
The question of the day --- do I try to make it to Devil's Tower? The closest supercharger is in Rapid City, a mere 104 miles from the monument, and charged to 270 I should be able to make the round trip easily. The elevation change is the wild card... How much more juice will it take to get there compared to the 'rated range'?? I'm leaning towards "do it!", particularly since I looked at the web site for Devil's Tower KOA, which has 14-50 chargers that I could augment my battery while I hike around. The campground seems like a must-visit... they show "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" EVERY NIGHT. Are those 5 notes reverberating through your head right now?
I will note here that the charge rate at the Mitchell supercharger seems slower than those in Minnesota for some reason. The Southern Minnesota landscape is not as beautiful as western Wisconsin. Apparently the wind blows regularly since there are zillions of wind farm towers. The red lights simultaneously blinking on all of the towers at night is a little bit otherworldly.
I will note here that the charge rate at the Mitchell supercharger seems slower than those in Minnesota for some reason. The Southern Minnesota landscape is not as beautiful as western Wisconsin. Apparently the wind blows regularly since there are zillions of wind farm towers. The red lights simultaneously blinking on all of the towers at night is a little bit otherworldly.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
On The Road!
I'm off! Left the parking lot at work by 11:15 and headed towards LaCrosse on a perfect autumn day. Last night was a total lunar eclipse which was very beautiful and unusually "visible" --- seems like usually it is cloudy or rainy or otherwise invisible but this one was fabulous. Seemed an auspicious beginning!
Given the sunny skies and trees turning colors I wanted to drive "the back way" to LaCrosse on Hwy 14. The Car, however, had other ideas! It REALLY wanted me on the interstate! Every time I passed a road heading north, it would ask me to turn to Get Back On Track. I made it about half way to LaCrosse, was listening to an audiobook and not watching street signs as much as following the directions the nav system displayed on my dashboard, when I realized it had lured an unsuspecting Me into turning north. Drat!
I must say, however, it was lovely. I went through Hillsboro, saw 3 horse and buggies with beautiful horses, wound through Wildcat Mountain (or some such) park, lots of pretty fall colors, hawks, etc before hitting I-90. Hilly curvy roads were fun to drive. Not one bit of cell service available but the nag system stayed live and got me where I was going!
Charging was easy. I filled up to the top as last winter I had a bad experience between LaCrosse and Albert Lea and got my range to zero and had no desire to repeat. It was windy as heck (of course it was a west wind! It there anything but a headwind possible??) There is a Home Depot close to the LaCrosse supercharger and the route to the restrooms goes through an aisle lined with about 400 white toilets, floor to ceiling. Do they do that on purpose??
Stopped to charge in Albert Lea and starting writing this there when a pretty white Model S with California plates pulled up to charge. A nice couple was driving from San Diego to Chicago and they gave me advice and showed me their maps. Their car was only 1 year old but already 24,000 miles. I asked if he put that many miles on his previous gas cars and got a wry grin in response. "Of course not."
Currently charging in lovely Worthington MN in the back parking lot of The Ground Round. The good news is their wifi reaches out to the superchargers. :) It is raining. Staying in Mitchell SD tonight which is the furthest west this car has been. Tomorrow -- The Black Hills.
Given the sunny skies and trees turning colors I wanted to drive "the back way" to LaCrosse on Hwy 14. The Car, however, had other ideas! It REALLY wanted me on the interstate! Every time I passed a road heading north, it would ask me to turn to Get Back On Track. I made it about half way to LaCrosse, was listening to an audiobook and not watching street signs as much as following the directions the nav system displayed on my dashboard, when I realized it had lured an unsuspecting Me into turning north. Drat!
I must say, however, it was lovely. I went through Hillsboro, saw 3 horse and buggies with beautiful horses, wound through Wildcat Mountain (or some such) park, lots of pretty fall colors, hawks, etc before hitting I-90. Hilly curvy roads were fun to drive. Not one bit of cell service available but the nag system stayed live and got me where I was going!
Charging was easy. I filled up to the top as last winter I had a bad experience between LaCrosse and Albert Lea and got my range to zero and had no desire to repeat. It was windy as heck (of course it was a west wind! It there anything but a headwind possible??) There is a Home Depot close to the LaCrosse supercharger and the route to the restrooms goes through an aisle lined with about 400 white toilets, floor to ceiling. Do they do that on purpose??
Stopped to charge in Albert Lea and starting writing this there when a pretty white Model S with California plates pulled up to charge. A nice couple was driving from San Diego to Chicago and they gave me advice and showed me their maps. Their car was only 1 year old but already 24,000 miles. I asked if he put that many miles on his previous gas cars and got a wry grin in response. "Of course not."
Currently charging in lovely Worthington MN in the back parking lot of The Ground Round. The good news is their wifi reaches out to the superchargers. :) It is raining. Staying in Mitchell SD tonight which is the furthest west this car has been. Tomorrow -- The Black Hills.
 |
| what a pretty car!! |
Sunday, October 5, 2014
T minus 3 days
One would think I was leaving the Civilized World for a year with all of the "stuff" I am planning to take along! Probably would be completely fine with a credit card, duct tape, and my sunglasses...
I did do a "test drive" with an electric cooler I was given. It plugs into the 12v socket and can either heat or cool the contents of the "cooler". Interesting concept, and likely would also be nice in the motel rooms. Well, for two reasons that little device will be staying at home! One, the fan is annoyingly loud, even when the cooler is stashed behind the seat. Two, it seemed to increase my energy consumption by 30-40 Wh/mile, according to the dashboard graph. Not worth it! It is about 20 years old so likely there are more efficient things on the market currently, but a zip lock bag full of ice will do the trick for this trip.
I am learning about saving maps to the "cache" so I can look at them when there is no internet signal. I find the area I want on the Google Map app on my iPad, type "OK maps" in the search bar, and magic occurs. I have no idea where they are saved. I am told I will be able to not only look at the map when in the middle of nowhere, but also zoom in, etc as one normally would. Hope it works!
I also created a folder of pages on the desktop of my laptop via "save as webarchive" (in Safari) for each of the superchargers along the route -- from the Tesla web site list of superchargers. I like how each location is up on a single page with a clear map, satellite image, and list of what else is around. Those superchargers can be tucked away behind things and hard to find, particularly when it is dark, and somehow more so when your remaining range is under 5 miles...
This morning there was freezing rain in Madison. This afternoon it was 102 degrees in Palm Desert. No wonder my suitcase has so much in it!
I did do a "test drive" with an electric cooler I was given. It plugs into the 12v socket and can either heat or cool the contents of the "cooler". Interesting concept, and likely would also be nice in the motel rooms. Well, for two reasons that little device will be staying at home! One, the fan is annoyingly loud, even when the cooler is stashed behind the seat. Two, it seemed to increase my energy consumption by 30-40 Wh/mile, according to the dashboard graph. Not worth it! It is about 20 years old so likely there are more efficient things on the market currently, but a zip lock bag full of ice will do the trick for this trip.
I am learning about saving maps to the "cache" so I can look at them when there is no internet signal. I find the area I want on the Google Map app on my iPad, type "OK maps" in the search bar, and magic occurs. I have no idea where they are saved. I am told I will be able to not only look at the map when in the middle of nowhere, but also zoom in, etc as one normally would. Hope it works!
I also created a folder of pages on the desktop of my laptop via "save as webarchive" (in Safari) for each of the superchargers along the route -- from the Tesla web site list of superchargers. I like how each location is up on a single page with a clear map, satellite image, and list of what else is around. Those superchargers can be tucked away behind things and hard to find, particularly when it is dark, and somehow more so when your remaining range is under 5 miles...
This morning there was freezing rain in Madison. This afternoon it was 102 degrees in Palm Desert. No wonder my suitcase has so much in it!
Friday, October 3, 2014
T minus 5 days to departure
I'll be driving the Tesla Model S from Madison WI to Indio CA (and back again) in October 2014 along the Tesla SuperCharger network. Looking forward to mountain and desert driving and lots of National Parks!
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