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.
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.
