Summary of our drives

There are a lot of pages here to go through, so I thought that I would pull together a single page to summarize the four cross-country, no-gas road trips we've taken.

Background

When I got the Model 3 Performance in 2018, people were telling me I couldn't do road trips with it, so I decided show them that I could. I used A Better Route Planner to plan a route and then I decided where we would stay each night and made hotel reservations in those towns. When it was time to go, I just put the hotel's address in the car's navigation system, and it navigated me to the first charging station (and told me what charge level I would be when I got there how long I would need to charge). Very nice!

2018

We were away for 24 days from November 14 to December 7. Here's the overall map for the trip:

If you look carefully at Georgia you can see a side trip to visit my aunt, and in the Florida panhandle you can see our visit with some friends. You can also see some driving around the Houston area. We only stayed one night (with Suzanne's family) on our way back home.

Here it is showing all the charging stops:

Statistics: 6,113.25 miles driven. 1,699.74 kWh consumed 278 Wh/mile. 

Energy equivalent of 50.4 gallons of gas, so equivalent to 121.2 MPG.

2019

We were away for 17 days from November 20 to December 6. Here's the overall map for the trip:

This time we swung by Atlanta to pick up some things from my sister's house to take to the farm. Again, we only stayed one night (with Suzanne's family) on our way back home.

Here's an interesting way to look at the trip, the battery's charge level:

Statistics: 5,970.45 miles driven. 2,014.93 kWh consumed 337 Wh/mile. 

Energy equivalent of 59.8 gallons of gas, so equivalent to 99.85 MPG.

2020 - The lost year.  COVID. No road trip...

2021

In previous years we had flown back to Houston to stay with Suzanne's family for Christmas so she can see her mom and brothers (& their families). We thought, why not just make the trip a little longer to include Christmas and we could avoid the fun and games of the airport. So we called up Greg & Marika, whose house we usually stay at to ask them if they would be okay with us staying that long. They were game, so our trip went from a little over 2 weeks to more than 6 weeks.

In order to try and not overstay our welcome, we added a visit to some friends about half way down Florida after Thanksgiving. We were away for 45 days from November 18 to January 1! Here's the overall map for the trip:

Statistics: 7,765.64 miles driven. 2,495.3 kWh consumed 321 Wh/mile. 

Energy equivalent of 74.0 gallons of gas, so equivalent to 104.9 MPG.

2022

This time we planned more visits with friends between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that we wouldn't be so long at the in-laws. They said it was okay last time, but we felt that we were there too long last year and cramped their style. So we planned to go see our friends in Florida, my old roommate from Auburn, and an old friend in Mobile. We also to spent more time with my parents in Austin. That seemed to work better. 

We were away for 47 days from November 14 to December 31! Here's the overall map for the trip:

You can see where we spent more time because the blue is darker on the map.

Statistics: 7,680.51 miles driven. 2,794.76 kWh consumed 364 Wh/mile. 

Energy equivalent of 82.9 gallons of gas, so equivalent to 92.6 MPG.

Totals of the four trips

27,529.85 miles driven

9,004.73 kWh consumed (327.1 Wh/mile), equivalent to 267.2 gallons of gasoline (103.03 MPG)

The Future

Will we do it again. Sure. We will probably add some other friend & family visits on the way too.

We've been thinking of taking a trip up North to go see my daughter who lives in Michigan, visiting a cousin in Bellingham on the way. And since we are already that far, why not go and see Maine? Then, we would go to Atlanta to see my other daughter. And since we were there, why not go see the Florida Keys? Of course stopping and hanging out with friends and family along the way... I plugged that thought into A Better Route Planner and it came up with this:

A total of 10,360 miles and 162 hours of driving. Maybe we will wait to do this after I retire (whenever that will be). It seems kinda daunting, unless we really take our time at it.

Home Bound - Day 47

After 46 days of being away from home, if sure feels good to be heading home today. Today we drove another 460 miles from San Diego. The traffic and weather were pretty bad. I had forgotten how horrible the traffic is in LA - yuck. 

Then, when we got north of the Grapevine the rain started. There were so many people on the road trying to get to where they were going for New Years celebrations, that it was hard to even do the speed limit on I-5. We got home at 5:00 as the "atmospheric river" was still flowing onto the central coast.

7,680 miles in 47 days is 164 miles per day (average). The longest day was 594 miles (from Ozona TX to Willcox AZ) and really boring - pretty much just dirt & rocks.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 7,680.5 Miles, 2794.8 kWh consumed = 364 Wh/mile

Today: 460.4 Miles, 7:35 driving, 149.4 kWh consumed = 325 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

It's really good to be home!

West Bound - Day 46

Today we drove another 550 miles to San Diego to visit Steve at Aptera  to visit their new factory. The weather has been good so far, nothing except some light rain and fog. No snow, or heavy rain to deal with. I get the feeling that our drive tomorrow will have rain in it, as the atmospheric river is still flowing onto the central coast.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 7,220.2 Miles, 2645.4 kWh consumed = 366 Wh/mile

Today: 554.1 Miles, 7:49 driving, 200.0 kWh consumed = 361 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

West Bound - Day 45

Today we drove from Ozona Texas to Wilcox Arizona where our very favorite Mexica restaurant, La Unica is located. We wanted to get to town in time to pick up some pies at Apple Annie's Pie shop in town (recommended by Rene & Jim in Sugarland) to take to Aptera when we visit their factory tomorrow.

The whole trip so far:

Total:  Miles, 6,665.9 2445.2 kWh consumed = 367 Wh/mile

Today: 594.9 Miles, 8:08 driving, 251.4 kWh consumed = 423 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

West Bound - Day 44

Today we drove from Sugar Land to Ozona Texas, visiting our high school friend Scott in Kerrville on the way for lunch at a wine tasting shop that had excellent food - Grape Juice. Our efficiency is going down again, because with a speed limit of 80 MPH, we are gobbling down the KiloWattHours.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 6,071.0 Miles, 2993.8 kWh consumed = 361 Wh/mile

Today: 405.2 Miles, 5:53 driving, 166.4 kWh consumed = 411 Wh/mile

Here is the detailed data for the day:

Sugar Land area - Days 35-43

Each day I took Suzanne over to visit her mom as I used her Wi-Fi to work online. There were a few things that she wanted me to see about fixing, and there are only a few left for after we got back from visiting my parents. The one I'm most proud of is getting her deep freezer working again...

We tried to not get in the way of Greg & Marika's routine. We want to be those guests that they want to invite back. I hope we didn't get in their way too much.

We took Suzanne's mother down to visit her uncle George in Taylor Lake Village (near NASA's JSC). During the early Space Shuttle days I made that trip a LOT. We provided the "pool feed" for the networks with our transportable (C-Band) uplink for several years, until we installed a point-to-point microwave link back to our teleport.

The rest of the time the drives were pretty short, just around Sugarland. I did go to my favorite BBQ joint in Bellaire, Blood Brother's BBQ.

The drive during days 35-43 around Sugar Land and the surrounding area:

Around the Sugar Land Area: 246.5 Miles, 95.4 kWh consumed = 387 Wh/mile.

Drive Southeast - Day 34

On our drive back to Sugar Land today, we stopped in to see an old friend Cheryl and her partner Skip. They live in South Austin (almost on the way) and we met up at a cool little BBQ place on Menchaca Rd called Valentina's Tex-Mex BBQ. The Brisket and the Carnitas were excellent! I can see why they place was featured in Diners Drive-ins & Dives.

I hadn't seen Cheryl since 2000, when we worked together at IDB Systems (a WorldCom company). She hasn't changed one bit! Still so full of energy and life! We ate, and we sat and talked for 2 hours until everyone was too cold and we had to go on our separate ways. But we vowed that we would get together again the next time we were in the same area, whether that's Austin or California. 

On the way we had to stop at the Buc-ee's again so Suzanne could get her Buc-ee's fix. I added to our charge while we wandered around inside with what seemed to be half of Texas. I appreciate that they added the Superchargers since last year. Before we would have had to make two stops...

Then we had to stop at Hruska's Koache shop in Ellinger (half way between Austin & Houston on highway 71).

We got to Sugar Land with 20% charge, but since we installed the 20A 240V outlet, I'll be full (90%) before dawn.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 5,419.4 Miles, 94:25 driving, 1,932.1 kWh consumed = 357 Wh/mile

Today: 222.4 Miles, 3:46 driving, 84.6 kWh consumed = 380 Wh/mile.

 

Here is the detailed data:

Georgetown, Days 32 & 33

It was great hanging out with my parents for a couple of days. I'm not going to share too much detail on where they live, other than to say that Georgetown Texas has grown SO much that the traffic has become an issue. 

While we were there we went to several restaurants: City Post Chop House (in the old Post Office) where we had a birthday dinner extraordinaire, and Good Folks (a Chicken dinner house).

On Friday we went to see the new Avatar movie (my mom is crazy about the movies). It was good. I liked it.

Here are the drives while we were visiting them.

Northwest Bound - Day 31

The drive my parent's house in Georgetown, TX was uneventful. There was some construction on I-10 that we avoided by taking I69 farther out of town and getting on TX-71 south of Columbus. We could have just charged in Columbus, but Suzanne wanted to stop at the Bucees at Bastrop (and they have newly installed, 250 kW, superchargers there). So we just put on enough charge to get to Bastrop. I figured she would want to wander around and we would end up with more than enough charge to finish the trip. .

I had left a "dryer splitter" cable at my parent's house last year and it gives me 242V*24A (5.8 kW) of charging! Almost like at home...

The whole trip so far:

Total: 5,128.5 Miles, 87:51 driving, 1822.2 kWh consumed = 355 Wh/mile

Today: 195.0 Miles, 3:04 driving, 78.8 kWh consumed = 404 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

Sugar Land - Days 28-30

Each day I took Suzanne over to visit with her mom as I went online to work. There were a few things that she wanted me to see about fixing, and there are only a few left for after we visit my parents. We tried to not get in the way of Greg & Marika's routine. We want to be those guests that they want to invite back.

The drive during days 28-30 around Sugar Land:

I'm not showing the drives and charges detail here since I don't want to expose exactly where their houses are. The first charge was at 120V from a regular wall outlet, but Greg & I realized that I could tap off one of his 240V pool breakers so I went to Home Depot and got a box and an outlet (6-20R). This increased the chare rate by more than 3 times! Now, I could charge at 240V*16A (3.8 kW) versus 118V*10A (1.2 kW). This allowed me to charge overnight and move my car so I wouldn't be blocking anyone in...

Here is the charges graph. You can see the rate of charge by the upward slope of the line. You can tell which is at 1.2 kW and which is at 3.8 kW.

Total: 4933.6 Miles, 1743.4 kWh consumed = 353 Wh/mile.
Around Sugar Land: 51.4 Miles, 17.9 kWh consumed = 348 Wh/mile.  

West Bound, Day 27

Today was the other half of the way to Houston. The first part of the drive was not very fun. It was extremely foggy and we had to slow down as at times you could only see maybe 1/2 mile ahead! In Mississippi we listened to the blues, and in Louisiana we listened to New Orleans Brass Jazz. When we got to Texas, we weren't really sure what to put on, so we drove to the sound of the mud/snow tires on grooved pavement. 

The drive was pretty easy, other than the fog. There was some construction leaving Beaumont TX that the car directed us around, and there was a pickup with a blown tire on the bridge over the Houston ship channel that slowed that crossing.  There were no break-down lanes... The two guys were trying to replace the tire with the spare while in the right lane with maybe a foot of clearance between the truck and the wall. They were not having a good day.

At Greg & Marika's house we had been charging on 120v from a garage outlet, but the rate of charge is excruciatingly slow (especially since we go there with 19% charge). So Greg & I talked about installing a 20A 240V outlet so I could charge 3x faster. I'll make a Home Depot run on Sunday to get the parts.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 4,883.2 Miles, 1725.6.0 kWh consumed = 353 Wh/mile

Today: 497.6 Miles, 7:08 driving, 167.6 kWh consumed = 337 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

South Bound, Day 26

Today we left Lake Hartwell to Mobile, AL. It's about half way to Houston and we will stop in to see Venetia, another friend from college. The first 2 hours were not very fun. It was raining and the roads were quite wet. Once we got through Atlanta the skies opened up and the driving got much calmer.

When we got to Mobile, we checked into the hotel then went over to the supercharger which is about 1 minute from where our friend Venetia works. When she was done for the day she swung by and we followed her to her cool old house on the Dog River as the sun was setting. 

We had a cocktail with her watching the night come on, then went to a funky little restaurant/bar called the River Shack for some seafood and to chat. They had a live band (the vocalist wasn't that good), but they were in another room, so they didn't interfere with our chatting much. I snapped this photo of the bar where we were sitting (to avoid the band).

The whole trip so far:

Total: 4,384.7 Miles, 1558.0 kWh consumed = 355 Wh/mile

Today: 482.9 Miles, 7:46 driving, 162.4 kWh consumed = 336 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data: