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.

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:

Lake Hartwell - Days 20-25

It was a really wonderful spending time with Hap and Allison at their house on Lake Hartwell. It was longer that we had originally planned, since the Florida visit was shortened. I was worried that we were going to be like fish and start to stink after a few days, but staying with them was so easy. They accepted us into their daily routines.

The first day there was sad as their dog Ty had become so sick that he had to be euthanized. That was very hard as he had been a family member for so many years. Afterwards their other dog Pita was having a hard time figuring out her place in the family. Suzanne and I were both accepted by her as a part of her pack though. That was nice.

They found an interesting concert in Athens (about an hour away) that we went to Black Violin, and we had a very nice meal at Five and Ten before the show.

It rained most of the time, so it wasn't until Thursday that we took the boat out and rode around. We crossed over into South Carolina for a little bit when we were near the dam. It's been a long time since I've been on a lake and even longer on a lake with Hap. It was chilly but nice. The winds were so light that the lake was like a mirror.

Not as much driving around as when we were at the farm, but I did get a chance to go through Lavonia and see the old places that I remembered as I was growing up (totally not the same now). I also visited the cemetery where my ancestors are buried (on my Mother's side).

The drive during days 20-25:

I'm not showing the drives and charges here since I don't want to expose exactly where their house is. The charges were all at 120V from a regular wall outlet, but that worked fine for the time we were visiting. The have big plans for the house and maybe there will be a 240V 50A outlet in the new garage (hint hint).

Total: 3901.7 Miles, 1395.6 kWh consumed = 358 Wh/mile.
Around the lake: 195.9 Miles, 74.1 kWh consumed = 378 Wh/mile.  

Around the farm - Days 7-17 & 18

After 12 days at the farm seeing everyone for Thanksgiving and getting some things taken care of, we are off to visit Brian & Debbie in Florida. While at the farm we drove almost 400 miles to a bunch of the towns nearby.

Total: 3080.0 Miles, 1112.7 kWh consumed = 361 Wh/mile.
At the farm: 359.2 Miles, 128.8 kWh consumed = 358 Wh/mile.  

Day 18:
Brian & Debbie are in an apartment near the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. We will only be staying one night to give them both big hugs and support them on their long hard road ahead. It was delightful seeing them and it was proven (once again) that Brian can drink my skinny ass under the table.

Total: 3310.0 Miles, 1192.9 kWh consumed = 360Wh/mile. 
Today: 230.1 Miles, 80.2 kWh consumed = 349 Wh/mile.

East Bound - Day 6

We are at the farm! Sarah & Greg arrived about an hour after we did. We all got unpacked and they ran off to the grab some groceries (& something for dinner). It was so nice to sit around with them and just talk about stuff.

Years ago I installed a 50A welding outlet in the parking area (under the tree house) and so I plugged in to charge the car back up. We arrived at 18% and I told it to charge up to 90%. The travel charger is limited to 32 Amps, so it could deliver 7.8 kW and charged the car from 18% to 90% in 6.5 hours (completing overnight). I'm guessing that I won't have to charge until the weekend. Maybe sooner if we decide to take some longer trips around the area to see family & friends.

As I was plugging in the car, my second cousin David came up (he and his brothers lease about 40 acres of our land and grow crops on it). He was checking on the cotton harvest. He said it was pretty good this year, but the deer were eating a lot of the crop this year. We lease out the rest of our land to other cousins to hunt the deer, and hopefully keep their numbers down.

It's hard to get a feel for the scale of those "modules". They are 40' long, 6' wide and 6' high of cotton that has been so compressed that it's a brick. Later a truck will come by and slide the whole thing into a trailer to take it to the cotton gin.

We will just be hanging around the area for the next two weeks, so I'm not planning on posting a blog entry every day. But I will if there's something interesting that I think you would like to see. The next trip we will be taking will be to Jacksonville, FL to see Brian & Debbie, at the end of next week.  

The whole trip so far:

Total: 2,720.8 Miles, 983.9 kWh consumed = 362 Wh/mile

Today: 227.1Miles, 4:04 driving, 76.7 kWh consumed = 338 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

East Bound - Day 5

Today we drove to Auburn Alabama. This is where we lived when I was in grade 6 through 8 and where I met Larry, who lived two houses down. We quickly became best friends. We shared a lot of common interests and I was accepted into his family like a third son. After we moved to Houston, we drifted apart but we reconnected again in the 2000s, and I've visited him every time I can when I'm in the area. We had a wonderful dinner of homemade chicken & dumplings that Anne made from her grandmother's recipe (it takes 3 days to make!). Jake, his older brother, was there too along with his girlfriend, who was very nice. We stayed up and talked until after my bedtime so I'm posting this the next morning.

Today we drive to the farm, another short-mileage day. My daughter Sarah and her husband Greg (and their two fur babies) are arriving today too. They were in Charlotte visiting Greg's mom after driving down from Michigan earlier in the week. It will be great to see them and to start the process of collecting the family together for Thanksgiving.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 2,493.8 Miles, 907.2 kWh consumed = 364 Wh/mile

Today: 228.1Miles, 4:46 driving, 79.3 kWh consumed = 347 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

East Bound - Day 4

Today we drove to Meridian Mississippi, which was 550 miles. More than the day before, but less than the first two days. This will be a shorter than usual entry, it's late and I'm tired... 

When we got to the hotel the heater wasn't working in the room, so they had to move us. We grabbed a bite to eat and a cocktail and then, once Suzanne was in the new room, I went to charge up the car to be ready for the trip. When I came back to the parking garage, I noticed that there was a EV charging station right there... So I could have just parked in the garage and not gone to the superchargers. Now I know.

The whole trip so far:

Total: 2,266 Miles, 827.9 kWh consumed = 365 Wh/mile

Today: 549.4 Miles, 8:53 driving, 201.7 kWh consumed = 367 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data:

East Bound - Day 3

We chose the hotel in Tucumcari because superchargers are in the parking lot. So this meant that we could charge to 100% right before we left. It was an easy day today, only 6 and a half hours of driving. 

I planned for the days to be easier as trip goes on, and this is the first easy day. Tomorrow we go to Meridian Mississippi, which will be back to being a longer trip. But the next day will be quite a bit shorter - to visit my old friend Larry and his wife Anne. 

The whole trip so far:

Total: 1,716 Miles, 626.2 kWh consumed = 365 Wh/mile

Today: 439 Miles, 6:20 driving, 154.1 kWh consumed = 351 Wh/mile. 

Here is the detailed data: