Day 8- Nebraska to home
After a good night's sleep we had the last of the oatmeal for breakfast and got ready to head for home. This is our last driving stretch for the trip! We went a lost further than planned in mileage and added and extra day (and state- we will cut through a corner of Iowa today) but we had a great time and saw some amazing places!
Vanessa wanted to take the first driving shift today so she started us out from the hotel. Today's charge stops included Grand Island and Lincoln in Nebraska and the Kansas City charger on the north end of town (a city charger, not a supercharger so it goes a touch slower). We had fewer stops for charging today because in Nebraska we stayed both placed longer than the car needed so we were able to skip a few charge stops. Normally I don't recommend charging above 80%, but on a road trip it's ok as long as you are going to be there that long doing other things. It's bad on the battery to charge to full regularly, but occasionally is ok.
Today's historical sites included a national cemetery and a couple of pony express stations. Check out Vanessa's blog for more on these, she got lots of pictures and has tons of info to share with you! It's linked at the bottom of every post here.
Fort McPherson National Cemetery
Pony Express stations:
In Grand Island we arrived with 15% left (we made a few unplanned stops for historical sites) so we ate lunch while the car charged. We had the last of the bread yesterday, so we opted to go eat at the grill on site here. This charger is at a truck stop so don't expect a LOT of options but there is still plenty of variety if you are not snobby. They have a chicken place, Little Cesars, Cinnabon, Subway, and the Thunder Road Grill. The TRG is themed just like it sounds- race cars and motorcycles. They decor is interesting and the food is great, although the service was a bit slow. We stood around for several minutes waiting for a waitress or host to come out and seat us when we arrived, only to be told that it is self-seating. Ok, no worries. The waitress we had was nice, but she was not tending her tables much at all. People were sitting around waiting on her to come out of the back room for long periods of time, needing refills on drinks or waiting to get their checks. If she was not bringing food to the table she was nowhere to be seen. We actually saw another family come in and wait for about 10 minutes by the entrance and not a soul came out of the back to go talk to them and tell them to seat themselves (there is also no sign). That family eventually went over to the truck stop side and ate at subway. On the plus side, we DID receive a free appetizer by showing my Tesla app when we ordered- that was really nice of them to do! It's posted on the fence in front of the chargers to remind drivers and encourage them to eat at the grill. We got fried pickles and were expecting hamburger style slices, but when they came out they were fried spears and they were amazing! For entrees I got a burger and my sister got pulled pork over pasta. We both enjoyed our meals a lot and were able to overlook the missing waitress/host. I did have to go move Nik before our entrees arrived because it was slow enough that he had charged to 98% (from 15%- it was seriously slow service) by the time we finished our appetizer, but it wasn't a big deal. I pulled him over near the entrance to the grill and was still back in well before our meals arrived.
From Grand island to Lincoln we hit construction, again over 10 miles. I had to go to the bathroom and after being in the construction for close to an hour (it was supposed to be about 90 minutes to lincoln and ended up taking us almost 3 hours) so we got off at the one and only exit we saw within 20 miles on the map. This was an unplanned stop and added a bit of time since we were not charging, also I got stuck in the bathroom for longer than necessary because a woman came in with three kids and they were all hanging out in the tiny bathroom so I couldn't open my door. I asked if they could wait outside and she wouldn't do it because she was afraid the kids would touch something or remove their masks if they weren't with her. Understandable. I waited them out and after they all finished taking turns in the other stall I was able to get out to wash my hands and leave. Seriously, if they would have stepped out long enough for me to be able to open the stall door and wash my hands they would have had 2 stalls to use instead of one and cut their own time in there in half, but whatever.
I asked Ness if she wanted me to drive but she said she was ok. We went back to the ramp to get on the highway and a construction guy stepped out in front of us and told us we couldn't enter. We then had to just figure out how to get around the area on our own because he just kept saying "don't enter" and there were NO signs. Really? Thank goodness Nik had signal and we were able to scroll the map to find a side road. Through the farm fields. Unpaved. I use the term road loosely. LOL Vanessa freaked out about "driving my expensive-ass car down a gravel road" so we traded places and I took over behind the wheel.
On the plus side, we were doing between 2-5 mph on the highway (when we were moving) and I was able to safely do 45 mph on this "road" without spewing gravel all over, so we made up some time.
We made it to Lincoln and plugged in, both of us worked on our blogs to try to catch up some while we were there and we lost track of time. We ended up charging to about 90% again since we weren't paying attention but that's ok because it let us skip over the St Joseph MO charge stop. We took the back roads from the charger to I29 to avoid the construction/rush hour traffic, then it was smooth sailing all the way home. We did cross through a small corner of Iowa, so that added another state to our trip tally. They must have gotten a ton of rain up here because the fields were all flooded.
A final stop at the KCMO city charger up north gave us a quick 10 min top up to get back home above 25% and allow for unexpected issues. While there we reorganized our stuff into hers and mine and put hers where she could just grab and go at her house because it was going to be so late. I also left my last #teslacaching car here (Sagon) so hopefully some local owners can enjoy the game as well.
We got home without incident, dropped Ness off, and parked Nik in the garage. I was a bad EV owner and didn't plug him in because my charge cable was in the trunk underneath the bed and my bag that I didn't feel like unpacking at midnight so I need to go down and do that today. I came upstairs, loved on the dog and cat, posted a blog post, and passed out. LOL Nik received an update notice about halfway through the trip, so he downloaded and installed that overnight; I haven't made it down there yet to see what it is but I will look when I go unpack and plug in later. :-) I had 74 miles left when I got home last night and he is at 71 now, so 3 miles of phantom drain being unplugged and having the update wake him up.
Day 8
total time today: 10 hours
miles driven = 509
miles charged = 455 (this difference is made up on the front in when I charged to start the trip)
cost of gas: $40.45 assuming 25 mpg
cost of electricity: $17.20
Total miles driven: 4333
Total Gas Savings: $348.78
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
Vanessa wanted to take the first driving shift today so she started us out from the hotel. Today's charge stops included Grand Island and Lincoln in Nebraska and the Kansas City charger on the north end of town (a city charger, not a supercharger so it goes a touch slower). We had fewer stops for charging today because in Nebraska we stayed both placed longer than the car needed so we were able to skip a few charge stops. Normally I don't recommend charging above 80%, but on a road trip it's ok as long as you are going to be there that long doing other things. It's bad on the battery to charge to full regularly, but occasionally is ok.
Today's historical sites included a national cemetery and a couple of pony express stations. Check out Vanessa's blog for more on these, she got lots of pictures and has tons of info to share with you! It's linked at the bottom of every post here.
Fort McPherson National Cemetery
Pony Express stations:
In Grand Island we arrived with 15% left (we made a few unplanned stops for historical sites) so we ate lunch while the car charged. We had the last of the bread yesterday, so we opted to go eat at the grill on site here. This charger is at a truck stop so don't expect a LOT of options but there is still plenty of variety if you are not snobby. They have a chicken place, Little Cesars, Cinnabon, Subway, and the Thunder Road Grill. The TRG is themed just like it sounds- race cars and motorcycles. They decor is interesting and the food is great, although the service was a bit slow. We stood around for several minutes waiting for a waitress or host to come out and seat us when we arrived, only to be told that it is self-seating. Ok, no worries. The waitress we had was nice, but she was not tending her tables much at all. People were sitting around waiting on her to come out of the back room for long periods of time, needing refills on drinks or waiting to get their checks. If she was not bringing food to the table she was nowhere to be seen. We actually saw another family come in and wait for about 10 minutes by the entrance and not a soul came out of the back to go talk to them and tell them to seat themselves (there is also no sign). That family eventually went over to the truck stop side and ate at subway. On the plus side, we DID receive a free appetizer by showing my Tesla app when we ordered- that was really nice of them to do! It's posted on the fence in front of the chargers to remind drivers and encourage them to eat at the grill. We got fried pickles and were expecting hamburger style slices, but when they came out they were fried spears and they were amazing! For entrees I got a burger and my sister got pulled pork over pasta. We both enjoyed our meals a lot and were able to overlook the missing waitress/host. I did have to go move Nik before our entrees arrived because it was slow enough that he had charged to 98% (from 15%- it was seriously slow service) by the time we finished our appetizer, but it wasn't a big deal. I pulled him over near the entrance to the grill and was still back in well before our meals arrived.
From Grand island to Lincoln we hit construction, again over 10 miles. I had to go to the bathroom and after being in the construction for close to an hour (it was supposed to be about 90 minutes to lincoln and ended up taking us almost 3 hours) so we got off at the one and only exit we saw within 20 miles on the map. This was an unplanned stop and added a bit of time since we were not charging, also I got stuck in the bathroom for longer than necessary because a woman came in with three kids and they were all hanging out in the tiny bathroom so I couldn't open my door. I asked if they could wait outside and she wouldn't do it because she was afraid the kids would touch something or remove their masks if they weren't with her. Understandable. I waited them out and after they all finished taking turns in the other stall I was able to get out to wash my hands and leave. Seriously, if they would have stepped out long enough for me to be able to open the stall door and wash my hands they would have had 2 stalls to use instead of one and cut their own time in there in half, but whatever.
I asked Ness if she wanted me to drive but she said she was ok. We went back to the ramp to get on the highway and a construction guy stepped out in front of us and told us we couldn't enter. We then had to just figure out how to get around the area on our own because he just kept saying "don't enter" and there were NO signs. Really? Thank goodness Nik had signal and we were able to scroll the map to find a side road. Through the farm fields. Unpaved. I use the term road loosely. LOL Vanessa freaked out about "driving my expensive-ass car down a gravel road" so we traded places and I took over behind the wheel.
On the plus side, we were doing between 2-5 mph on the highway (when we were moving) and I was able to safely do 45 mph on this "road" without spewing gravel all over, so we made up some time.
We made it to Lincoln and plugged in, both of us worked on our blogs to try to catch up some while we were there and we lost track of time. We ended up charging to about 90% again since we weren't paying attention but that's ok because it let us skip over the St Joseph MO charge stop. We took the back roads from the charger to I29 to avoid the construction/rush hour traffic, then it was smooth sailing all the way home. We did cross through a small corner of Iowa, so that added another state to our trip tally. They must have gotten a ton of rain up here because the fields were all flooded.
A final stop at the KCMO city charger up north gave us a quick 10 min top up to get back home above 25% and allow for unexpected issues. While there we reorganized our stuff into hers and mine and put hers where she could just grab and go at her house because it was going to be so late. I also left my last #teslacaching car here (Sagon) so hopefully some local owners can enjoy the game as well.
We got home without incident, dropped Ness off, and parked Nik in the garage. I was a bad EV owner and didn't plug him in because my charge cable was in the trunk underneath the bed and my bag that I didn't feel like unpacking at midnight so I need to go down and do that today. I came upstairs, loved on the dog and cat, posted a blog post, and passed out. LOL Nik received an update notice about halfway through the trip, so he downloaded and installed that overnight; I haven't made it down there yet to see what it is but I will look when I go unpack and plug in later. :-) I had 74 miles left when I got home last night and he is at 71 now, so 3 miles of phantom drain being unplugged and having the update wake him up.
Day 8
total time today: 10 hours
miles driven = 509
miles charged = 455 (this difference is made up on the front in when I charged to start the trip)
cost of gas: $40.45 assuming 25 mpg
cost of electricity: $17.20
Total miles driven: 4333
Total Gas Savings: $348.78
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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