West Bound - Day 4

Long day today across some of the most boring parts of America. We went from scrub oaks and rolling hills to featureless expanses of flat dirt & rocks with warning signs about what to do in a dust storm! 588 miles in 7:46 of driving time (75.9 mph). Total time of 9:48, so 60.3 mph including charging, lunch, & "bio breaks".

One of those bio breaks brought something to my attention that Suzanne dealt with.  At one of the stops, even though the bathroom had 15 open stalls, she had to wait for the person in the one handicapped stall to leave it.  She ended up waiting about 10 minutes (and needing to pee after 300+ miles) but the person was totally clueless...  Have you done this?

About half of the trip was still in Texas, with a speed limit of 80 mph. Once we got into New Mexico & Arizona the speed limit dropped to 75 and so did the consumption. But still the superchargers are pretty far apart and we had to make sure that we were full enough when we headed out to make it.  Not because the car didn't have the range, but because the car's range that was displayed was "rated range". Not range at 80+ mph! The screen would tell us that we would end up in the next spot with say 25% charge (at rated mileage) but once we got on the road it would recalculate based on our speed and drop the projection to 16% at the next supercharger.  It was quite accurate once we got on the road and showed it how we were going to be driving.

Here's our route today:

Our route so far:

We also had a few instances of ICE-ing. Where an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle parks in an EV charging spot. They did it either because they didn't realize or wanted to spite the EV driver. It happened at the Deming Supercharger (which was at a "travel plaza"). The charging spots were primo locations and I think that's why people used them.

The hotel in Willcox Arizona has them in their parking lot and when we arrived there were three new kinds of Teslas parked in their charger spots. A truck, a minivan, and a small SUV. I had no idea Tesla had so many new models out.

Below are the drive and charge details. In them you will see a place called La Unica. It's a Mexican restaurant and I believe that it may be the best Mexican food I've ever eaten! If you are ever in Willcox Arizona, you HAVE to eat there!

The margaritas are quite good too!

Totals for the day:
588.4 miles, 184.7 kWh, 314 Wh/mile (3.18 miles/kWh)
08:00-16:48 (but one time zone back, so 9 hours 48 minutes trip time
Actual drive time was 7 hrs, 46 minutes (75.9 mph)

Totals for the trip:
5018.7 miles, 1,395.2 kWh, 278 Wh/mi (3.60 miles/ kWh)
94 hrs, 25 minutes, 53.1 mph (including lunches & dinners)