Day 7- Travel day with historical stops
Sunday morning. We woke up in the car to a pretty heavy rain, but no storms. We got the bed rolled up and into the trunk without having to get out of the car and rearranged our stuff back into the trunk and back seat areas to head out for the day. Another bowl of instant oatmeal and off we went, into the rain. Thankfully the roads were at least mostly flat this morning since we were travelling through the valley alongside the river. We did lose about 10% charge having camp mode on overnight since we were not plugged in and it got chilly (even for Vanessa, who basically froze me out all vacation). We lost another 10-15% because of the bad weather through the valley and short mountain stints on this morning's drive as well, but since we had charged to full before leaving Jackson we were still ok. We arrived in Rock Springs with about 17% left. Closer than I like, but the exact reason I always allow 30% extra. If we had gone with the recommended 15% cushion we might not have made it!
We continued on our way and came across a couple of pretty cool little historical markers during the drive both Sunday and Monday. The one in the picture below is actually part of the Oregon Trail! I will let my sister go into the details of these locations, but I did ask how historians know this for sure, and apparently they have excavated remains of wagon wheels along with many other pieces that prove this was part of the pioneer route.
Once out of the mountains and into Rock Springs we charged up, ate PB&J (our lunch almost every day) and took a bathroom break at the Japanese steakhouse next to the supercharger. This guy on the left greets drivers as they pull into the strip mall parking lot here. We again had only 1 "friend" at the charger with us, most of our stops were like that, only two or three were totally full or even "busy" so it made for fast charging most of the trip. The difference at the full stations was really not a big deal for us, the charge rate was cut about in half so it took twice as long and the car automatically limits you to 80% max, but you can open the charge menu and override it back to 100% if you need to. Even at the couple of full stations the car still charged before we were ready to go because we ate at the stops we knew would be a full charge stop.
Back on the road again, the rain stopped and we were super excited to have a "real" highway to drive on again. Little did we know what we were in for.....
I drove in the high winds for a few hours and, even in a heavy car that is low to the ground, we were getting blown all over. I finally gave up on autopilot because we were being blown to the side so much I kept kicking it off when compensating for the wind. It was bad enough after about an hour that almost all of the truckers pulled over at rest stops or exits and got off the road.
At 2:30 pm we got to Rawlins, WY and pulled off to charge at the Fairfield Inn. This stop had 3 cars here charging so we left a #teslacaching car at this location. One couple was asking questions of/advice from myself and the other guy because they were brand new owners. Everyone was nice (as always) and we answered questions and gave them advice as best we could.
One big piece of advice I give to new EV road trippers: always have a "cushion" on your range. High winds and bad weather REALLY knock down your range, as do extreme temperatures. If you are road tripping in an area with minimal superchargers (think northern states) always try to stay above 30% and on pretty much all trips try to stop one charger before where the onboard computer says to in order to make room for unplanned stops (forced or by choice- you never know when you will pass something cool and want to take a 20 mile detour to go see it!). Just touch the lightning bolt and pick the charger right before the one it suggests. If you do this you should never run out of charge, even in construction/weather/detours, etc. They had also not heard of the Plugshare app, which is fabulous for finding non-Tesla chargers for emergencies or overnight stops and A Better Route Planner which helps you map trips while taking into account terrain and weather.
While waiting for Nik to charge up to get us to the next stop I went in to use the restroom and asked about the wind at the front desk. The young ladies at the front desk had a great sense of humor and are apparently very used to the "what's up with the wind?" question. I asked if it was always this windy or if this was unusual and would die down if we wait it out and they laughed, saying "oh girl, welcome to Wyoming. This is normal Wyoming Wind and it's not going ANYWHERE." They did also say it was going to blow in a storm, so we were better off not waiting it out and suggested we get back on the road within 30 minutes. Great! We let Nik charge up a little extra because our mileage was affected quite a bit from the wind (it actually gets affected by this strong of wind in gas cars as well) and then my sister took over driving to Laramie to give me (and my nerves) a break. She ended up actually driving all the way to Cheyenne because the wind got progressively better the further east we went.
We had a few stops on the way east to Ogallala, Nebraska where our hotel was for the night; some charging and some sightseeing. There was a Pony Express monument and a few historical prisons, along with the deer we surprised (I put the deer in the earlier post with the animals, but it was super cute so here you go LOL). We drove right up behind it while it was eating and were only a few feet away. It took several minutes before it noticed us there taking pictures of it, that's pretty much the closest I have been to one "in the wild" and it didn't seem to care much that we were there once it checked us out. The historical stops were pretty cool, but my sister is the history gal so again, be sure you go check out her blog to read details about all these sites!
historical Wyoming State Penitentiary:
We of course ran into another storm after it got dark tonight, and I of course was driving again. I have loved this trip so far, but I looked at my sister and said "if it starts storming on us we are pulling over to wait it out." She was totally fine with it, we had already driven through several storms as well as rain on curvy mountain roads. Neither of us wanted to do another one. LOL We DID end up pulling off for a bit because we were also (yay) going through 10 mimles of construction (no exaggeration- the sign said "construction next 10 miles" and we had already been in it for quite a while when we saw that sign). We got off at an exit when we caught up to the storm and sat on the ramp to watch it go. Thankfully we were behind it, so we just had to wait while it moved further ahead. Here are some shots of what we had going on....
miles driven = 600
miles charged = 798
cost of gas: $66.88 assuming 25 mpg
cost of electricity: $18.37
Total miles driven: 3824
Total Gas Savings: $325.54
Be sure to subscribe to the blog (over in the column on the left) to get an email notification when I add a new post. You will need to confirm your email by clicking the link in a message from "feedburner." No spam involved, you should only get an email when a new post is made. :-)
For anyone interested in taking a ride or getting more info on Tesla's (or EVs in general) get in touch and I am happy to help. If you want to buy a Tesla, please use my referral code to get some fabulous bonuses- the program changes, but right now it is 1000 free miles of supercharging for each of us. Tesla Referral code: is valerie50080 or just click this link https://ts.la/valerie50080
Also as a side note- I'm not sure what type of people are traveling through the area, but it is a little crazy that a sign like this is necessary in a store bathroom. LOL
Once out of the mountains and into Rock Springs we charged up, ate PB&J (our lunch almost every day) and took a bathroom break at the Japanese steakhouse next to the supercharger. This guy on the left greets drivers as they pull into the strip mall parking lot here. We again had only 1 "friend" at the charger with us, most of our stops were like that, only two or three were totally full or even "busy" so it made for fast charging most of the trip. The difference at the full stations was really not a big deal for us, the charge rate was cut about in half so it took twice as long and the car automatically limits you to 80% max, but you can open the charge menu and override it back to 100% if you need to. Even at the couple of full stations the car still charged before we were ready to go because we ate at the stops we knew would be a full charge stop.Back on the road again, the rain stopped and we were super excited to have a "real" highway to drive on again. Little did we know what we were in for.....
I drove in the high winds for a few hours and, even in a heavy car that is low to the ground, we were getting blown all over. I finally gave up on autopilot because we were being blown to the side so much I kept kicking it off when compensating for the wind. It was bad enough after about an hour that almost all of the truckers pulled over at rest stops or exits and got off the road.
At 2:30 pm we got to Rawlins, WY and pulled off to charge at the Fairfield Inn. This stop had 3 cars here charging so we left a #teslacaching car at this location. One couple was asking questions of/advice from myself and the other guy because they were brand new owners. Everyone was nice (as always) and we answered questions and gave them advice as best we could.
One big piece of advice I give to new EV road trippers: always have a "cushion" on your range. High winds and bad weather REALLY knock down your range, as do extreme temperatures. If you are road tripping in an area with minimal superchargers (think northern states) always try to stay above 30% and on pretty much all trips try to stop one charger before where the onboard computer says to in order to make room for unplanned stops (forced or by choice- you never know when you will pass something cool and want to take a 20 mile detour to go see it!). Just touch the lightning bolt and pick the charger right before the one it suggests. If you do this you should never run out of charge, even in construction/weather/detours, etc. They had also not heard of the Plugshare app, which is fabulous for finding non-Tesla chargers for emergencies or overnight stops and A Better Route Planner which helps you map trips while taking into account terrain and weather.
While waiting for Nik to charge up to get us to the next stop I went in to use the restroom and asked about the wind at the front desk. The young ladies at the front desk had a great sense of humor and are apparently very used to the "what's up with the wind?" question. I asked if it was always this windy or if this was unusual and would die down if we wait it out and they laughed, saying "oh girl, welcome to Wyoming. This is normal Wyoming Wind and it's not going ANYWHERE." They did also say it was going to blow in a storm, so we were better off not waiting it out and suggested we get back on the road within 30 minutes. Great! We let Nik charge up a little extra because our mileage was affected quite a bit from the wind (it actually gets affected by this strong of wind in gas cars as well) and then my sister took over driving to Laramie to give me (and my nerves) a break. She ended up actually driving all the way to Cheyenne because the wind got progressively better the further east we went.
We had a few stops on the way east to Ogallala, Nebraska where our hotel was for the night; some charging and some sightseeing. There was a Pony Express monument and a few historical prisons, along with the deer we surprised (I put the deer in the earlier post with the animals, but it was super cute so here you go LOL). We drove right up behind it while it was eating and were only a few feet away. It took several minutes before it noticed us there taking pictures of it, that's pretty much the closest I have been to one "in the wild" and it didn't seem to care much that we were there once it checked us out. The historical stops were pretty cool, but my sister is the history gal so again, be sure you go check out her blog to read details about all these sites!
historical Wyoming State Penitentiary:
Deer around the corner from the WSP:
Wyoming Territorial Prison (several famous inmates, including Butch Cassidy):
Lincoln Monument: (we didn't stop because our arrival time at the hotel was getting late but it's there)
Pony Express memorial:
and believe it or not, this was NOT as bad as the storm we hit the first day. Once it passed we made it to our hotel in Ogallala, Nebraska. That's just fun to say.... Ogallala. Anyway, we stayed at a Best Western Plus, plugged the car into the J1772 charger with my adapter to fill up overnight while we slept, and settled in for the night.
Day 7
total time today: 10 hoursmiles driven = 600
miles charged = 798
cost of gas: $66.88 assuming 25 mpg
cost of electricity: $18.37
Total miles driven: 3824
Total Gas Savings: $325.54
Be sure to subscribe to the blog (over in the column on the left) to get an email notification when I add a new post. You will need to confirm your email by clicking the link in a message from "feedburner." No spam involved, you should only get an email when a new post is made. :-)
Vanessa's blog: Travel the World History
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